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Radical Christian Right Preaches Liberal Evil

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted April 10, 2007.


Members of the radical Christian End Times movement are being taught to believe that America is ruled by evil, clandestine organizations disguised as liberal groups. As a result, the fearful are hoping for the end.
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The Gilead Baptist Church, outside Detroit, is on a four-lane highway called South Telegraph Road. The drive down South Telegraph Road to the church, a warehouse-like structure surrounded by black asphalt parking lots, is a depressing gantlet of boxy, cut-rate motels with names like Melody Lane and Best Value Inn.

The highway is flanked by a flat-roofed Walgreens, a Blockbuster, discount liquor stores, a Taco Bell, a McDonald's, a Bob's Big Boy, Sunoco and Citgo gas stations, a Ford dealership, Nails USA, The Dollar Palace, Pro Quick Lube and U-Haul.

The tawdry display of cheap consumer goods, emblazoned with neon, lines both sides of the road, a dirty brown strip in the middle. It is a sad reminder that something has gone terribly wrong with America, with its inhuman disregard for beauty and balance, its obsession with speed and utilitarianism, its crass commercialism and its oversized SUVs and trucks and greasy junk food. It is part of our numbing assault against community and connectedness.

Ten or fifteen minutes of negotiating the traffic down South Telegraph Road makes the bizarre attraction of the End Times -- the obliteration of this world of alienation, noise and distortion -- comprehensible. The manufacturing jobs in the Detroit auto plants nearby are largely gone, outsourced to nations with cheaper labor. The paint is flaking off the cramped two-story houses that lie in ugly grid patterns off the highway.

The plagues of alcoholism, divorce, drug abuse, poverty and domestic violence make the internal life here as depressing as the external one. And those gathering today in this church wait for the final, welcome relief of the purgative of violence, the vast, bloody cleansing that will lift them up into the heavens and leave the world they despise -- the one that was devastated by corporatism -- to be racked by plagues and flood and fire until it and all those whom they blame for the debacle of their lives are consumed and destroyed by God. It is a theology of despair. And for many, it can't happen soon enough.

The guru of the End Times movement is a small, elderly, gnome-like man with dyed coal-black hair, a battery-powered earpiece and a pedantic, cold demeanor. He is Timothy LaHaye, a Southern Baptist minister and the co-author, along with Jerry Jenkins, of the "Left Behind" series of Christian apocalyptic thrillers that provide the graphic details of raw mayhem and cruelty that God will unleash on all nonbelievers when Christ returns and raptures Christians into heaven. The novels are the best-selling books in America, with over 62 million in print. They have been made into movies, as well as a graphic video game in which teenagers can blow away nonbelievers and the army of the Antichrist on the streets of New York City.

The global nightmare that leads to the end of history is a visceral and disturbing expression of what believers feel about themselves and our world. The horror of apocalyptic violence -- the final aesthetic of the movement -- at once terrifies and thrills followers. It feeds dark fantasies of revenge and empowerment.

This theology of despair is empowered by widespread poverty, violent crime, incurable diseases, global warming, war in the Middle East and the threat of nuclear calamity. All these events presage the longed-for obliteration of the Earth and the glorious moment of Christ's return. But until then believers are told they must battle Satan. And Satan comes in many guises. In churches across the United States believers are being girded for a holy war, one as self-destructive as that preached by radical Islam.

"We are at war with the religion of Islam," Gary Frazier, another popular leader, tells the crowd in the church outside Detroit, "and it is not a handful of radical Islamists who are taking over the religion and hijacking it. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, today if you read the Koran, and any person who reads their Koran, the holy book of the Muslims, and believes what the book says, over a hundred times it calls for the putting to death of any person that does not embrace the teachings of Mohammed.

"Can you explain to me how in the West that we would understand a person who would strap dynamite upon themselves and blow themselves up along with innocent men and women and children with the promise that they would have 70 brown-haired, I mean blond-haired, blue-eyed virgins for their unlimited sexual pleasure in this place called Paradise? And the parents of that person then throw a party celebrating the destruction of their child. You want to tell me you understand that kind of mentality? Because I don't believe that. There's no one in the Western world that can comprehend that kind of mind-set, but, ladies and gentlemen, that is the mind-set of the religion of Islam around the world.

"Islam," Frazier says dramatically, "is a satanic religion."

