If you've been paying attention, I've already asked about the coincidence between Reverend Huckabee's wins on Super Tuesday and the states he won getting ravaged by deadly tornadoes. Therefore, it was no surprise to me this past weekend that Washington state officials quickly called their race for McCain to avoid an earthquake, tidal wave, or some other cataclysmic act of divine retribution. They're now worried what might happen now that Huckabee is challenging the results.

I don't see Reverend Huckabee as the savior of the GOP or America. Quite the contrary, his platform is replete with attempts to discriminate against gays, oppress women by denying them reproductive freedom, and other policies that attempt to conform everyone to his literalist interpretation of scripture.

I know this animation is very heavy handed. I admit that, and it's intentional. I value freedom and liberty and rights for all citizens and object to anyone who would use very strict interpretations of religious texts to rule civil society. These United States are not a religious denomination and I don't want them governed as if they were one. I respect anyone who wants to conform himself or herself to Christ, but I can't respect anyone who wants to conform everyone else to a peculiar interpretation of Christ based on selective texts and extremist literal interpretations.


Is 666 really over the top? My interpretation of that section of Revelation is that anti-Christ involves mixing religion and politics and then forcing others to live according to the stringent dictates stemming from that mixture. You might be a literalist who's read too many "Left Behind" books that have made you wary of a "mark" that will allow you to engage in commerce, while at the same time you blindly support candidates whose positions require other citizens to toe your line. Your "mark" for them is the denial of job opportunities in the form of discrimination, you allow landlords to deny them housing, and you refuse them any legal sanction for their relationships -- all of which is not unlike the "mark of the beast" you're wary of.