Despair Drives Christian Right

[fencesitter]

From Philly Inquirer....http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/16454172.htm

A sort of starve the people, feed the beast analogy...

The engine that drives the radical Christian right in the United States - the most dangerous mass movement in American history - is not religiosity, but despair. It is a movement built on the growing personal and economic despair of tens of millions of Americans, who watched helplessly as their communities were plunged into poverty by the flight of manufacturing jobs, their families and neighborhoods torn apart by neglect and indifference, and who eventually lost hope that America was a place where they had a future.
This despair crosses economic boundaries, of course, enveloping many in the middle class who live trapped in huge, soulless exurbs where, lacking any form of community rituals or centers, they also feel deeply isolated, vulnerable and lonely. Those in despair are the most easily manipulated by demagogues, who promise a fantastic utopia, whether it is a worker's paradise, fraternité-egalité-liberté, or the second coming of Jesus Christ. Those in despair search desperately for a solution, the warm embrace of a community to replace the one they lost, a sense of purpose and meaning in life, the assurance they are protected, loved and worthwhile.

********

***Believers, of course, clinging to this magical belief, which is a bizarre form of spiritual Darwinism, will be "raptured" upward, while the rest of us will be tormented with horrors by a warrior Christ and finally extinguished. This obsession with apocalyptic violence is an obsession with revenge. It is what the world, and we who still believe it is worth saving, deserve.

Those who lead the movement give their followers a moral license to direct this rage and yearning for violence against all those who refuse to submit to the movement, from liberals, to "secular humanists," to "nominal Christians," to intellectuals, to gays and lesbians, to Muslims. These radicals, from James Dobson to Pat Robertson, call for a theocratic state that will, if it comes to pass, bear within it many of the traits of classical fascism.

Read more!

[MadMaddie]

1. Yes and that is why this particular movement must be crushed.

And the leaders must be prosecuted. This may seem harsh but they are a direct threat to the constitution.

[EST]

7. Unfortunately, movements have proven, over millenia, remarkably

resiliant-rarely "crushable."
There are other ways that, again, unfortunately, take generations, but do work.

[Warpy]

9. You're gonna have to give those poor suckers at the bottom

some hope, first, or they'll fight. Literally. With all their popguns.

Working people in this country have been robbed of hope for better lives since liberalism went out of power in 1969. We've had 38 years of unbroken economic corporatism and conservatism from both parties and hope is something that has been a very rare commodity as working folks go deeper into debt just to keep going.

Just going in and arresting the pompadoured gasbags who have been offering them the "hope" of being sucked up to heaven when the nukes start to fly will not work. People will cling to whatever vain hope they have in life much more strongly than they'll cling to property and sometimes family.

Unless they're given hope that their children won't be as deeply in the hole as they are, that the ability to retire with at least subsistence is restored, and that a more equitable distribution of wealth is in the works, they will continue to cling to dangerously crackpot religions. They will do so violently if that is the last scrap of hope they have.

[BR_Parkway]

22. Fear of loss is a greater motivator than opportunity to gain - offering them

a larger fear to confront would be more effective than a promise of things to come. Like the article said, they rabidly cling to their "promised reward" and all because they are so afraid of being put back where they are so afraid to be.

[Warpy]

24. Exactly, that's the only HOPE they've been allowed

by a small class of unimaginably rich families who have been stripmining the working class for decades.

[billybob537]

2. This is the

marketing of made up dreams and fantasy.

[formercia]

3. They call it Reconstructionism

I call it deconstructionism.

Destroy the democratic state and replace it with a theofacist one.

[hedda_foil]

4. This is from Chris Hedges MUST READ new book.

Chris Hedges' new book is "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America."

I just read it and it's incredibly important.

[CurtEastPoint]

10. Atlanta paper today has huge article on this book PLUS a rebuttal from Fuckus on the Family crowd

I can't locate it online (ajc.com) but may be there tomorrow. If you have the print edition, first page of Opinion section.

They (christinazis) are screaming like stuck pigs now that their agenda (an American theocracy) has been disclosed by this book.

Interesting read. Vewwy scawey!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. I'm almost finished reading it

and it's scaring the crap out of me. Every liberal/progressive needs to read this and understand the psychology of these people, most of whom are beyond persuasion. This brand of "Christianity" is a cult, pure and simple, and a very scary and dangerous one.

[FredStembottom]

5. I am most familiar with the ex-urban form of the syndrome

Such lonely people who compulsively move once, twice maybe 3 times further out from the cities to even MORE isolated areas of pure loneliness.

They are then swept up into the only "communities" out there - megachurches - where they receive hot-housed doses of some very conditional friendship.

And they're just one doctrinal screw-up from being tossed out of there!

America is quite emotionally disturbed - on a pandemic level.

[EST]

6. The "opiate of the masses" comment from more than a

century ago again proves its accuracy.

[Igel]

8. He's outside the movement looking in,

and couching things in terms he understands and feels comfortable with.

'Despair' doesn't match what I saw in people in knew that were 'religious right' supporters. Many DUers would call it 'fear', but the people themselves would call it 'concern' and 'acting in accord with their values.'

Then again, the religious-righters that I knew were convinced that most of the folks on DU did things out of fear and arrogance. DUers would probably say it's 'concern' and 'acting in accord with their values.' Again, people outside the movement looking in, and couching things in terms they understand and feel comfortable with.