He warns of Muslim "sleeper cells" in America waiting to carry out new terrorist attacks.

"You may have a Muslim doctor, and he may be a wonderful person," he says. "He may love his family, but you know what'll happen? One day, they will come to him -- I'm just using this as an illustration -- they will come to him and they'll say, 'We have a mission for you, and you will either do as you're told,' [or,] and they'll whip out the pictures, 'Here are your three children. We'll send their heads to you in a box.' Now, the difference is, is that if somebody told you that, you'd call the FBI or Homeland Security or somebody like that. They're not going to do that. Do you know why? Because they know the Muslim will do just what they say, and when it comes right down to where the rubber meets the road, boys and girls, they're going to save the lives of their own children before they'll save your own. And you most likely would probably do the same thing yourselves."


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Chris Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School and was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, is the author of "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America."

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THANK YOU
Posted by: wawa on Apr 10, 2007 7:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The fastest growing cult in the USA is the cult of neo-christian zionism;

Which is politically driven and inherently anti-Semitic theology based on FEAR;

FEAR is how totalitarian regimes manipulate and control the people.

The gospel/good news JC preached was:

"FEAR NOT! You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free."

JC was into liberation-NOT control.

JC was never a Christian-he was born, lived and died under OCCUPATION.

JC was a social justice radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who ROSE UP and challenged the job security of the Temple by teaching the people they did NOT need to pay the high priests for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God,

God loved them just as they were;

Diseased, outcasts, sinners, widows, orphans, refugees, prisoners, all enduring under Roman occupation.

There are many Christian voices challenging the likes of Hagee, Lindsay, Robertson, Fawell,


To name but 3

www.sabeel.org

http://www.sizers.org/

http://www.wearewideawake.org/

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» Jesus was a radical liberal Posted by: MartianBachelor
» RE: Jesus was a radical liberal Posted by: Conservasaurus
» Pardon Me!?! Posted by: djnoll
» excellent, djnoll nm Posted by: Beck
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: lively56
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: gonzoskismet
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: aussidawg
» RE: Pardon Me!?! Posted by: Malamute
» bobvb@cox.net Posted by: Robert Veasey
» RE: bobvb@cox.net Posted by: ohb0b
» If God is God Posted by: openhouse
» RE: THANK YOU Posted by: yellow
» displaying ignorance Posted by: openhouse
» RE: THANK YOU Posted by: clydeb1443
» RE: THANK YOU Posted by: yellow
» RE: THANK YOU Posted by: redweasel61
fanatic fantasy not noble sentiment
Posted by: liberalibrarian on Apr 10, 2007 7:15 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The one line I take issue to is that this sort of cleansing through violence appeals to anyone's "noble sentiments". Read : Skipping towards Armageddon" for a look behind the multi-multi million empire that Tim LaHaye and Jenkins have built for themselves.

It breaks my heart that this is a large trend of Christianity. That more than one patron has come to me in the library and asked for these books, because "people don't read the bible you know"--I say they are in FICTION but of course they don't get it. They take the books out by the armload.

They can't burn themselves out fast enough...they are the ones who are bringing on their self fulfilling "prophesy" and they are the scariest people around.

One of the bumper stickers on my car says "In case of Rapture I'm taking your car"...hope it's a BMW

All this got it's start in the mid 1800's among other fanatic, oddball religious bunk. I'll take secular humanism, Taoism and UU any day. And send out my intentions to the Universe that these scary souls go by the wayside quickly.

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wormfood
Posted by: P3K on Apr 10, 2007 7:22 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I would rather my soul be food for the worms then spend one second of eternity in a heaven with these people. I like your Christ but I don't much care for your Christians.

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» RE: wormfood Posted by: amrahne
» RE: wormfood Posted by: openhouse
» RE: wormfood Posted by: psychotic1
Nothing To Do With Jesus Christ
Posted by: ZPaul on Apr 10, 2007 7:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What these people are selling has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ. As a Christian, and as a human being, with every fibre of my being, I reject this obscene, hate-filled, insanity.

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» Add me to the list. Posted by: Sojourner
» i applaud your rejection... Posted by: brasilaron
The world run by "liberals"?
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Apr 10, 2007 7:33 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Wow.. talk about swallowing propaganda without questioning at all.

So... even when they controlled all three houses until last november... the nation was still being run by liberals?

Thats right up there with their religious majority is being persecuted.

