Blog Against Theocracy 2009: An introduction

Once again this year, I am pleased to join with a multitude of other bloggers from across the United States and around the world in the "Blog Against Theocracy" blogswarm. This is my third opportunity to participate in BAT, having done so each of the last two years, but it's going to be a different experience this year, I think. Not only have my personal circumstances changed, as I will share with you briefly on Sunday, but of course there is a new president and with that, some different viewpoints on the role of religion in American government and society.

Naturally, even though the Bush crime syndicate and its overt strides towards an American theocracy are in the past, things haven't changed nearly as much as I would like. As I said in last year's BAT introduction, "I have no particular problem with people practicing their faith, but I am vehemently, unalterably, inexorably opposed to its infiltration of and influence on American government today." Unfortunately, the Obama administration seems unwilling at this time to cut the unconstitutional ties between government and religion completely, for example, retaining Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, which I believe has absolutely no place in our federal bureaucracy. On the other hand, Obama has signaled some movement away from theocracy with his enlightened stem cell research policies, his recognition of the GLBT community, and other such positions that would have been anathema to his predecessor's theocratic administration.

My point is that the change in the White House doesn't mean we can let down our guard against efforts to create an American theocracy. Indeed, as we've seen just this week with the new Christian-based hate groups emerging, those who would foist a particular set of religious beliefs on the nation as a whole are if anything growing louder and more insistent. And of course, despite some positive changes on the federal level, we here in Florida still struggle with a hyperfundamentalist, über-Christianist faction that wants nothing more than to turn our state -- and our country, if they could -- into a frothing-at-the-mouth radical theocracy.

So our work as progressives, and as defenders of the Constitution, is not done -- not by a long shot. Perhaps with this blogswarm and the combined voices of some of the best writers and thinkers the blogosphere has to offer, we can encourage those at all levels of government who want to obey the Constitution by enforcing a clearly delineated separation of church and state.

Please visit Blast Off! and of course the main BAT site, which is collecting and linking to all participants' posts, regularly throughout the weekend for all the Blog Against Theocracy goodness.

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Blast Off!'s BAT posts from 2007 and 2008 are available at this link, although you will have to scroll down past the 2009 posts; sorry for the inconvenience. But if you'd like a retrospective of sorts, well, there it is.

One personal note: special thanks to Blue Gal, who is kind of the chief organizer and bottle-washer of this effort, and to Tengrain of Mock, Paper, Scissors for yet another kick-ass BAT logo (above).