Mark Tooley, president of the neo-conservative think-tank The Institute on Religion & Democracy, continues his childish PR effort to make the term “Religious Left” synonymous with cowardice. If he cannot mention “the Religious Left” in the pejorative, he doesn't write the editorial.
Unfortunately, he just doesn't know what he's talking about.
Evidently, his years serving under President George W. Bush have impaired his ability to portray those with which he disagrees, accurately.
In his most recent article (it seems he just can get enough of his pontification in as many outlets as possible) – found here – Tooley claims the same crap he usually claims about “the Religious Left.” They want to see an America weakened to the point of impotence. They see no difference between the US and Nazi Germany. They only want to sit back and snipe at the those with which they disagree.
None of these accurately describe progressive Christianity, but that doesn't stop Tooley from continuing to say them.
In his response to religious liberal ethicisists and their suggestions that US drone policy is religiously problematic, Tooley sums up his argument pretty pathetically:
People of faith trust that God, in His own time, will fully redeem the world and defeat evil forever. But the utopian Religious Left sometimes wants to pretend their policies can preempt God. Fortunately, their counsel is mostly ignored, on drones, and virtually on every other issue.
In his attempt to further talk down to those Christians he believes deserve his derision, Tooley actually proves the opposite of his argument. Drone strikes are nearly the epitome of an ideology's policies preempting God. Tooley is using the Rovian tactic of turning your weakness into a weakness for your foe.
Drone strikes are, at the very least, morally problematic and religiously troubling. For someone – even a former CIA analyst like Tooley – to be so sold out to the idea of drone strikes as standard procedure, is unfortunate.
I pray the issue might cause him a little more moral uncertainty.
