Theocracy for Christians, Secularism for Muslims

Jeremy Learning at the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State blog has an excellent post in which he uncovers the split stance of Christian and Republican leader Gary Bauer: to boil it down, Bauer believes the best thing for a predominantly Muslim society is to have a secular state. On the other hand, Bauer believes that the best thing for a predominantly Christian society is to have a religious state. Theocracy for Christians, secularism for Muslims. Bauer’s just making painfully obvious what others have been intimating for years: that the goal of conservative Republicans isn’t government that pushes religious standards down others’ throats: their goal is government that pushes particularly Christian standards down others’ throats. In their eyes, secular government is only preferable to the government by the edicts of a non-Christian religion. This kind of authoritarian religious tribalism is exactly what the Constitution was designed to ward off — and that’s why theocrats like Gary Bauer just can’t stand the Constitution.