Technically We Are In A Cultural Civil War With The Religious Right.

[TheMastersNemesis]

Essentially the religious right has declared war on the LGBT community and non believers. The fact that Christians now flock to Chick Fila and the pizzeria is now inundated with donations because they said they will not serve LGBT individuals reveals that the church's will engage in insurgency again gays, secular government, diversity and non believers. They have the GOP and the media on their side as well as unlimited money from the Koch's et al to help them along. Remember the religious right has been planning since the 1930's during the "tent revival" era where so much of this mayhem began.

We must all understand how extreme and intransigent the fundamentalist church's are. "Taking the country back means making the US a Christian nation base on the Bible is the ultimate goal they will never give up on. Should SCOTUS find in favor of gay marriage there will be a back lash. We must all understand that these radical religions will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER change their view or stance on the subject of LGBT rights.

In the end discrimination will continue in clandestine ways and they will wait for the day they can overturn everything. The push to run pastors and preachers for office in order to get legislators who will pass religious laws is more than a threat. Already we have a lot of fundy nut cases already in office should be proof that in certain ways they are winning.

Understand that these churches view secular government as evil and the work of the devil because it thwarts them from this goal. Keeping them from making this a Christian nation is persecution in their view. The attack on public education come from the same source because they cannot bring the Bible into schools.

The problem is what are the rest of us going to do about this cancer on democracy and that is exactly what it is. In the end the evangelical Christians see a country no different from Iran or Saudi Arabia where the preachers run the government.

[HassleCat]

1. Count Me In

I'll take up arms in that battle. If I go into a business and see the Xtian fish on the wall, I'm out the door. My experience has been they will take advantage of you, deceive you overcharge you, etc. and not blink an eye about doing it. I think they have a way of figuring out if you are "one of us" and then cheating you if they decide you're a non-believer. Don't even get me started on the people who organize little Jesus cliques at work!

[niyad]

3. welcome to du. like you, I leave the premises immediately if I see the ichthys, or anything

else that alerts me--like copies of the xian yellow pages (which is actually really handy for seeing which businesses to avoid). and I make a point of telling them why. boycotting, dear fundies, can work both ways.

[el_bryanto]

2. That's the end goal of Dominionism. A nation under the control of the "godly"

Which would exclude non-believers, non Christians, and even a fair amount of Christians (the "wrong" kinds of Christians).

I'm of two minds about the seriousness of the threat. On the one hand they have way more influence than they should have, and they are going to continue to fight for the type of government they want. On the other hand, one thing the Indiana nastiness underlines is that there is a large portion of the United States that is done with this kind of bigotry - they want it to end. So as nasty as the goals of the theocrats are, they are facing an uphill struggle at getting them accomplished, and that hill seems likely to get steeper and steeper.

Bryant

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Thought we were done will this crap.

Memory of this type of Wedge Issues being used by a minority of so called Christians,harkens back to the nineteen forties and early fifties,when the Monied Class used the so called Tent Preachers to stir hatred and fear towards Government and Unions. Many on this board probably remember the war on Cannabis of the late forties and all those Public Short films on the Refer Madness,when in truth it was Dow and Dupont along with GE to kill the Hemp fiber market in exchange for their new synthetics made from oil. And today many would rather raise Hemp than corn for Ethanol. Here again the rich used the Tent Thumpers to peddle there false message. Bottom line,a small minority can control the message with proper financing and a big mega phone. Hitler and his minions used the Pulpit and the Press to gain control and we know how that turned out.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Please support this bill....

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., today introduced legislation that would allow American farmers to grow and profit from industrial hemp.

The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 would remove federal restrictions on the domestic cultivation of industrial hemp. The bill would remove hemp from the Schedule I controlled substance list under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and would define it as a non-drug so long as it contained less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Oregon and Kentucky are among twenty states that have already defined industrial hemp as distinct from marijuana and removed barriers to production. However, under current federal law, farmers in states that allow industrial hemp research and pilot programs must still seek a waiver from the Drug Enforcement Administration or risk raids and seizures by federal agents.
http://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-roll-back-hemp-restrictions

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Thanks for the heads up.

We have been advocates of Hemp since the nineteen fifties. Our family and neighbors used to raise Hemp for cattle feed and for the Rope and Twine manufactures based in Minnesota. Best part,no fertilizers or pesticides and in a decent growing season,two harvests and if you were a row crop farmer,wow,talk about a corn crop the next year. The Hemp we grew had such low level of THC and if you did try to smoke it,yuck,one hell of a head ache. Once the Rope industry moved to Mexico,that was the end of Hemp.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. We always have been. It's nice seeing the vast push back in Indiana.

I remember when Republicans in service to the religious right refused to take any action about AIDS for 7 years, while tens of thousands of Americans died and the virus took hold around the world. Americans as a whole were not exactly taking to the streets about that. This is better.

[Matrosov]

7. They've won some battles but we've been winning the war

Thankfully, progressives in decades past realized the country needed a transformation from top to bottom. One of the vital changes has been to erode the influence of religion on every day life. Not only for the sake of putting an end to the religion-sponsored discrimination, but also to reduce the power of conservatives in general by moving away from 'traditional America.'

Sadly, there is still much to be done fiscally (see the power of banks) but I'd argue that progressives have made huge social gains over the past few decades. Nobody would've even dared to suggests same-sex marriage in the 1950s, now it seems perfectly natural for one ban against same-sex marriage to fall after another, for example.

Sometimes they push back, like in Indiana, but that is why we must remain alert. It really is a cultural war. A cold one, but not any less important.