There are clear links between the Colorado gunman and the religious right.

[yardwork]

This post is not intended to criticize all Christians, all religious, or the idea of religious belief. I consider myself a spiritual person, and I believe in God. The U.S. Constitution provides the right to worship as each of us sees fit. According to our constitution, the U.S. government is not supposed to interfere with a person's right to worship or not. Nor is the U.S. government allowed to impose any particular religion, according to the constitution.

That said, I think that we need to pay attention to what the religious right is doing right now. There are a group of extreme fundamentalist Christians who are not interested in allowing everyone to worship as they individually choose. Instead, these people intend to impose their own ideas about religion on everybody else in the United States, and ultimately the world. This group of extremists helped to put George W. Bush in office, and they help keep him there. They have a highly disproportionate presence in the Bush administration, and a highly disproportionate influence on public policy at every level and in every cabinet department. They also have a disproportionate influence at many state and local levels.

The extremist religious right has this influence for two main reasons. One is that they are highly motivated to change the nation's laws, and they mobilize a great many people who have essentially been brainwashed (yes, I'll call it brainwashed) into believing that they must work hard to make these changes or their God will abandon them and they will be eternally damned. The other reason that the religious right has a disproportionate influence is that the corporatists - who are intent on running the country in ways that will maximize their profits - recognize that the religious right can mobilize millions of brainwashed people.

It is not "bashing Christians" or "bashing the religous" to point out that this group has a disproportionate impact on the policies and laws of this nation, to the detriment of just about everyone living here except those who benefit from war profiteering.

The young man who went crazy and killed people at his family's church is a symptom of a very real problem in this country. If you doubt what we are up against - and by "we" I mean anyone who doesn't want to live in a country closely resembling the one portrayed in The Handmaid's Tale and/or isn't benefiting from war profiteering - then I recommend that you pay close attention to the Dominionists, aka the religious right, and vote accordingly at the polls.

http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/2164488/

[BOSSHOG]

1. Excellent Post

I always found it fascinating that "christians" really, truly, without a doubt love THEIR constitutional liberties as citizens of the land of the free.

I find many of their leaders and harpies to be pathetic fools. david limbaugh, idiot brother of idiot brother, whining that christians in America are being persecuted BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FORCE THEIR BELIEFS ON THE GENERAL POPULACE.

Fuck the religious right and their plans for our constitution.

[Critters2]

2. Just for the record, THE REV. Barry Lynn is a Christian.

Something to consider, broadbrush-wise.

[BOSSHOG]

4. Barry Lynn

is an incredibly patriotic citizen of the United States of America who knows the value of the constitution. Broadbrush wise, I am an amateur when compared to radical christian zealots. I have never fucked with anyone's religious freedoms and I will not tolerate those who want to fuck with the document that gives them those freedoms. Ironic, because they are one in the same.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Parasites tend to leave corpses. Knowing that the country has parasites, "what to do?"

I'm into your post, but I don't have an answer regarding the church shooter.

[yardwork]

5. As I say in my post, the shooter is a symptom of a much bigger problem.

The problem we are facing is the Dominionists - extreme right-wing religious zealots who want to remake this country into one where only they have rights.

We have to fight them at the polls and insist that the polling machines count votes accurately. Anybody who is running on a "family values" platform is suspect, in my opinion.

[uppityperson]

6. Put the blame where it belongs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2462919&mesg_id=2462919
Put the blame where it belongs.

Close minded fundamentalists. I don't care what your color, spirituality, politics, sex, age, nationality, etc etc etc is. If you are a closed minded fundamentalist, you are part of the problem.

I was taught a couple simple rules. Don't hurt people. Don't hurt things (meaning everything else). Besides that, it is all window dressing.

[rockymountaindem]

7. I don't think this is related to evangelical RW politics

The gunman evidently had a troubled history being directly involved with these groups. He wasn't some disaffected political malcontent, but rather the evangelical equivalent of a disgruntled employee. I doubt these tragic shootings were related to the political machinations of New Life Church or anybody else on the national scale. I think this was a personal grudge, nothing more.

[yardwork]

8. I'm saying that his problems were a symptom of the larger issue.

These extremist right-wing churches are not benign institutions. When Ted Haggard was pastor of this 10,000 member parish, and president of the national organization, he met with George W. Bush every week in the White House.

That is an enormous amount of influence on the policies and laws of this country.

[rockymountaindem]

9. But that doesn't mean that has anything to do with the actions of the gunman

any more than saying the "corrupt practices of corporate America", which definitely exist to one extent or another, are the motive for workplace shootings.

[yardwork]

10. I think that both those examples are valid issues, actually.

As a person interested in public health and epidemiology, I see these supposedly "random" shootings and workplace violence as being symptoms of a larger problem. That problem centers around both the corrupt practices of corporate America and the undue influence of a fringe group of extremist right-wing fundamentalists.

In both cases, we have a situation where a tiny minority of people have seized most of the power and resources, and are bullying the rest of us into giving up the rights that are the foundation of this nation. The result is a mean, small-minded environment that stresses individuals past their breaking points.

[Ganja Ninja]

11. There's a clear link between the gunman and Ted Haggard.

I'd kind of like to know whether or not the good reverend ever did any personal mentoring of this young man in the past.