Christian fundamentalists love Big Government

Posted by admin on April 11th, 2009 filed in General

The Republican Party in the USA is generally a tenuous coalition of social conservatives and small-government libertarians . These two factions share a common ground against left-wing implementations of Big Government social engineering.

However, the Bush years have highlighted the fact that social conservatives only pay lip service to the ideal of small government: the Bush administration expanded the size, power and reach of the US government faster than any other presidency in recent history. Social conservatives, no longer in opposition but wielding the power under Bush, became cheerleaders of Big Government in order to mould society according to their religious beliefs. Libertarians lost faith in the Republicans under Bush, hence Obama’s win this year signals re-alignment of libertarians and independents against the Big Government social conservatism.

The Singapore example is instructive. Never having to face issues of federalism, states rights, or a liberal hegemony in government power, Christian fundamentalists in Singapore show their true colours. Being the craven whores that they are, they gladly leech on to any social engineering programs and exercises of government power that would shape Singaporean society in way consistent with their beliefs. Despite the fact that Christian fundamentalists in Singapore are more or less proxies of their American counterparts, they never bothered with arguing for a less intrusive government that American evangelicals at least appeared to advocate.

There are two lessons here to be learnt. Firstly, to all the left-wing progressives, it is time you recognised that it is fine and dandy when a person you like is in office, but those structures of government power you want to see built up to serve your causes, can equally be used for purposes detrimental to you when a person you do not like is in power.

Secondly, to the PAP government. The religious fundamentalist threat is real. There are some who want to bomb us and kill us. But there are others who are far more insidious, who wish to destroy our society from inside out, by putting themselves in positions of power so as to coerce people to live according to their religious beliefs. On this road lies the path to ruin for this country that has been painstakingly built up according to secular principles.