These people are utterly dellusional.

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PseudoLeft preaches conservative evil
Posted by: emmanuel_goldstein_fights_fake_lefties on Apr 10, 2007 7:36 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
and the PseudoLeft and the Right collaborate to force the same social wedge issues to the forefront of the political debate, much to the glee of the upper class, who then do not have to pay progressive income taxes and who enjoy more power over the working class.

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Teach your children well
Posted by: reval on Apr 10, 2007 7:37 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Help them to identify madness when it's staring them in the face. Give them the tools they need to resist superstition, myth, fabel, hearsay and mysticism.

Insist that they arm themselves daily against the forces of madness.

WVCSR

Rev. El Mundo

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» RE: Teach your children well Posted by: CombatJourno
Not Christian Teaching
Posted by: NoPCZone on Apr 10, 2007 7:37 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The values these fear and hate mongers represent as Christian are no more in-line with the teachings of Jesus than those of George W. Bush represent those of the environmental movement. These types are users- trading upon the fears and desperation of people without hope, unsure of the future, and generally poorly informed about the world around them.

Timothy LaHaye is a scam artist who should know better. The whole concept of 'Christian Fiction' is antithetical to faith in general and Christianity in particular. The message of the Christian faith is a claim to a universal truth that God has called all people to be reconciled to peace, grace, love, mercy, charity, and hope- that a cold, hard, selfish, greedy, violent and merciless world is not our only option. A teaching that each and every person is our brother and sister and that we are responsible for them- not just ourselves. A message of hope- not fear.

Jesus never charged admission nor did he sell anything. LaHaye and his ilk sell everything.

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» Paranoia justifies all Posted by: UnEasyOne
» RE: Paranoia justifies all Posted by: craftne
» Liberals the anti Christ??? Posted by: Conservasaurus
» What the hell . . . Posted by: russianblue1
» RE: What the hell . . . Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: What the hell . . . Posted by: ohb0b
» RE: What the hell . . . Posted by: Vandover
» RE: Liberals the anti Christ??? Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Conservasaurus. Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: Conservasaurus. Posted by: brasilaron
» RE: Conservasaurus. Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Conservasaurus. Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: Conservasaurus. Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Conservasaurus. Posted by: ohb0b
This is what results
Posted by: zyxwvut on Apr 10, 2007 7:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
when people are stripped of dignity and opportunity. Blaming them only furthers the cycle of alienation, despair, and then rage.

We as a nation have allowed the conditions that promote apocalypticism to gain strength. We should blame ourselves collectively.

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Remember Diderot's wisdom
Posted by: reval on Apr 10, 2007 7:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

WVCSR

Rev. El Mundo

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Still, if desperate people need an outlet for expressing faith in the ultimate - if unnoticeable -
Posted by: zyxwvut on Apr 10, 2007 7:48 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
stability of their existence, and with this a grand vision of righteous justice and vengeance against the horrors of their lives and the people causing these, they should adopt Marxism and unify around this belief system.

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I'd like to see this given wider attention.
Posted by: orwellwasn'tdreaming on Apr 10, 2007 7:51 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"The radical Christian right has no religious legitimacy. It is a mass political movement."

Excellent point, right on target, and too often ignored.

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And who is to blame....
Posted by: cmaukonen on Apr 10, 2007 8:10 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The plagues of alcoholism, divorce, drug abuse, poverty and domestic violence make the internal life here as depressing as the external one. And those gathering today in this church wait for the final, welcome relief of the purgative of violence, the vast, bloody cleansing that will lift them up into the heavens and leave the world they despise -- the one that was devastated by corporatism -- to be racked by plagues and flood and fire until it and all those whom they blame for the debacle of their lives are consumed and destroyed by God. It is a theology of despair. And for many, it can't happen soon enough.

These very people are the ones who have supported and previously benefited from these very things they now despise.

And so it goes.

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» RE: And who is to blame.... Posted by: craftne
frank67
Posted by: frank67 on Apr 10, 2007 8:11 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Nuts, wherever they "preach," are still NUTS!

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These leaders are channeling the rage of these oppressed souls
Posted by: zyxwvut on Apr 10, 2007 8:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
away from its proper target: the elites, corporate and political.

All legitimacy is assumed by groups, whether they are corporate groups herding us over the cliff of globalization or religious groups that give popular vent to corporate-generated despair through faith in the Christian utopia. In this paradigm -- corporate and religious -- we become disempowered, afraid, passive and easily manipulated.

