Faithless Unitarians in Bush Country

According to the Austin Star-Telegram, the Texas Comptroller has denied a Unitarian Church tax-exempt status on the grounds that it “does not have one system or belief.”

So, a centuries-old religion to which 2 former U.S. Presidents belonged, has been deemed belief-less.

With even religious freedom threatened by the Bushocracy, why am I the only one who seems to believe that we could win a campaign against Bush on freedom issues alone?

Freedom is the defining issue for Americans. Question: what swings voters? Answer: freedom of choice over women’s bodies, freedom to own a firearm.

Bush’s supporters are running ads talking about Bush fighting for freedom, working to preserve America’s freedoms.

Yet, America’s freedoms are facing their greatest threat in 50 years: freedom to speak, freedom to associate, freedom to check out whatever books you want, freedom to fly, freedom to vote, freedom to tithe to a Unitarian church are all under systematic attack by the Bush administration.

Even though I am equally passionate about the rights to due process, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and habeas corpus, we need not launch this campaign for freedom by fighting, as we usually do, in the context of the rights of “criminals.” The average American will never identify with criminals.

Bush will continue to be able to play upon fears and insecurities and us vs. them to justify the need for stripping us of our cumbersome civil liberties.

But should we make it easy on the ABCs (Ashcroft, Bush and Cheney) of fascism?

I say, no. We should take a page from Karl Rove’s playbook. Rove succeeded in getting Kerry to play defense for days on whether he was really a legitimate war hero.

The lynchpin of Bush’s campaign is fighting for our freedom. Let’s ask, what freedom? What is Bush fighting for? The scandal in Abu Ghraib prison is just the tip of the iceberg of what price freedom for Bush.