Operatives associated with candidate John McCann have once again attacked conservatives in New Jersey. These are the same operatives who a few weeks ago attacked Steve Lonegan for supporting prayer in schools.
Two operatives for candidate John McCann's congressional campaign went on a Facebook rant against the suggestion that prayer in public schools might be a helpful deterrent to school shootings. The suggestion was made in a Fox-TV interview by Republican candidate for Congress Steve Lonegan, known as the father of the modern conservative movement in New Jersey.
The two McCannites practically spit on prayer as a solution to anything, one writing of Lonegan that "mentally he's in Fantasyland and has been for some time." This was a daring statement, considering his own candidate's challenges, and clearly showed contempt for cultural and religious conservatives.
It also ignores the data and the very low incidence of school shootings among, for instance, the 7,498 Roman Catholic schools in the nation. A daily regimen of prayer does appear to work. Although this could be merely coincidental, the suggestion should not be so rudely discounted -- and surprisingly by people calling themselves "Republicans."
While one McCann operative called John McCann a "fiscal conservative" (the same camouflage Bill Clinton used to describe himself), the other McCann operative mocked prayer as "a losing issue" and divisively wrote, "I wonder if Steve (Lonegan) would support a Muslim prayer, or a prayer in Spanish." It goes to show where the McCann campaign's head is and makes you ask how different are these people from far-left Democrats?
Both McCannites are affiliated with the Young Republicans organization, and one was recently active in the campaign of the Morris County Sheriff. This leads us to wonder if the Sheriff shares these anti-prayer views too.
More and more, this Young Republicans group in New Jersey is beginning to resemble a metro-sexual finishing school for socially-challenged post-adolescents. Their commentary is cut and paste from the script of "Mean Girls." Yes, Lonegan is in their "burn book." "Oh, that's so fetch... on Wednesdays we wear pink."
Isn't it time for a little intellectual vigor? They can start by asking themselves if they really want to be Republicans and how comfortable are they with the party's conservative platform. Perhaps they'll discover that they're closet Democrats but unaware of it?
It is also time for cultural conservatives to start their own public policy-centered youth organization. There are thousands of meetings held across New Jersey by people who do believe in the power of prayer. These meetings are attended each week by hundreds of thousands of people and the beliefs they represent are shared by millions in the state. According to the Pew Research Center for Religion & Public Life, 67% of adult New Jerseyeans identify themselves as "Christian." Of these, 34% are Roman Catholic, with 13% Evangelical Protestant, and 6% Black Protestant. Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, independent Christian, Mormon, and Jehovah's Witness comprise the remainder.
Of the non-Christian faiths (14% total), Jewish comes in at 6%, Hindu at 3%, Muslim at 3%, Buddhist at 1%, and other religions 2%. Although so ascendant in political circles, in academia, the media, and in the cocktail parties of the one-percent -- only 2% identify themselves as atheists, with 3% calling themselves agnostic. Apparently, the YR's are recruiting heavily from these very tiny groups.
Oh, and the Wiccans -- that group particularly beloved of the pussy hat brigades and whose "religious" symbol is given equal billing with the Christian cross on the flags carried at rallies by Democrat Party operatives -- their actual numbers are so small (outside the aforementioned circles of politics, academia, the media, and the one-percent) that they fail to register. Small, but as we see from the legislation they get passed, very powerful.
Yep, the nation needs all the prayer it can get.
