melanie @ dailykos has been shepherding a great flock of threads on the state of religion and politics.

Yes, Virginia, the leg bone's connected to the neck bone. At our office, we have similar discussions, but we're primarily focused on helping get the Craft ethic back into what has become for many, a punch-in, punch-out, pressured drudgery with little meaning: Work. (Hey, build enough trust with any Artist, Executive or Plumber and pretty soon some non-sanctioned words come up. Conversations lead to "connection", "purpose", and "the meaning" behind what they do. That's the holy grail for communities and companies. Its also another post. Probably lots.)

But in the politico-religious sphere, things have gone so far through the looking glass, Americans should have packed a lunch.

The vocal left is freaked out by the mere introduction into public discourse, something they truly value in the privacy of their homes and in the management of their families: a moral sense. Laissez faire economics: Bad. Laissez faire Social policy: Good. At least that's the impression left open, absent any coherent, consistent statement of a character center. (In a country that includes the words "endowed by their Creator...certain inalienable rights" in its IPO prospectus, a lefty can hardly be surprised that 85+% believe in God and a moral compass.)

The most vocal elements of the hard-right have embraced religion so fervently and narrowly, they're rewriting scripture--or, at least its intent--to justify things like dividend tax cuts and the means testing of "compassion". (By any fair measure, a "christian" calling someone who's reticent to judge others, a "liberal scum", seems to have not read the manual fully.)

In a way, they're both AWOL. And very late. Go read.

[edited 1-26. Link fubar]