To judge by his column in today’s Washington Post, Michael Gerson demonstrates a surprisingly poor grasp of the evangelical world. To say (as Gerson does) that evangelicals fear big government is laughable. They love big government — as long as they get to run it.

The hysteria surrounding the “Ground Zero Mosque” that really cannot be seen from Ground Zero has nothing to do with some impending Islamic fundamentalist quest to impose Sharia Law in America. It has everything to do with a toxic patriotism fueled by evangelical political activism in this country.

With only a week remaining before Arizona’s contentious Senate Bill 1070 becomes law, Arizona human and immigrant rights groups have found unlikely allies among the religious community.

I will be paddling out into deep water today and talk about belief and how it interacts with politics. Being a person of no faith, someone who finds the physical universe to be the only one we need worry about; it is perhaps not my bailiwick to talk about religion but I am going to do so anyway.

Back in the late ‘80s I remember reading about the members of a small apocalyptic cult whose leader told them to gather at their compound for the end of the world. It was short notice and the members were spread all over the country. One county in rural Nebraska was having a rash of people driving through at speeds exceeding 100 mph. When they were stopped by the police and issued a summons to come to court in two months they all just smiled. Why? Well they were absolutely sure that they would never make that court date, nor would anyone else in the world.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“