A call to Action for the Clergy

Dear fellow Clergy,

It is clear that fundamentalist clergy are hostile to human liberty. Today we have the very real threat of the “Christian” dominionists who seek to cement their religious values into federal statute.

It is the separation of church and state that tends to preclude an American propensity toward fanaticism. Should this ‘wall’ be allowed to tumble the consequences for our society will be catastrophic. If we allow religion to be enshrined in law, fanatics to sip at the cup of power, the progress of generations will come to naught.

It matters not your religious proclivities, Christian, Jew, Islamist, Pagan, Hindu, Buddhist or Atheist, all must now stand together and face this new ‘National Security’ threat, one that seeks to etch the cancer of religious bigotry in our legal code. If we allow the marriage of faith and authority, we bind our children to be combatants in the fight to resist the tyranny that will surely be born of the union.

This is not a conservative agenda as Berry Goldwater observed decades ago,

“And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.”

Dominionists seek to enslave the entire nation to their religious values for their own good. This brings to mind another often quoted passage used in support of conservative principles:

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” “Clive Staples”

The first targets of these groups are those most vulnerable due to their status on the fringes of society. However, if we neglect to stand for the rights of the most maligned in our society, it is our own rights that will be eroded before we take the opportunity to act in their defense.

It is time for ministers of all faiths and political persuasions to take a stand, say something, be counted, or risk leading our congregations and all that we hold sacred quietly into the night.

Rev. Peter Dybing
National First Officer
Covenant of the Goddess