I have long maintained that religious extremism in America is every bit as dangerous as terrorism, and that it is, in fact a form of terrorism. The following analysis should make your hair stand on end:
Over the last 30 years Evangelical fundamentalists have managed to do what Chairman Mao failed to do with his Red Guards: indoctrinate a whole generation of evangelical people to see their own society as the enemy and act like subversives from within the culture. These people are as anti-American as Al-Qaeda. The "Christian Reconstruction" movement is working for theocracy. Reconstructionism (of which Gary North is one leader) says that the law given for the political and legal ordering of ancient Israel is intended for all people at all times.
Reconstructionist leader David Barton gives a definition:
"The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics, in which every area of life is redeemed and placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the rule of God's law."Frank Schaeffer also warns:
Those who say that the Religious Right and the far right have lost their power are looking through the lens of rule-obeying democratic liberalism. They don't understand that their opponents will always carry the proverbial lead pipe in his or her back pocket. To the progressives who think that the Religious Right and the right wing has lost its power I say this: You're correct when it comes to political facts (for the moment) of the last election, but you're dead wrong when it comes to the way revolutions work.
Who are Glenn Beck's foot soldiers? In effect what we have is a group of indoctrinated people who have never actually lived in America because they were brought up deliberately cloistered from it by their parents and churches. Because they are legally "Americans" they can move freely around our democracy trying to destroy it working within the United States. Today they are acting like a fifth column, no, they are a fifth column. Some of them have not just seceded metaphorically, there is even a growing movement for states to secede literally.
Today the right wing America haters actually are doing to America what no "illegal" immigrants ever do: work to overthrow our democracy and replace it with a theocracy. The home-schooled, privately educated brainwashed horde are an antidemocratic, fundamentally anti-American political movement. For a start they do not accept the results of the last election.
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Cross posted at MadMikesAmerica
Yop, these folks give me the creeps. They have money, and they have persistence and, alas, they add up to a huge following. President Bush 43 peppered his administration with graduates of Regent and other evangelical universities. Never mind these appointees were often only in their twenties, had no experience, and possessed no real qualifications but having served the RNC loyally, putting God and the party above everything else.
ReplyDeleteOf course these are often the same people who say "government is the problem, not the solution." Well, if you have never driven a car before, get in, step on the gas and drive off a cliff that may not be the car's fault. Maybe the driver had something to do with it?
We could go on all afternoon on this. Then there's the symbiotic relationship the mass media has with the right's high jinks. After all, they offer a nice mix of scariness, fanaticism, and noisy antics to liven up a dull day in the world and its coverage. Dull indeed! Never mind what went on in the Congress, for example, that day.... but that's another topic which could last all afternoon.....
I just don't get the media. I can understand the Right Wing Nutters, but the MSM goes out of its way to report the insanity of those same Right Wing Nutters, thus providing them with 10 times the coverage they would have normally enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteperhaps a predatory strain of christianity with roots back to Constantine......
ReplyDeleteIn 313, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christian worship, and the emperor would be a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian Emperor within the Church and the notion of orthodoxy that would be followed for centuries.
ironic these christian evangelical, fundamentalist, dominionist sects most approximate the biblical Pharisees who the Christ so detested.....
16:6 Who said to them: "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
16:7 But they thought within themselves, saying: Because we have taken no bread.
16:8 And Jesus knowing it, said: "Why do you think within yourselves, O ye of little faith, for that you have no bread?
16:9 Do you not yet understand, neither do you remember the five loaves among five thousand men, and how many baskets you took up?
16:10 Nor the seven loaves among four thousand men, and how many baskets you took up?
16:11 Why do you not understand that it was not concerning the bread I said to you: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?"
16:12 Then they understood that he said not that they should beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the scary parallel to Islamic extremism, the extreme right wing Christians are Bin Laden in different clothes. Both believe world domination is their ultimate destiny and any means necessary is acceptable. The fact that they have only resorted to bombing in the case of abortion clinics merely points to the fact that they are far more entrenched here and don't need suicide bombers because they have achieved a degree of actual control. The Taliban doesn't bomb in areas that they have achieved control in either. If Al Qaeda were to fully control a country they would resort to the same techniques now employed by the Christian right.
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