What We're up against with the "Religious Right" -- LONG!

[LisaLynne]

It seems as though our elected officials and perhaps a good portion of rank and file Democrats are laboring under the illusion that we are still dealing with the sort of conservatives that we have known our entire lives. They favor small governments, smaller social programs, a strong military. Yeah, maybe we disagree on the value of certain programs or how they should be enacted, some important issues like the death penalty, but in the end, we probably all want basically the same thing: a strong country and the ability for most of us to try to better our situation.

But, those are not the people we are struggling against. Although still a relatively small group, this “new breed” has extraordinary, unwarranted influence and power in the GOP and now, in our very government itself. The group I’m talking about right now look at George W. Bush as some sort of avatar of Jesus Christ, a savior of mankind on Earth, sent here to save the nation, and that’s a Christian nation to them.

I’m talking about the so-called Religious Right. Crazy Pat Robertson. The eternally vile Jerry Falwell. Focus on the Family. Concerned Women for America and an army (and yes, they LOVE to think of themselves as an army) of weekly church goers who take their marching (and voting) orders from the conservative pulpit. These people are a particular brand of Christian Fundamentalists. It’s understandable to want to dismiss these people as “fringe” or “nutjobs” and “wackos” and in a lot of ways, we’re right to do so. But, they can’t be that easily ignored. They have succeeded in gathering a lot of power for themselves and it is the frightening possibility that they are poised to exert their influence in ways that could affect every single one of us living in the United States.

We talk about them a lot here on DU, but sometimes I don’t think we get the whole picture of what these people are really like. I think we still assume that if they only saw the truth about the Bush Administration and what it’s doing to the world and to our country, they would come around.

I think they know. I think they know exactly what Bush is doing and they support it, 100%.

You can’t turn them against Bush by exposing his lies and sins. They see him in a Calvinist, once-saved-always-saved sort of way. Even those who might tut-tut at his alcohol use or drug problems will not turn against him for those things. He is chosen by God in their minds. If the flesh is weak, what does it matter when he has a God-anointed mission to accomplish?

They don’t care about pre-emptive war. They are warriors for Christ. They talk about spiritual warfare, but they really mean physical confrontation with the “forces of evil”. Those are primarily in Iraq right now, soon to be in Iran, but they are also here, in the United States, in the form of liberals and Hollywood stars, and everybody who doesn’t think and live as they do. They are all for pre-emptive war – they have a god-given mandate to force “righteousness” down everybody else’s throats and doing it with violence doesn’t bother them at all.

You can’t shame them by pointing out that Bush has started a war against the middle class and the poor. If you are poor, according to them, you have not received God’s blessings, because God gives out McMansions and plasma televisions. Why has God forsaken you, if you are poor? Because you are weak and sinful. Bad things, in their worldview, do NOT happen to good people, therefore if you get sick and can no longer work, or if you are laid off because your job was sent overseas, or if you reached old age without “making it big”, it is your fault for being weak and sinning so much. Therefore, it does not bother them to watch you suffer and die in the street. That will not sway them.

You can’t point out to them the unfairness and bigotry in being against “gay marriage”. Homosexuals, to them, are sinners. They should not have any rights, according to these people. Do you think they will be appalled by the racism inherent in GOP policies? No, they want it that way. They do not want people whose skin or religion is not like theirs to have rights. Do you think that abortion is really what they are concerned with? What they want is the control of women’s bodies. They want women back in the kitchen, without an education or a choice about how many children to have. Bigotry and prejudice is all they have. It is not something they are ashamed of.

You can’t appeal to them on the basis that our democracy is being destroyed.
They hate democracy. I can not emphasis this enough: They do not want the United States to be a democracy. They want a theocracy and that is the antithesis of democracy.

What about pointing out to them that Jesus spoke of love and tolerance? They think that’s all liberal nonsense. The liberals have weakened Jesus and ignore the truth about him. He’s really a tough, kick-ass, macho type that will destroy his enemies like Bruce Willis with a holy sword.

The environment and global warming crisis? Why would they care? They’re going to be taken up into the heavens to be with Jesus soon. Animal rights? God gave us dominion over the animals, so being cruel, torturing them, shooting tame birds in pens, and using them in any way we want, is totally acceptable. Hey, it’s actually fun! Women being denied the vaccine for cervical cancer? They are harlots having sinful sex – they deserve what they get. Education and under-funded public schools? Those schools are interested in teaching evolution – let them fall apart. Education in general is a threat to them, what with all those liberal professors actually getting students to think. Knowing more about history and other cultures actually is about the best antidote for fundamentalism that I know, so, no, they’re not big on education. US policies causing instability in the Middle East? Good – that makes them get all giddy! That has to happen in order for their fantasy to come true – Armageddon and the rapture. Torturing and killing the enemy? That’s what we’re supposed to do. Those people aren’t saved. We’re doing it for their own good. The loss of so many of our civil rights? We shouldn’t have had them in the first place because they allow us to sin.

Separation of Church and State? They want to get rid of that more than anything. They want a Christian Theocracy based on their ideas of what “Christian” is and they want the government’s only role to be punishing transgressors.

Do you think you can compromise with these people? You can not. They believe that the United States, for the survival of their very souls, must become a Christian nation and, with the use of force, exert its control on the rest of the world. There is no compromise. The stakes are too high for them.

Does what they believe make sense? No, not to a rational person. Is it insane? Yeah, it’s pretty much bat-shit crazy. Is this really what Christianity or religion in general is supposed to be about? Not as far as I can tell.

But, you see, none of that matters because no one is going to be able to convince them that they are crazy or irrational or perverting the teachings of Jesus Christ.

What I think we need to do is first really accept who these people are, what they believe, and what they want to do to our country. Then, we need to come up with a way to stop them. Giving them the facts isn’t going to work –- they already know what’s going on and they support all of it and much, much more. I would love to find a way to make them see the error of their worldview the way I saw the error of my worldview, so many, many years ago, but I honestly don’t know if that’s possible because I always had doubts and I don’t know if these people do.

If getting them to change their minds is out, we have to find a way to expose them for what they are because I still believe the majority – and I mean a vast majority – of Americans like our democracy and aren’t going to go along with these grandiose theocracy schemes. I think the challenge is still in getting more people to understand the threat and that it is abhorrently real. Because this needs to stop. Now. Before it goes any further.


----A TINY sampling of the info available on the web----
www.yuricareport.com -- lots of good info here
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm -- this one especially relates to my post.
http://theocracywatch.blogspot.com/
http://www.harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html -- older article, but scary.
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/buchanan.htm -- bat-shit crazy Pat Buchanan quotes
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/6/9/113631/7685