Reply #47: Actually, no, I think race, gender and class are the most powerful

[More Than A Feeling]

There are way more men and women in the cult of hyper-masculinity than there are fundamentalists whose sole motivation is religion, because many of the fundamentalists are so because they are in the cult.

Race is more powerful, because it affects everyone, even those who ought to know better. The good liberals of Hyde Park, Illinois were not immune from fear during the second great migration, when the African-American population broke loose from the overcrowded ghettos of Chicago. How many areas are "liberal" and also are integrated, or even have public or affordable housing? Very few.

Poor people scare the crap out of many, because they are living breathing symbols that the system that benefits them, hands other people their heads. People are desperately afraid of being held morally accountable for the plight of the poor, and that the poor will rise up and take what they do not have. People make up myths of the self-made person, and blame the victim for all they are worth.

In the face of that, how can religion, standing on its own, compete? It can be a cover for those things, but it is not even close to being the fundamental factor, not anymore. Maybe once, during the crusades, when people left everything, many bankrupting themselves and even giving their lives for a religious symbol, but not today.