No, not C.S. Lewis, but apparently John Danforth.

Jack Danforth wishes the Republican right would step down from its pulpit. Instead, he sees a constant flow of religion into national politics. And not just any religion, either, but the us-versus-them, my-God-is-bigger-than-your-God, velvet-fist variety of Christian evangelism.

As a mainline Episcopal priest, retired U.S. senator and diplomat, Danforth worships a humbler God and considers the right’s certainty a sin. Legislating against gay marriage, for instance? "It’s just cussedness." As he sees it, many Republican leaders have lost their bearings and, if they don’t change, will lose their grip on power. Not to mention make the United States a meaner place.

Danforth is no squalling liberal. He is a lifelong Republican. And his own political history shows he is no milquetoast.

A man of God and the GOP, he is speaking out for moderation — in religion, politics, science and government. The lanky figure once dubbed "St. Jack," not always warmly, for the perch he seemed to occupy on Washington’s moral high ground, expects people will sour on the assertive brand of Christianity so closely branded Republican.

"I’m counting on nausea," he says.

The reader who passed this on comments:

[This]… really rubbed me the wrong way.  The irony is that he lectures the "religious right" for being preachy and yet I am not sure anyone could beat him for sanctimoniousness.  He preaches tolerance and yet wants to flush the religious right’s influence from the party.  Also, he seems incapable of seeing that a) there are non-religious moral arguments against embryonic stem-cells and b) that huge swaths of people who seem pretty accepting of homosexuals don’t want to legalize gay marriage.

There is also irony that others are noting that someone who was part of the Republican party before its ascendancy is lecturing Republicans on how to make a healthier party (perhaps healthier certainly not a winning party).  Jimmy Carter and Jim Wallis have cameos too.  Sometimes you have to wonder if they realize that when something like marriage amendments pass by large majorities in every state in which they are on the ballot it probably isn’t "divisive."

I am not the biggest fan of the Evangelical wing of the Republican party nor many of their public arguments but this just strikes me as ridiculous.