Holy Crap - Part II

[wadestock]

A continuation of original post “How religious right is the country going?” and “Holy Crap”.....

This article is one of the best I've read yet explaining the evolving political religious movement in this country....and how it supports Bush and an endless holy war....

http://www.counterpunch.org/bageant05252004.html

The Covert Kingdom
Thy Will be Done, On Earth as It is in Texas
By JOE BAGEANT

My favorite exerpts....

“Forget about changing their minds. These Christians do not read the same books we do, they do not get their information from anything remotely resembling reasonably balanced sources, and in fact, consider even CBS and NBC super-liberal networks of porn and the Devil's lies. Given how fundamentalists see the modern world, they may as well be living in Iraq or Syria, with whom they share approximately the same Bronze Age religious tenets. They believe in God, Rumsfeld's Holy War and their absolute duty as God's chosen nation to kick Muslim ass up one side and down the other. In other words, just because millions of Christians appear to be dangerously nuts does not mean they are marginal. “

“They wait in spooky calmness for Jesus. They believe that, until Jesus does arrive, our "satanic humanist state and federal legal systems" should be replaced with pure "Biblical Law." This belief is called Christian Reconstructionism. Though it has always been around in some form, it began expanding rapidly about 1973, with the publication of R. J. Rushdoony's, Institutes of Biblical Law (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1982). A moreover covert movement, although slightly more public of late, Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism have for decades exerted one hell of an influence through its scores of books, publications and classes taught in colleges and universities. Over the past 30 years their doctrine has permeated not only the religious right, but mainstream churches as well, via the charismatic movement. The radical Christian right's impact on politics and religion in this nation has been massive, with many mainstream churches pushed rightward by its pervasiveness without even knowing it. Clearly the Methodist church down the street from my house does not understand what it has become. Other mainstream churches with more progressive leadership, simply flinch and bow to the radicals at every turn."

"Christian Reconstruction and Dominionist strategists make clear in their writings that homeschooling and Christian academies have been and continue to create the Rightist Christian cadres of the future, enabling them to place ever-increasing numbers of believers in positions of governmental influence. The training of Christian cadres is far more sophisticated than the average liberal realizes. There now stretches a network of dozens of campuses across the nation, each with its strange cultish atmosphere of smiling Christian pod people, most of them clones of Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. But how many outsiders know the depth and specificity of political indoctrination in these schools? For example, Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, a college exclusively for Christian homeschoolers, offers programs in strategic government intelligence, legal training and foreign policy, all with a strict, Bible-based "Christian worldview." Patrick Henry is so heavily funded by the Christian right it can offer classes below cost. In the Bush administration, seven percent of all internships are handed out to Patrick Henry students, along with many others distributed among similar religious rightist colleges. The Bush administration also recruits from the faculties of these schools, i.e. the appointments of right-wing Christian activist Kay Coles James, former dean of the Pat Robertson School of government, as director of the U.S. office of personnel. What better position than the personnel office from which to recruit more fundamentalists? Scratch any of these supposed academics and you will find a Christian zealot. I know because I have made the mistake of inviting a few of these folks to cocktail parties. One university department head told me he is moving to rural Mississippi where he can better recreate the lifestyle of the antebellum South, and its "Confederate Christian values." It gets real strange real quick.

Joe Bageant is a senior editor at the Primedia History Group and writes from Winchester, Virginia. He may be contacted at [e-mail].

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. So

scary!

Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm

[fdr_hst_fan]

3. According to the Jesus I was taught about,

he would love EVERYBODY, regardless. Find a "Fundie" that feels that way-you won't! THEIR WAY OR NO WAY!

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Sad, but true. :^(

[Warpy]

12. I got into hot water at an SDS chapter in the northeast

35 years ago for trying to tell them what the rest of the country was like in terms of the relgious stranglehold on rural areas and small towns. I was pooh-poohed then, but I wonder just how many of those earnest but ignorant revolutionaries have since remembered my words and realized how correct I was.

You have to realize that in most rural areas the local churches offer the only alternative to alcohol and fistfights as diversion, and that fundie churches offer the best theater. Mainstream churches are stolid, stuffy and boring compared to the rafter-raising sermon from the average fundy preacher. The control they exercise over one's life is often offset by the very powerful feeling of belonging. Add to that the permission to despise "others" outside their very narrow group and send them to hell, and you have a very powerful drug, and an addictive lifestyle that is extremely hard to break away from.

In fact, I doubt that nothing short of a nuclear war that doesn't include their being raptured away from the mess will break through the wall of conditioning.

The only way to counteract this incredible social and political force is to realize that they comprise only about 40% of the electorate, and a quarter of them aren't knee jerk GOPers. That leaves 30% of the electorate that will vote for Bush or any other nutbag who speaks their language (one of the few things Bush does well), no matter what happens.

Well, folks, that's a sizeable minority, but it's still a minority. What the rest of us need to do is find a way to mobilize our sizeable majority against these folks, and that will take a lot of education and convincing them that we can do something for them besides the business as usual that has caused most of them to fall farther behind every year. Only by energizing the majority will we be able to shake off the tyranny of the minority.

That's what we're up against, and the DLC aint up to the job.

