E Pluribus Unum

Anne Lamott:

The truth is that many of us left-wing Christians with fragile nerves and bad attitudes are becoming ever so slightly tense about the distinct possibility that this country we love is becoming, under the Bush administration, a theocracy.

Those of us with public lives are constantly asked, "Don't you think the radical right has appropriated God, and if so, what is your response to that?"

My answer to the first question is no. No one can appropriate God, goodness, the Bible or Jesus. It just seems that way.

The people currently in charge of this country have so spiritualized their hysteria that their antics make for much better news coverage than the rest of us.

Terri Schiavo ("Has America begun murdering its handicapped?" they thunder, and we say meekly, "Well, um, no").

"Lord of the Flies" rallies against gay marriage.

Pro-life violence.

And -- my personal favorite -- the frenzied opposition to stem cell research, based on the right's conviction that it is an atrocity to save actual human lives by creating new stem cell lines using frozen embryos slated to be thrown out after couples undergoing IVF conceive or give up.

...and remember: God isn't on our side. We should only be so lucky as to be on God's side instead.