Confronting right wing Fundamentalism

[cuppajoe]

Some unorganized thoughts about right wing Christian fundamentalism:

I've been reading online about the right wing fundamentalist movement. Perhaps you know about a documentary hitting theatres now called "Jesus Camp." www.jesuscampthemovie.com/ It looks fascinating...and terrifying.

That theocracy threatens the freedom in this country is nothing new. This movement has been building up steam for a long time and in fact is probably the reason we have the current administration at the helm, with Bush pretending to be a Christian; no genuine Christian, based on the teachings of Christ, could be responsible for so much death and misery in this world.

These guys are a scary lot, the fundamentalist movement. They are very organized and not especially ethical (because they believe what they are doing is for Christ, and lying and cheating for Christ is okay.) They don't just want a place for themselves on the American agenda...they want to eliminate the Constitution and Bill of Rights with their own version of the Bible, and that version is not based on truth, compassion and love.

The American public is asleep, lulled by beer, mindless tv, and a feeling that liberals are being kept in check. Some of these people might believe themselves to be 'good' Christians and don't see a little Christianity mixed with politics as being particularly a bad thing. And these same people are not thinking critically of the logical conclusions of where this all goes. One day it will be their freedom that will be threatened.

How did we get to this point, where one fanatical faction of religion wants to force ALL to follow their restrictive doctrines, and another faction of neocons want to mutiliate our countries goals and original purpose by instilling a state of martial law and fascism here? Wasn't America about freedom, real freedom? Where did those ideals go?

I have this forboding feeling that something in the world changed around the time of the millenium, that all those hopes and dreams of peace and a new world of science (and spirituality) was about to blossom, and somehow a bomb went off, and now we all are threatened with a New World Order.

What can we do to combat the fundamentalist Christian movement? They march forward slowly, determined to change our society. For the moment, the NeoCons, who have all the weapons, are using this movement because they serve them well.

Where is all of this going? The logical conclusion of the fundamentalist style is total and absolute adherence to their restrictive view of the world. Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and especially atheists and agnostics, have no room in the fundamentalist view, at least not in the panoramic view.

Interestingly, NeoCons as a rule have no religion. They do have bombs.

[PHILIP RACUEL]

I have found that most "born again" fundamentalist Christians tend to be shame-based people. They cannot face something about their inner selves so they find God and use God to make them selves the non-flawed human being they want to be. It's all well and good for one to want to improve character defects but these people border on pyschosis. Cult-like in their lock step views- namely keeping us queers from marrying and saving snowflake babies they end up ignorning what the Christ they name themselves after taught.

I have no use for them or organized religion. I am Episcopal but have boycotted the church because sensible religious leaders refusee to stand up to thesew nuts that preach hate- not the love Christ talked about.

The worst offenses by these sick bastards come in the form of mentally and physically abising gay teens.

The movie Jesus Camp reminds me of this story that I was covering in June 2005 about a Tennessee teen that was forced to attend one of the "Jesus will make you straight and normal" camps.

Here is the link if anyone wants to look at it- it did get some national news coverage.
Look for the section titled- "CHRISTIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS"

This will curl your hair and is a good example of how sick these phony chrsitians are.

pracuel.livejournal.com/50681.html

After the fact- the boy ended up being ok and social services/child welfare finally intervened from what I was told. While this happened last year there are still ca,ps like this in America and kids that are being mind-screwed and mentally abused, in Jesus' name, as we speak.

[cuppajoe]

I've been thinking quite a bit on this topic lately, how religion is being used by the neo-conservative movement to gain enough support so those neo-con rats can take the reigns and get what they want by 'whatever it takes' means, especially the illegal and unethical sort of approaches.

George Bush's mental health is surely in question. He says he has direct contact with God about what to do, yet 'his' God isn't giving him very good advice...just look at the evidence. I doubt that he is really a devout Christian and uses that facade to gain support.

The BushCo lies, repeatedly, and even publicly, unconcerned because they believe (and rightly so) their fanatical religious base will not pay attention to the lies, to the double speak. However, a few new books are coming out and revealing the truth about how the Republican party has used the religious right, exposing what they, the Republicans, really think of the religious zealots.

Fundamentalist Christians unite in their belief that they have the One and ONLY truth, and using that as a shield, condemn all non-believers, i.e. those who do not share they exact orientation. This is very dangerous, of course, because slowly they have been able to create changes in our government, especially on a local level.

BushCo lies. BushCo kills. BushCo hates. BushCo has disdain for all of us. BushCo's brand of Christianity is totally unspiritual, shifting the focus away from brotherhood, love, compassion to corporate greed, money, power.

Fundamentalists are not what they profess to be...fundamentally based. FUNDAMENTAL Christianity focuses on, as I already pointed out, brotherhood, love, and compassion for all living beings. And the entire planet Earth is a living organism.

It sure is going to take a lot of work to refocus Christian attention to the precepts of fundamental Christian thought, but I think doing so is critical to swaying this group away from the Nationalistic sentiments they now embrace.

[powers]

The relgious don't mind giving up their freedoms because they want less anyhow. They don't want temptation, they want the 10 commandments to override the 10 Freedoms in the Bill of Rights, and they want everyone to follow the teachings of the 21st century pulpit. Having a vast majority of people just trying to get to heaven and doing what their pastors tell them does not make a democracy and congregations aren't often concerned with how an outsider might feel. Just as we have an unprecidented tax proposed for tobacco on the west coast to fund vital programs and "help people quit" through bankrupcy, the religious right aims to better their standing when they are on top of the law and to "save the athiests" by inadvertantly making them follow the teachings of someone's Christ via lawfullness.

[cuppajoe]

I'm not sure WHY I am interested in this topic, the Fundamentalist Right, but it has captured my attention lately. I read some of Michele Goldberg's "Kingdom Coming" and it helped to put the pieces in place. I hope I can take it out from the library again so I can finish it! (I live in Bushes Amerikca and I can no longer afford to buy new hardbound books.)

This all seems like a new topic, but really it isn't. Religion has a history of wanting to hijack governments. The irony is that Amerika was in part created to promote freedom and free will. The founding fathers were mostly Masons and possibly had a different idea in mind for this wonderful country, if you believe in that sort of stuff.

I agree with you totally Powers, that these simple folk don't mind giving up a little personal freedom (or a lot, for that matter) in order to turn this country into one like the church-inflicted governments they were trying to escape when they set sail for this new land, the Amerikcas. Of course, the first task was stealing it from the people already living here.

The history of the Christian church is filled with blood and hate. How can a simple teaching of love and compassion, of forgiveness, be responsible for so much murder and misery?

It's not the church, it's the inherent power that a church exercises over those who follow.

The solution to our Religious Right is going to be a tough one because like the fundamentalist Islamics, these guys don't compromise.

"It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis is on my reading list, next novel. Wait, even though that book was written in the mid-thirties, maybe it has morphed into non-fiction.

Can that happen?

"1984" is becoming reality...