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On this page: Dick Armey: "thugs" and "bullies" | Katherine Harris: elect Christians

Virginia Del. Frank Hargrove: "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?"

Comments to the Charlottesville, Virginia Daily Progress, January 16, 2006

The Daily Progress was reporting on legislative moves to a formal apology for slavery by the state of Virginia. It said:

Some delegates believe an apology is unnecessary and a sign of too much political correctness.
“The present commonwealth has nothing to do with slavery,” said Del. Frank D. Hargrove, R-Glen Allen, whose ancestors were French Huguenots who came to America in search of religious freedom.
How far do these calls for apologies go, wondered Hargrove, a member of the House Rules Committee that could take up McEachin’s resolution as early as Wednesday.
“Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?” Hargrove wondered. “Nobody living today had anything to do with it. It would be far more appropriate in my view to apologize to the Upper Mattaponi and the Pamunkey” Indians for the loss of their lands in eastern Virginia, he said.

Click here.

Slavery apology measure ignites legislative debate

By Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, January 16, 2007

RICHMOND - A resolution to have Virginia apologize for slavery will encounter some opposition in the House of Delegates this month, according to legislators. Continue.

Dick Armey calls Christocrats "thugs" and "bullies"

Dick Armey calls Christian right "thugs" and "bullies"

Bill O'Reilly says there's no such thing as the religious right

In a Q&A with with former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Ryan Sager (author of An Elephant in the Room, blogging on Sager's blog, September 15, 2006) asked Armey: "What’s wrong with today’s Republican Congress?"

The Texas Republican responded: "The criteria of choice in just about every behavior you see in Congress today is politics. Where in the hell did this Terri Schiavo thing come from? There’s not a conservative, Constitution-loving, separation-of-powers guy alive in the world that could have wanted that bill on the floor. That was pure, blatant pandering to [Focus on the Family President] James Dobson. That’s all that was. It was silly, stupid, and irresponsible. Nobody serious about the Constitution would do that. But the question was will this energize our Christian conservative base for the next election."

Sager's also posted this excerpt from his book, in which he asked Armey: "Why does it seem Christian conservatives are more powerful now than in the 1990s?"

Armey replied: "To a large extent because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies. I pray devoutly every day, but being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid. There’s a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn’t work unless it’s dumb, shallow as water on a plate. These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic. These issues become bigger than life, largely because they’re easy. There ain’t no thinking." Click here.

Media Matters for America notes that Armey expressed similar criticism of the Value Voters Summit in a September 23rd Wall Street Journal op-ed: "It's an embarrassing spectacle seeing [Republican] leaders bullied around by the likes of [Focus on the Family founder and chairman] James Dobson."

Media Matters followed its report on Armey with this quote from Bill O'Reilly, speaking on Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly on September 27, 2006.

O'REILLY: Now that's absurd. I mean it's just, just absurd. I'm about as far away from a religious fundamentalist as you can get. All right? So, there is no intrusion on the media by religious fundamentalists. None. OK? They have no influence in the media, at all, zero. Among the congressmen and senators, I don't know of one religious fundamentalist in Congress, not one. I don't know one governor who's a religious fundamentalist.

Click here to read the Media Matters report, which includes an audio clip of O'Reilly.

Katherine Harris: "Elect Christians"

Interview with Katherine Harris

Florida Baptist Witness, August 24, 2006

Katherine Harris, the former Florida secretary of state credited with helping George W. Bush "win" her state in 2000, now running as a Republican for the US Senate, gave this statement to the Baptist newspaper when asked: "What role do you think people of faith should play in politics and government?" She answered: "The Bible says we are to be salt and light. And salt and light means not just in the church and not just as a teacher or as a pastor or a banker or a lawyer, but in government and we have to have elected officials in government and we have to have the faithful in government and over time, that lie we have been told, the separation of church and state, people have internalized ..." Continue.

Senate Rivals Mix Politics, Religion; Harris, Nelson Try Out Their Faith-Based Pitches On Voters

By: William E. Gibson, Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, October 16, 2006

Trying to mitigate her earlier statements that voters should elect Christians and church-state separation is a lie, embattled Senate candidate Katherine Harris (R, Florida) only dug herself in deeper. She recently told Republican Party leaders that those statements were not meant to exclude non-Christians and that she has a "passion for Israel" and believes that "Jewish people are the chosen ones." To that, the regional director of the American Jewish Committee replied: "The more you spin things, the worse it gets." Click here.

Harris Calls Dem's Policies 'Unchristian'

By Stephen Majors, Associated Press, Boston Globe, October 6, 2006

(Orlando, Florida) Republican Senate hopeful Katherine Harris says Florida's Democratic incumbent supports unchristian political policies.

Harris -- whose comments were made on a Christian radio network and published Monday by Agape Press, a Christian news service -- did not mention specific policies, but she has repeatedly berated Sen. Bill Nelson for not supporting a ban on certain late-term abortions and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Continue.

For our complete coverage of Harris' statement urging the election of Christians, click here.

Did they really say that?