If you thought former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was a lone voice in the wilderness when he linked secular atheists and radical Islam as partners in politics a couple of weeks ago, think again. That and similar fare have been emerging as new political talking points on the religious right. Only a couple of weeks earlier, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) -you may remember him for his earlier revelations on the "terror baby" conspiracy* - told a talk radio audience that "extreme leftist media" and radical jihadists have "thrown in together" to take over America because “they hate conservatives and they don’t care that much for Christianity.”
The latest to join the choir (so to speak) is Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian public interest law firm associated with Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. On his Faith and Freedom radio show, Barber also talks about this alleged linkage:
"The common enemy of radical Islam and radical progressivism; the common enemy is God's Truth; is, is Christianity and so they will unite together to try to destroy, uh, Christianity and people they see as the common enemy, particularly the One True Sovereign Creator of the Universe, uh, God and His Son, uh, God incarnate, Jesus Christ." (transcription)
You can see watch part of Barber's talk in the video (put on YouTube today, April 14) attached to this page.
While the religious right has long targeted Islam, progressives and secularists separately, this new trend of linking them appears to be growing.
*Editor's note on Louie Gohmert and the "terror babies": In June of last year on the floor of the House of Representitives, Rep. Gohmert described a conspiracy by Muslim women to come to the US to give birth so that their babies, who would then hold US citizenship, could be raised outside the US as jihadists and return with ease as adults to commit terrorist acts. He still maintains this although neither he or anyone else has been able to produce credible evidence of such a conspiracy.
(Thanks and a tip of the Hatlo hat to Rightwing Watch for many of the links in this story)
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