Reply #20: As somebody who spent a lot of time in the Bible-belt South,

[newswolf56]

also someone who knows about the plague of (unarmed) Back-to-the-Land communes burned out nationwide by Christian Vigilantes during the late 1960s and early 1970s, I've seen the absolute savagery of Christian Fundamentalism firsthand: remember that one of the more genteel Southern euphemisms for the Ku Klux Klan is "the Saturday night men's Bible-study class."

I've also seen how Fundamentalism works hand-in-glove with capitalism; the Appalachian mine workers didn't win their unionization campaigns until they made it clear they would deal the union-hating Fundamentalist preachers the same gun-muzzle justice they dealt the rest of the mine operators' union-busting thugs.

Elsewhere in the South -- thanks to the preachers -- the fear of God remains stronger than the horror of poverty: hence for example the non-unionized and viciously exploited textile-mill workers of the Southern flatlands.

All of which has two points: (1), that Fundamentalism is becoming so strong precisely because capitalism loves it as the one sure way to guarantee the unchallenged exploitation of the workers, and that (2), our warnings against Fundamentalism have no impact at all precisely because the capitalist (and therefore Fundamentalist-supporting) media guarantees all such warnings are suppressed -- that the general public will never become alarmed until it's far too late.

Some of us -- myself included -- have been warning against the Fundamentalist threat for decades, all to no avail.