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John A. Broussard
Posted by: jurgen on Apr 10, 2007 8:22 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What's most fascinating is how both Christianity and Islam have spawned these hate groups, which have two major features in common: they believe in one god; they believe in the violent destruction of those who don't share their specific views about that god.

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» RE: John A. Broussard Posted by: outsideagitator
How do we make progress with them?
Posted by: juanpecan81 on Apr 10, 2007 8:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If defining characteristics of leftism is inclusiveness and compassion then how do we bring these ppl into the fold?

You can't force awareness or critique on people, but the first step is to still recognize them as people and equals. They've been deluded by the empty promises of imperialism/capitalism and they look to the strong daddy to provide answers. Common (universal?) problem with unique expressions.

These people are probably lonely, isolated and have an unplaceable anger (also sounds familiar). They probably feel robbed: deprived of something owed to them.

They are products of a social order that teaches a blind obediance to authority (as opposed to a productive discourse on how authority/social standards need to be adjusted to reach a workable human balance). A preacher placing a name, any name, and directing that anger anywhere is welcome...especially when playing on our natural ingroup/outgroup tendencies.

So where do we go? I'd like to hear yr thoughts.
2 thoughts for the discussion:

"To contract something, you must first let it expand" - Tao te Ching

"We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party" - Gandhi (what is justice? the absence of negative influence/control?)

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» with them? I doubt it. Posted by: counterpoint
» Use Microsoft tactics Posted by: Dboy
Cult of Obedience - Collective Insanity
Posted by: Aimee on Apr 10, 2007 8:31 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thank God these people are out numbered by the rest of us. They are followers of the Cult of Obedience. Collective Insanity. Pretty scary ... ignorance is dangerous. And who are they following? Their church leaders and g. w. bush.

Aimee
DataOptions.com

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Christianism...
Posted by: catnapping on Apr 10, 2007 8:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
like the other monotheists...all about heirarchy - all about control.

As a native american who is NOT christianist, I dare not tell people here in the corporeal world that I am pagan. I have seen christianists turn on a DIME when they found out someone they LIKED and respected was pagan.

There is no freedom of religion in this country. Not until people like me can practice our faith in the open. But as long as christianists get to demonize us...we're at risk...they'd send us to the ovens, given half the chance. (it won't stop with the Muslims).

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» RE: Christianism... Posted by: brainvib
» RE: Christianism... Posted by: catnapping
Not so Right
Posted by: Gisele on Apr 10, 2007 8:38 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I've been asked how I maintain my faith in "days like these,"...my answer is that as days go by, my faith doesn't waiver - it grows stronger because Revelation is proving to be the only source of accurate prophecy (speaking of the Biblical rather than the Christian Right version.)

We've been warned of one-world government, and one-world religion, it will come to pass no matter what we do. It's already well on it's way! Those leading both groups will be misled Christians, or those using the guise of Christianity to do their work. Unfortunately, too many good people have let LaHaye, Hagee, Falwell, Robertson and numerous Popes run away with their faith and their common sense.

Remember that old saying your Mama taught you? "Dance with the one what brung ya"...that means if you're going to call yourself a Christian, be one - DO what He did. Not what the hate mongers in the mega-churches are trying to shove down your throat - and everyone else's. It's well past time for Christians to show respect for other religions whether they're agreed with or not. That means reading your own Bible, not taking a pastor or ministers word for what they think it means - you will find that God has many Sons, but only one "begotten" one. All of those Sons deserve our respect, whether they are Islamic, Buddhist or any other religion.

Finally will someone from the Christian Right please show me where Jesus advocated violence in any form to accomplish His will? You can't...and you know it. So please stop calling yourself "Christian"...you're giving Him and those who truly try follow Him, a bad name.

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» accurate prophecy? Garbage! Posted by: counterpoint
» RE: accurate prophecy? Garbage! Posted by: counterpoint
» Believe as you do? Posted by: doctorsquared
» children of God Posted by: openhouse
» RE: children of God Posted by: counterpoint
» RE: children of God Posted by: djnoll
» RE: children of God Posted by: counterpoint
» RE: children of God Posted by: craftne
» historicity Posted by: openhouse
Wahabism American Style
Posted by: abqbabe on Apr 10, 2007 8:42 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Those subscribing to the LeHaye version of "Christian" justice, morality and lust for an apochalypse are eerily similar to the beliefs espoused by the Taliban and the Wahabi extremists. The only real difference is that the Muslim political extremists are already living their apochalyptic wars and attempting to forcefully impose their vision on society by violence.

