From: coolidge@speaker.wpd.sgi.com (Don Coolidge)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.elections,alt.fan.dan-quayle,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Have you heard of the Religious Left?
Date: 15 Sep 92 17:42:43 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <#5yn3n=.mvp@netcom.com>, mvp@netcom.com (Mike Van Pelt) writes:
|> In article <prpf3f@twilight.wpd.sgi.com> coolidge@speaker.wpd.sgi.com (Don Coolidge) writes:
|> >1) This is a.f.d-q. Either charicature terms like "evil minions" have 
|> >an implied smiley, or both of us have been working too hard.
|> 
|> Yeah, but note the global crossposting.  (It was worse; I removed
|> talk.politics.guns.)  Maybe he read it elsewhere?

Let me include a reply I just sent via email on this very subject...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

From coolidge  Tue Sep 15 10:13:12 1992
Received: by speaker.wpd.sgi.com (911016.SGI/911001.SGI)
	for coolidge id AA04419; Tue, 15 Sep 92 10:13:12 -0700
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 10:13:12 -0700
From: coolidge (Don Coolidge)
Message-Id: <9209151713.AA04419@speaker.wpd.sgi.com>
To: ataylor@NMSU.Edu
Subject: Re: Have you heard of the Religious Left?
Cc: dks@mit.edu, coolidge
Status: R

> Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 08:36:52 MDT
> Message-Id: <9209151436.AA14526@NMSU.Edu>
> Received: by gauss (4.1/NMSU)
> 	id AA23691; Tue, 15 Sep 92 08:36:51 MDT
> To: coolidge (Don Coolidge)
> In-Reply-To: coolidge@speaker.wpd.sgi.com's message of Mon, 14 Sep 92 21:33:57 GM
> Subject: Re: Have you heard of the Religious Left?
> 
>    Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.elections,alt.fan.dan-quayle,talk.politics.guns,talk.politics.misc
> 
> 	Note the newsgroups line.
> 
> >  A few bits of advice and comment:
> 
> >    1) This is a.f.d-q. 
> 
> 
> 	No, "this" is alt.politics.bush, alt.politics.elections,
> 	afdq, talk.politics.guns AND talk.politics.misc.

No, "this" *is* a.f.d-q. Anything posted or crossposted there is subject
to the same rules (or lack thereof). Or, as Our Hero would say, "It is a 
newsgroup. It is in the specific newsgroups. It is a newsgroup that is 
right there in the specific newsgroups."

I might add to all you serious political types in the other groups, "You
all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, and happy campers
you always will be. I didn't live in this century."
> 
> > Either charicature terms like "evil minions" have 
> >   an implied smiley, or both of us have been working too hard.
> 
>  	Or someone isn't watching the newsgroups line....

Or somebody needs some Metamucil right away...:^)

Since you didn't deign to sign your reply, and your mailer included
no alias, I'll likewise append no autograph...
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|> 
|> >4) The religious left is out there. ...  Philip Berrigan
|> 
|> That's right... How could I have forgotten the Fabulous Funny Berrigan
|> Brothers?

Har har har. Whatta card you are, Mike. Care to post some of their jokes
so the rest of us who only remember them being beaten and bounced into jail
can share the good times? Or is simple baseless mocking the best you're 
up for today? 

|> There's also the various Marxist "Liberation theology" types.

Who happen to be doing their best to restore human rights in several
rightist/fascist (yes, I use the f-word carefully and correctly) Latin
American countries. Tar them if you will with the Marxist sobriquet,
but their politics have nothing to do with Marxism. If they are supported
by Marxists, it's only because the US is propping up their nations' 
repressive regimes, and *one* (not all) of the opposing forces is Marxism.
Remember Nicaragua, Viet Nam, and a host of other locales where we 
literally created a Communist populism out of a vacuum by installing 
and supporting one repressive regime after another...
 
|> >What they *don't* do (and here we have the main point of difference
|> >between them and Jerry Falwell or J. Danforth Quayle) is impose their
|> >religious views on others by force of law.
|> 
|> I can't see as the Berrigans, Jesse Jackson., etc., were doing anything
|> *but* trying to imposed their views on others by force of law.  They
|> disagree with the law, and demand the law be changed to conform to
|> their point of view.  How is that in any way different from what you
|> accuse Falwell of?  Other than that you maybe agree with Berrigan,
|> Jackson, Coffin, etc?

Yes, I agree with the Bs, J, and C, but not for the reasons you 
conveniently offer. I find your assertion that they opposed The Law 
cynical in the extreme.

Jesse and the Bs, in almost every case, were demonstrating in support
of the Constitution. Equal rights, regardless of race. Illegal action
of a President in committing US troops without a declaration of war.
Repeated intransigence of draft boards that refused to grant 
Conscientious Objector status to anyone who requested it, and instead
made sure they were sent directly to the front as punishment.

These are laws that already existed, but were being (and largely
still are) ignored by people in positions of power. Rights were being
denied, trampled on, and ignored.

Do some thinking, Mike. I admire your postings in the SF newsgroups,
so I know you're capable of it. Why do you turn off all that memory 
and cognitive power when the question of politics is raised?

Don Coolidge
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.elections,alt.fan.dan-quayle,talk.politics.guns,talk.politics.misc