[jackbeanny]

2. HUH

DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THIS? SOUNDS A S BAD AS ANY RIGHT WING NUT TO ME

[Kathy in Cambridge]

4. Well, sounds like you should know!

;-)

[pdmike]

9. Great Screen Name!

That (Jackbeanny) is one of the GREATEST screen names I have seen yet! Love it!

pdmike

[MadHound]

10. Yes, having lived around these kind of people, it is as bad as

The article states, if not worse.

Living in Missouri, especially the rural areas, you are exposed to Christian fundementalism at it's best. From little old ladies who actually think that there is the mark of the beast on every arcade game to entire congregations that get into rolling around on the floor and snakes on a weekly basis to fundy colleges that forbid smoking on campus and in town to Christian militia units holed up in the backwoods, Missouri has more than it's fair share of religious insanity.

These are the people who think they are compromising because they voted for Bush, even though he is "too liberal" for them. These are the people who are actively working towards Aarmegedonn, for they think they will be the ones lifted up by God. These are the people who not only will throw a guest pastor out of their church because he is black, but will throw out their regular minister along with him for having the termenity of invitine somebody who was "unclean".

These people take the concept of hypocrisy to an entirely new level. Tolerence and forgiveness are unheard of terms, even though they are in the bible. And "Thou shalt not kill" is optional in the case of blacks, Jews, "furriners", aetheists, pagans, heathens, intellectuals, liberals, or quite frankly anybody who doesn't agree down the line with their ideology.

No, this piece is pretty well spot on. Face it, while liberals may rant about right wing religious fundementalists, we do tolerate them with some benign amusement. Right wing religious fundementalists on the other hand would kill liberals if they thought for a minute they could get away with it. And this is no exageration, it is the literal truth. If you don't believe me, I have a little piece of land for you to buy down in SW Missouri. Of course you'll have to clean the members of The Covenant, Sword and the Arm of the Lord off of it. Good luck, the last fellow who tried that is no longer with us(and he was the owner of the land).

[fdr_hst_fan]

6. Scratch a little further and

you'll find a Nazi! They won't admit it-in fact, they'll be highly insensed at the thought, but it's true-I've known a few, and I avoid them like the plague; they're a drag, and they bring everyone else in the room down.

[drb]

7. And thus we have a wonderful argument....

...for Universal Mental Health Care in this country.

...and I'm a Christian! (But not like those nut jobs. I'm a different kind of nut job! :) )

[Soloflecks]

8. Excerpts from RPT 2004 Platform

ADL has urged removal of this:

Christian Nation – The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States of America is a Christian nation, and the public acknowledgement of God is undeniable in our history. Our nation was founded on fundamental Judeo-Christian principles based on the Holy Bible. The Party affirms freedom of religion, and rejects efforts of courts and secular activists who seek to remove and deny such a rich heritage from our public lives.

You'll love this one:

Free Exercise of Religion – The Party believes all Americans have the right to practice their religious faith free from persecution, intimidation, and violence. While recognizing one’s freedom from religion, this recognition should not limit others’ free expression of their religious beliefs. Our Party pledges to exert its influence to restore the original intent of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and dispel the myth of the separation of Church and State. We support the right of individuals and state and local governments to display symbols of our faith and heritage. We call on Congress to sanction any country that is guilty of persecuting its citizens because of their religious beliefs.

Back to the dark ages:

Marriage Licenses – The Party supports legislation that would make it a felony to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple and for any civil official to perform a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple.

Feed it to our children:

Religious Freedom in Public Schools – Our Founding Fathers based the premise of this nation on God-given rights endowed by our Creator. The Party affirms President Lincoln’s quote: “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” The Party urges school administrators and officials to inform Texas school students specifically of their First Amendment rights to pray and engage in religious speech, individually or in groups, on school property without government interference. We support and strongly urge Congress to pass a Religious Freedom Amendment, which provides: “Neither the United States nor any State shall prohibit student–sponsored prayer in public schools, nor compose any official student prayer or compel joining therein.” We urge the Texas Legislature to pass legislation similar to the American Heritage Education Acts passed in Kentucky, Indiana, and other states, which end censorship of the discussion of the role of religion in our founding documents, and encourage reading and discussing those documents in our public schools. We support the return of Bibles and other religious books to the shelves of all public schools and libraries.

[truth2power]

11. What I been sayin'

"Forget about changing their minds."

[wadestock]

13. Some further thoughts.....

Actually right in front of my face on this one....

I was talking to a buddy over lunch and he said....geeze....how about where WE work.....

Don't have to go into the gory details...but it's an Army Base and the "religious right" really have moved up in the ranks over the years....I've been here 30 years....they have routine announced weekly Bible studies on the base wide email (and anything like that which is considered even smelling of personal mail is extremely frowned on and often reprimanded).

Now that I think about it...I can trace some pretty serious camaraderie going on....connecting a number of dots together with at least a half dozen or so people I've worked with. I would go so far as to say that in the case of the ones that I'm thinking of...they associate the strong religious affiliation with the ability to do the job....but the other twist to this is the ability to have the gumption to do "what's necessary" if they have to.....with a very quiet resolve that borders on our more traditional "back stabbing".

I've seen quite a change in who's moving up in the corporate world in my lifetime. I think we can all generally accept the notion that the ###-holes have been moving up more so than ever. But now this whole thing puts another interesting twist on things. In the old days, having religious convictions was generically viewed as good and a sign of possible trustworthiness, a good family portfolio, etc.
But in the NEW corporate world of demented behavior, has the religious right found a new way to integrate?