The Republicans will reinvent themselves before they let that happen. The religious right still has plenty of influence in the party but it's starting to wane. Their numbers are decreasing - as they have been for going on two decades now. They are not sustainable.

Quote:That true. Our culture is being debased by irrationality and decadence masking as "progress".

Sucks to be you, eh Chad?

(May 27, 2016 at 10:05 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Its all about a bunch of asshole liberals trying to force their morality, which is really just a lack of decency, onto everyone else.

Example?

(May 29, 2016 at 4:23 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: The Republicans will reinvent themselves before they let that happen. The religious right still has plenty of influence in the party but it's starting to wane. Their numbers are decreasing - as they have been for going on two decades now. They are not sustainable.

Seems like their grandstanding with the current Supreme Court nominee is actually helping the progressive cause, in that a 4-4 tie means that the lower court ruling stands, and as the lower courts are largely progressive to begin with, it just means that the federal court system is drifting to the left.  In fact, it will become increasingly difficult for the Republican party to find wonks who share the religious rights' beliefs or morality.

(May 27, 2016 at 10:05 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:

(May 27, 2016 at 2:29 pm)Faith No More Wrote: They're upset that they're losing the culture war.

That true. Our culture is being debased by irrationality and decadence masking as "progress". If your own sex isn't an objective fact then pretty much everything else is up for grabs. If you can destroy another human being just because he or she is really really young or very very old then we've forgotten what it means to be human. If one group of people can use censor words and symbols they don't like from public view then we've forgotten what liberty means. Its all about a bunch of asshole liberals trying to force their morality, which is really just a lack of decency, onto everyone else. Tolerance isn't good enough. You can't just leave other people alone, No. You will be made to care. If you do not embrace and celebrate the lifestyles and beliefs of liberals you will be forced to resign from your job or have your business taken away from you. So yeah, we're pretty livid.

In one sentence you talk about tolerance and liberty, in the next you demand the right to set up an extremist theocracy, where what everybody says, does and thinks is controlled utterly by a group of religious brownshirts.

You're a facist Chad, verging on Nazism. That is why I can never think of you as other than a shitstain.

"far right" Christians have lost power quite some time ago as far as I can tell. Doesn't concern me one bit to be honest.  I would view the religious freedom laws as more of a reassurance that religious liberty will not be infringed upon rather that trying to grasp onto some modicum of power that isn't there. If an imam doesn't want to provide a gay wedding service because it contradicts his Islamic beliefs than he shouldn't have to. I don't feel the state should have a say so in who gets married and how btw.

Marriage is a legal issue, a contract if you will.

Let me ask you this.  Where does any fucking church get off regulating marriage?

They're losing their power and influence and are getting louder about it.

As more people drop away from organised religion, the louder and more desperate they'll become.

I'm forever reading about more and more churches closing and I hope this trend continues.

And they are shitting bricks over the problem, Val.

http://www.churchleadership.org/apps/art...umnid=4545

Quote:Statistics and Reasons for Church Decline

Quote:Every year more than 4000 churches close their doors compared to just over 1000 new church starts!

Definitely . . . (response to the OP) . . . but they still have enough money and power to push "religious freedom" laws.  Most of the Republicans in the House and Senate are fundamentalist xtian.  They have enough clout to give Trump a chance at the White House.  So, as an article by CJ Werleman says, they are like cornered animals.  They'll cause some damage before they die out.

The dying right: Why Christian fundamentalists are in panic mode
CJ WERLEMAN, ALTERNET
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/28/the_dyin...e_partner/

"The Christian Right’s dirty little secret is they are acutely aware that changing demographics are running against them. While they may believe the earth is a mere few thousand years old, they’re not complete idiots. They can read polls, and the data tells them this: millennials are abandoning religious belief. According to a recent Pew survey, one in four Americans born after 1981 hold no religious belief, which is nearly double the national rate of atheism. Other studies confirm this trend, including a recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute showing more than half of non-religious Millennials have abandoned their childhood faith.

With this in mind, the nation’s radical religious fundamentalists see an ever-shrinking window to impose their Bronze Age worldview on the gay, atheist, liberal, immigrant, heathen, and science book-reading masses."