Culture Warrior by Bill O'Reilly Page A

explanation in a nutshell: Almost every social change the secular-progressive movement wants to achieve is opposed by religious Americans. Therefore, the more the S-Ps can diminish religious influence in America, the faster their agenda can become a reality. For example, the S-Ps are furious that gay marriage initiatives keep getting voted down, even in the most liberal states, and believe that the primary opposition comes from organized religion rallying their flocks to oppose homosexual nuptials with sin-based arguments. But gay marriage is just the start.
    The S-Ps want no restrictions of any kind on abortion. That means they approve of partial-birth abortion up until the actual birthing process without a defined catastrophic health situation that could endanger the mother. In other words, the S-Ps believe a woman can end a pregnancy for any reason, at any time, under the banner of “reproductive rights.” Some S-P loons even contend it should be legal to kill a baby up until the time the umbilical cord is detached. Obviously, most religions would find that blatantly sinful, to say the least.
    On the same issue, secular-progressives want girls of any age to be able to obtain abortions without parental consent or even notification. Do you know of any traditional religion that endorses that extreme view? Even Henry VIII would be offended.
    S-Ps are also behind the euthanasia movement, which is, again, opposed by many religions on the same grounds as abortion. A hallmark of most traditional theology is that only God has the right to decide the matters of birth and death.
    Want another one? Legalized narcotics is frowned upon by many organized religions because intoxication is not considered a healthy act; that is, it does not bring a person closer to God—or to anyone else, for that matter. As previously stated, S-P bankers George Soros and Peter Lewis are pouring millions of dollars into campaigns to legalize drugs.
    Organized religions also tend to oppose unbridled personal gratification and the idea that the individual is the center of the universe. In fact, on just about every moral topic, the S-P playbook and traditional Bible passages are at odds.
    So, for the S-P agenda to succeed, religion in America must be deemphasized, just as it already has been in Western Europe and Canada, where secular-progressives have made huge gains. Looking at the entire battle zone, we can see that the American S-P generals have learned that goal number one is to secularize the American public school system in order to drive children away from religion and into the S-P camp. And what is the most wondrous display of religion worldwide? Why, Christmas, of course. Little kids seeing a manger display just might develop a curiosity about this baby Jesus person. What’s this Christmas deal all about, anyway? There is no danger of that happening with winter solstice or with a holiday tree. Is there?
    The secular-progressive press strongly disputes my analysis linking the attacks on Christmas to far-left, secular politics, but I stand by my hypothesis. I know politics is behind the war on Christmas because S-P philosopher George Lakoff told me so on page 102 of his
Elephant
book. There he urges liberal Christians to move away from Jesus to a broader “vision” of God and salvation:
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    [The conservative] God is understood as punitive—that is if you sin you are going to hell, and if you don’t sin you are going to be rewarded. Since people tend to sin at one point or another in their lives, how is it possible for them to ever get to heaven? The answer in conservative Christianity is Christ. What Jesus does is offer them a chance to get to heaven [if they toe the line].
    But liberal [S-P] Christianity is very, very different. Liberal Christianity sees God as essentially beneficent, as wanting to help people.
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    So what Lakoff is embracing is an S-P