So what the hell is a Culture War? Is Bill O'Reilly on crack?

[LynneSin]

I'm reading where he got on the 700 club and said that the Catholic church was doing nothing about the Culture war. Is this one of these new-fangled made-up words like partial-birth abortion or intelligent design? Is Bill O'Reilly on crack or perhaps it's crank - I get those two mixed up. And why would anyone with an IQ above 50 buy into this crap?

Please help me understand!

[More Than A Feeling]

1. It's about identity.

Some people want to feel special at the expense of others for illegitimate reasons, and they are annoyed that that is officially frowned on.

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. I think you hit the nail on the head...

nobody with an IQ over 50 (Billo included) believes this crap. As someone in another thread (possibly in GD) the opposite of being a dreaded "Secular Progressive" (which according to falafel man is the root of all evil in this country) is a "Theological Regressive"...like the Taliban...so uh yeah it's crap

[KG]

3. it's a scam. just like the 700 club scam

oreilly is a scam artist, like most tele-vangelists. and this 'culture war' thing is a hook to hang a scam on.

he don't give a damn about anything more than his bank account.

[taterguy]

4. O'Reilly is not on crack, he's just out for a buck

He's found a way to make a lot of money, voicing sentiments that people pay to hear. I don't agree with those sentiments but I don't think he says them due to drug influence. He just wants to get rich.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. What culture?

How can we war over something we inherently lack?

[Parche]

6. culture wars

Is that cultures in Yogurt????

[tigereye]

7. what does he mean?

It isn't the Catholic churches responsbility to reinforce Bushistas. I wish they would stop. The rightwing crowd manipulated the RC church during the last 2 elections, and I think some in the church got very tired of it.

Anyway, the desire for peace voiced by past popes and the Church's perspectives on abortion (with which I do not agree) are compatible in the sense of the "seamless garment" philosophy they espouse. The Catholic Bishop's whinging about stem cells is a bunch of shite, however. They have no idea what they are talking about.

[skygazer]

8. Maybe he means Culture Club

Maybe he has a thing about Boy George and doesn't realize he's totally, like, yesterday. :silly:

[LynneSin]

10. Do you really want to hurt me, do you really want to make me cry...

[jakefrep]

9. I think Billo is referring to the cult of victimhood....

..../persecution complex that has permeated many factions of Christianity. Catholics (where I'm at anyway, can't vouch for anyplace else) don't seem too interested in the "God's been kicked out of the Public Square" bullshit that the televangelists belch forth.

[CatholicEdHead]

11. Some do, some don't

The more ultra-conservative "Catholic Identity" members have this complex badly. It is a smaller but fast growing and very vocal minority.

[xchrom]

12. tell americans they're under threat from someone

and they'll buy it in the biggest possible amount you can imagine.

on edit: not to mention americans LOVE their conformity -- especially if it makes them feel like they are part of the little house on the prarie.

[Nikia]

13. Traditionalists vs Progressives

He wrote a book about it.
Obviously he is on the side of traditionalists.

[KamaAina]

14. It all started with good ol' Pat Bukkkanan

it's a translation of (surprise) the German Kulturkampf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulturkampf#Other_uses_of_the_term

The word Kulturkampf has also been used to refer to similar cultural conflicts in other times and places. In the United States, the term "culture war" has been used by Patrick Buchanan, among others, to describe what an analogous conflict starting in the 1960s and continuing to the present between religious social conservatives and secular social liberals (Buchanan used the English "culture war," though in the context Buchanan used it, as a war between traditional morality and avant-garde liberalism, it clearly evoked memories of the earlier German experience). Ironically, Buchanan himself is descended from German Catholics on his mother's side. This theme of "culture war" was the basis of Buchanan's keynote speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention... The term culture war had by 2004 become commonly used in the United States by both liberals and conservatives.