I don’t know if my colleague at Daily Kos, Denise Velez, is a wiccan. She only describes herself as a pagan. But if she is a witch, I expect she is a good one. The same cannot be said of the self-anointed Christian warlock she writes about today. David Lane is a powerful and growing force on the politico-religious right. Here’s some of his screed:

Where are the champions of Christ to save the nation from the pagan onslaught imposing homosexual marriage, homosexual scouts, 60 million babies done to death by abortion and red ink as far as the eye can see on America? Who will wage war for the Soul of America and trust the living God to deliver the pagan gods into our hands and restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture?

Did you catch the money quote, and I do mean money, tucked neatly in there with the woo?

Red ink.

Part and parcel to modern-day Christian nationalist mythos is the deficit demon. Many old school demons are perversely concerned with human sex organs, wee-wees and nu-nus fascinate them. None dare it call it projection! The head demon in Abrahamaic mythology appeared as a serpent and lured Eve into tasting the fruit of knowledge. How a neolithic woman, who cannot possibly understand the difference between right and wrong according to Holy writ, managed to damn the entire race to an endless litany of natural and man-made evils while alive and eternal torture after death with a single act of modest disobedience is never quite explained or justified. Fundamentalists are fine with blaming the helpless victim and her innocent progeny instead of the all powerful, immortal abuser..

The deficit demon is a different animal though. Its a hip, modern spirit for a rebranded hip, modern conservative party, who despises Food Stamps, healthcare, capital gains tax, and unemployment insurance. It typically appears when progressives are in power or someone influential is trying to help the poor and middle class. Like most demons its a shameless hypocrite; spending on weapons, agricultural subsidies, etc., and using Big Gubmint to control women’s bodies or curtail voting rights for minorities, does not rouse this demon from the nether-world. But when We the People try to uphold the rights mandated in our country’s founding document or bandage the economic wounds left by unquenchable greed, this evil bastard is conjured up by the usual suspects faster than you can say the power of Christ compels you.

Here at atheist central we don’t believe in ancient magic and certainly not in something as ridiculous as bad warlocks or evil demons. Alas, the real world surely does not require either for evil to thrive, and the deficit demon brings in the big bucks. Both channeled in the living form of those who loudly proclaim their supernatural insight into the mind of an alleged King of kings. A deity who, by amazing coincidence, reportedly happens to agree completely with what the Christian warlocks and his wealthy allies want.