[ninkasi]

11. Frightening article

Of course, it's true, but frightening none the less. Nothing is more dangerous than a religious fanatic. They can't be reasoned with. I remember seeing a bumper sticker a few years ago...

The bible says it
I believe it
That settles it

There's no reasoning with attitudes like that. I think, personally, that a great many of the ones who kept moving further out, and away from the urban areas, did so out of fear that they might have to live among minorities.

They were fearful people anyway, and now that the jobs which enabled them to escape from their fears of having to learn to get along with people who were different, they have no where else to go, but to the delusional worlds promised by preachers.

I know a few people who are more comfortable having other people make decisions for them. It prevents them from taking responsibility themselves. The fanatics who target doctors who perform abortions don't feel guilt for doing so, because their preachers tell them it's the right thing to do. These are very scary people.

[Joanne98]

12. That was the plan all along. Make them desperate and they will come.

This is why the RR leaders like Robertson and Dobbs keep voting the country into bankruptcy. We can only hope the desperate catch on and VOTE DEM!

[brazos121200]

13. This is the first President that has OPENLY embraced the

fundamentalist right, and who sincerely believes the anti-science, pro mellennialist propaganda of the fundy leadership. The country is in great danger, and HAS been in great danger since Bush was sworn in on 1-20-01. The country has been in a downward spiral ever since, in regard to freedoms, liberties, morals, corporate crimes, etc. There is a very real danger that this administration will escort in the end times with its extremist foreign policy. Americans need to take a close look at where we are and take steps to put a brake on the dangerous policies of the President and his administration.

[knitter4democracy]

14. This quote nails it:

"Those in despair search desperately for a solution, the warm embrace of a community to replace the one they lost, a sense of purpose and meaning in life, the assurance they are protected, loved and worthwhile."

In my experience growing up in a Nazarene church (same as Dobson's) and going to a Nazarene college, this is exactly it. Especially in the smaller denominations or mega-churches, the longer you're there, the more you're active, the more people you know and are connected with. There's a reason why Nazarenes send their kids to Nazarene colleges--it's the ticket to moving amongst the elite in the church or getting a job at Headquarters or being able to say you know the next great preacher because you went to school with him.

The problem comes in policing themselves and dealing with people who don't conform. Then, they get brutally nasty.

[reprobate]

15. But they DO act as a safety valve for the growing anger in the nation.

I think it possible that this Christian right movement has intentionally served the purpose of a safety valve to relieve the pressure of the growing anger and frustration in the country about the economic plight of the bottom two thirds of the people.

They are the ones who bare the major portion of the tax burden, they are the ones who have had little or no increase in income in the recent past, and they are the ones who see no way out.

And with BOTH political parties pushing the corporatist agenda resulting in all this, who can blame them?

I have just about reached the conclusion that an intentional purpose the movement has served for the corpofascist leadership of the country has been to deflect the anger of the very people who are so economically effected. It's very possible that without this safety valve they would join with the sane portion of the citizens and do something physical to cause regime change HERE.

Then of course there is the military and they are getting fed up with this regime. Four years ago I suggested that it may be possible that the military will reach the point that THEY will force regime change in this country and everyone dumped on the idea. Bush/Cheney have destroyed our military, and the military leaders know it now. How much more will they be willing to take before the tipping point is reached? And will it be before or after we nuke Iran?

[Demeter]

17. Then They Are Leaking Out the Fuel of Democracy

and replacing it with ignorance, fear, and hatred. Not a fair trade.

Anger is a motivator. It can be used for good. Bigotry cannot.

[reprobate]

19. Yes. That was the point I was trying to make. You said it better.

[54anickel]

21. Good point and one that I was just discussing with friends the other

night. These extremists are being used by the corrupt corporate elite that have been running this country. They keep them in the game with wedge issues, they abuse the religious broadcast charters with what amount to political ads and propaganda, and now they have Faith-based money to bribe them with as well. If they didn't serve a purpose to the corporate elite, they wouldn't be around in the numbers and strength we see. The Heritage Foundation is one of the bigger enablers. They are constantly pushing an agenda that's against peoples self-interest in the name of "God and Country".

"Mainline" churches and members out number them, yet all the social/economic justice issues being jointly addressed by these institutions are under funded and under reported, they are being drowned out by the minority extremists. It all serves the elite's purpose. Scare some into the extreme side while driving others away from the "moderate mainlines" that are threatening the elite's agenda with notions of social and economic justice or corporate and gov't responsibility to society.

[BR_Parkway]

23. All they did was re-direct that anger - towards the gays, pro choice and

every other "values" issue. The masses needed somewhere to vent, to protect the corporate/gov't interests, they've re-directed those people's anger over actual wrongs to those of us who didn't cause their problems. Hell, look at the way they portray us "liberals" as demon spawn, when we've been the ones with the ideas and commitment to fairness for all that would have removed some of the problems from their lives

[AliceWonderland]

16. Thanks for posting - an important article

This has pushed me to order Hedges' book -- it's an interesting argument: disenfranschised people crave apocalypse, since there's nothing in the world worth saving.

[Hoping4Change]

20. Sometimes I tune in to Xhristian tv late at nite. What strikes me

particularly about Oral Roberts is that most of the show is devoted to faith healing and the congregation are desperate for help. As a Canuck with access to universal health care I find this desperation heart-rending.

[progressoid]

25. His book just made my reading list.

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America