Lavender Liberal: How the Mormon Church Mobilizes Its Members

[bluedawg12]

We are almost on the even of the CSSC hearings on Hate8. This is an article posted by Sapphocrat at Lavender Newswire, it's worth a look, there is quite a bit more on the site explaining how they mobilized the faithful. It's worth remembering how they work, as we are about to relive the whole Prop8 vote all over again soon. This time the right outcome must prevail.

http://news.lavenderliberal.com/2008/11/18/mormon-lesson-of-the-day-how-the-mormon-church-mobilizes-its-members-politically-and-why-it-works/

November 18, 2008
Mormon Lesson of the Day: How the Mormon Church Mobilizes Its Members Politically — And Why It Works
Posted by: Sapphocrat


We’re going to start learning about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you and I — for the simple reason Sun Tzu — who knew just about everything there was to know about winning (which is why his treatise on war is recommended, if not required, reading for U.S. military officers and corporative executives alike) — states at left.

In fact, we’re going to post a new “Mormon Lesson of the Day,” every day, from now on, until… well, until we no longer need to. Some of these “lessons” (like this one) may be a bit dry, but many, I promise, will have your jaw hitting your chest — and all will arm you with the knowledge you need if we, together, are to stem the ongoing attack on our fundamental civil rights by a breathtakingly powerful organization which doesn’t like the truth to be known (especially by its own members).

<snip>
we never set out to find or create a common enemy, as is utterly necessary for all conservative religions to do in order to keep their flocks chained, and obedient, through fear. (If you don’t understand why they need an enemy, read Chris Hedges’ American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America, and you will have the key to the entire mindset.)

We did not set out to make the Mormon church, or any other church, or any other organization, or any individual, our enemy. The Mormon church made itself our enemy. They didn’t have to, and the repercussions of leaving us alone to live our lives in peace were nonexistent.

<snip>

(Read more....)

[Jamastiene]

1. Sapph does great research.

K&R

[bluedawg12]

2. Yes, very impressive. Always great info.

:)

[bluedawg12]

3. American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

This is the book sapphocrat mentioned in the article, a brief glimpse from wikipedia:

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Fascists:_The_Christian_Right_and_the_War_on_America
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America is a non-fiction book by American author Chris Hedges, released in January 2007.

Hedges is a former seminary student with a master's degree in divinity from Harvard and was a long-time foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He had previously criticized the Christian right in articles such as his cover story in the May 2005 issue of Harper's magazine called "Soldiers of Christ".<1>

Summary
Hedges' title comes from a prediction by his Harvard ethics professor, James Luther Adams, who 25 years earlier had warned his students that they would all be fighting the "Christian fascists".<2> Hedges argues that this prediction has come true in that extreme forms of American Christianity now share many features with totalitarian movements, including suppression of individuality, a belief in magic, a shifting ideology, a "binary" good-or-evil view of the world, and a deep intolerance of people outside the movement. He writes that "Christian radicals" are often so consumed with power and wealth they are no longer practicing Christianity in its traditional sense, as a religion focused on compassion and caring for the downtrodden.

He contrasts the fundamentalist understanding with that of his own, in which the Bible is recognized to have some contradictory, and even hateful passages, and scientifically, is limited to what people knew at the time. "Genesis was not written to explain the process of creation, of which these writers knew nothing. It was written to help explain the purpose of creation....to help us grasp a spiritual truth, not a scientific or historical fact....Doubt and belief are not, as biblical literalists claim, incompatible. Those who act without any doubt are frightening."<3>

Hedges writes that many of the followers are victims of what he calls "The Culture of despair" resulting from dislocation and an economic disparity that has hit the American working class especially hard. In some parts of the country, Hedges writes, radical churches offer people a sense of belonging that was once found in the greater community. New converts are surrounded by new friends, he writes, but also live under a rigid set of rules that require unquestioning submission.

The book describes some of the places and events of the Christian right, including the 50,000-square foot Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky; a Love Won Out conference in Boston sponsored by Focus on the Family; the National Religious Broadcasters annual convention in Anaheim; and Trinity Broadcasting Network's lavish headquarters in Costa Mesa, California.

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[tbyg52]

4. Thank you!

*Now* can we pull their tax exemption?

[bluedawg12]

5. Boy, wouldn't that be sweet? Revoke their tax exempt status.

I'll toast to that!