Confronting Right Wing Christians: Is it worth it or are we going about it the wrong way?

[Evoman]

One of the conventional ideas I see from many of the atheists here, along with a heaping number of liberal christians, is the idea that we need to confront the fundies and right wing christians. Not only do we need to disagree with them, but we need to be active in "fighting" them or debating them.

The more I think about it, the more I am starting to come to terms with the fact that that is the wrong way to go about doing things. These realizations come less from conversations I have with people on DU or on the internet, but more with the realities of my life and experiences. It's something I have been spending considerable brain power on, for one reason or other.

As many of you know, I have several christian friends, including a couple that would actually classify as right wing christians. No lie, I am friends with christian fundamentalists. Good friends. Since elementary.

And if there is one thing I've noticed, is that I have been a supremely good influence on my fundie friends. I notice this influence when I compare my friends to the their fundie peers (many of which I have met through them) and even when I compare them with their family members. It is especially true for my closest fundie friend. For one thing, even though most of the people at his church either don't like atheists or seem them as conversion fodder, my friend can't deny my morality. He can't deny what he sees and feels with his eyes and heart. Similarly, I have had bad experiences at his church (I used to go with him to youth groups) because there are many racist views among those church folk. But he is friends with me despite the fact that I'm latino and when his sister started seeing a brazillian fellow despite the subtle protests of the family, guess who defended her (and the brazillian) the most?

So what am I trying to say here? As far as I've seen, there are three useful, effective ways to get fundies to change their world-view:
1)Introduce to them to people who don't believe as they do, and force them to confront their prejudices and stereotypes. If they hate gays, get them to meet gay people.
2)Subtly encourage them in any intellectual pursuit. I like to think that I encouraged my friend's interest in history, which led him to university to study history. Education, especially in the social sciences, correlates high with a reduction on religousity (so I've heard).
3)Encourage them to see fundamentalism as non-normal. If there is one common characteristic I see of fundies, is that they like being a majority, and like to conform. When they stay insulated in their christian communities, they don't get a chance to see that fundamentalism is really not as big a majority as they think it is.

The most important thing, I think, is that we all need to make these people our friends.

"You have to be fucking kidding me Evoman...I don't want to hang out with a religious-ass crazy person".

It ain't always fucking easy, thats for sure, but I'm serious. Fundies, despite all their bullshit, have some good chacteristics. Many of them can be loyal, hard-working people. They just have to broaden their damn horizons, and they can't do it unless we all give it shot. I think liberal christians have a better shot at this than we atheists do, but we can't just sit on the sidelines.

"But Evoman...we need to confront their evil. We need to argued them back into their holes"

On a higher level (society level), I agree. Don't think I'm getting soft, because I'm not. When fundies are trying to pass laws, change government, and oppress people, you got to keep them in fucking check with everything you have. You have to fight the fight. You can't give them a free pass, like we have been giving them for the past 30 years.

But on a personal level, fighting just isn't going to get you anywhere. The fundies have such compartmentalized mind, and are so immune to reason, that we aren't going to change minds by fighting. If you fight them, if you confuse them, if you out-logic them, they just run back to the isolation of their fundie communities, and you just lost your chance to do something important. Influence can be so fucking strong if you give it a chance.

The point is that we have to entice them away from their authority figures. We need to SHOW them, not TELL them that their authorities are wrong. Fuck, we need to show them that we are not the fucking evil they think we are.

And I know this because I've fucking done it. My friends are still christian. They may even still be fundies. But I'll be damned if they aren't a whole lot better than the rest of their fundie brethren. Hell, one of them migh *gasp* NOT VOTE CONSERVATIVE in the next election.

And you have no idea what a fucking miracle that is.