Why does President Bush hate the cross?

Even as surreal as life here in the USA is these days, sometimes an article comes along that just makes your head explode.



Here, via Atrios, is one of them:

This wintry season, as the faithful continue to receive alarming reports from the news that Republicans are all that stand between them and the outlawing of Christmas itself by hordes of secular humanists, the two presidents Bush have endorsed a powerful conservative interest group specializing in removing the cross -- not from schools or courthouses, but from churches.



Rather than the traditional egg hunt, this group, calling itself the American Clergy Leadership Conference, sponsored a nationwide "Tear Down The Cross" day for Easter, 2003. Last week, leaders in this radical cause presided over a Washington prayer breakfast featuring messages of thanks from the presidents. Former Senator Bob Dole came in person.



Mostly African-American, pastors who joined in 2003's ACLC-sponsored "Tear Down The Cross" won gold watches from the wealthy group, which unabashedly claims in its publications to have stripped churches of over a hundred crosses over the Easter holiday alone. This, movement leaders said, cleared the way for a new age and second messiah.



Speaking of messiahs, make a quick stop at the web site of the ACLC, and it's clear there's more to it than the “rapidly growing movement of clergy committed to the endeavor of making this nation the best that it can be," as the ACLC described itself in a December 8 Washington Times op-ed. It's actually a vehicle for Sun Myung Moon, the billionaire conservative donor who calls himself the True Father.

This unholy alliance between American conservatives and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon warrants further examination by the MSM, which undoubtedly never will touch it, probably because God knows the Moonie-owned Washington Times and United Press International (UPI) won't.



The article cited above is written by John Gorenfeld, who has been focused on the Moon/Bush/wingnut connection for quite a while. If you're interested in Strange Bedfellows, his blog is always worth a look.



If you're not aware of it, the Senate hosted a ceremony last summer in which Rev. Sun Myung Moon was crowned as the Messiah. I kid you not. Gorenfeld has more.



Bill Clinton was crucified (pun absolutely intended) for his association with the shady-but-inept Jim McDougal. Yet here we have both King George Bush I and his dauphin, George II, intimately associated with a nutcase who thinks he's the king of the world.



Doesn't that bother anyone? Doesn't it bother anyone that while Rockland County wackjobs are vandalizing menorahs, and a right-wing television hosts who thinks that women get turned on having their nipples rubbed with abrasive sponges is decrying the Jews for trying to ban Christmas, the president is cozying up to an 84-year-old ex-con cult leader who's advocating things far more offensive to his own particular brand of Christianity than anything any Hollywood liberal ever did?