The same disillusionment, anger, despair, and "highest hopes" contrasted with the desire for revenge against those who have created the ugliness, immorality and inequities of the world, fuel not only the masses of the Christian Right, but Islamic Fundamentalism as well, from suicide bombers to the rigid strictures of Wahabism. It is only a small step for the Christian Right to become the American edition of the Taliban.

Saddest of all is that these two political groups (Christian and Muslim), separated by culture and ignorance, actually want the exact same thing. Instead, their leaders foment ever more misunderstanding and hatred among their followers to enhance their own power.
It is tribalism writ big, with a very earthly agenda of longing for power over those "not us" - the unbelievers - and reward for and vindication of one's own fears and prejudices.

To long for destruction is to long for death: to choose death is to choose Satan. Those seeking the End Times have already forsaken the God they claim to worship, and closed their ears to His message.

Ary

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GO INDIGI!!
Posted by: caru on Apr 10, 2007 8:43 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
i spend some time wondering about the minds of these men who are not christlike ... i am glad you, chris, pointed out that this americacca has created an ugly wastland. the wasteland not a one can connect to as spiritual. this ugly creation -- from the greedy self centered consumers -- can only be destroyed.

i am glad you point out they lack any appreciation for beauty. they consume the land, they do not connect to the beauty of the creation -- turtle island -- we need only tune into the sacred earth and get some real religion -- the beauty of this creation that is us. that is all it takes to be indigi, enjoy the numinous moment and the beauty of the land and water and all the amazing little and large creatures.

chris, can you please write some words of those who have abandoned this apcolaptic way of thinking and have come onto the truth of indigenous living on this planet. the ancient truths in yoga and shamanism. the mystics. jc was a mystic who studied yoga ... we need to provide a path for those locked onto full on destruction ... we need to outline a path of beauty -- including the ancient way of the iroquois -- which our constitution is based on -- including womun ... we need to outline a path which can gingerly bring us back from this crazed mind that these crazed people perpetuate.

may the world be at peace. may we all find our way in peace. blessings and abundance and happiness. GO INDIGI!!!

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How it's gonna end
Posted by: fanny666 on Apr 10, 2007 8:47 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Apocalypse Soon

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» RE: How it's gonna end Posted by: peaknik35
The Religious Right is manipulated by corporations.
Posted by: Lincoln fan on Apr 10, 2007 9:09 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In the Great Depression desparate people were attracted to Communism and Socialism because they recognized that their problems were economic. This was a danger to the rich corporate elite that runs our country and they fought against them. When the economic situation improved, the people abandoned Communism and Socialism but the establishment fought them for 70 years after they were no longer a danger. They spun these economic systems in the public mind into political systems, associated with dictators.

With the option of a different economic system out of peoples' minds the desparate now turn to religion. This poses no danger to the corporate establishment and so it's fostered and turned against the liberal ideas that are a threat to the establishment.

It's easy for we on the left ro see that the religious are being manipulated by the establishment. It's not so easy to see that we are also being manipulated by the same establishment. It is hard to believe because we feel superior to the yahoos, the rednecks, and the Nascar crowd. We're too smart to be manipulated. "Pride goeth before the fall".

The evidence is plain to see. It's public record. Click on Open Secrets The same industries fund both of our political parties.

They don't fund both parties because they want both parties to win. They fund both parties so it doesn't make much difference which party wins. And all along we were convinced that we had the power of the vote. We got all panicky when the election was "stolen" but didn't mind when it was bought.

Feel free to discuss your favorite candidate but be sure that he/she is electable. That means that he/she is acceptable to the corporate establishment.

I even forgot the names of the last bunch of unelectable hopefuls. I only remember that one was too short, one was deranged, one was a clown, and another was a black woman who we weren't "ready for". In other words they were not acceptable to the corporatocracy that controls both parties.

We are in a very dangerous situation. The establishment has split the workong class into two groups that disrespect, despise, and fear each other. Fear is the strongest human emotion; the strongest animal instinct. Will we let the corporatocracy stay in power until we are at war with each other?
Bob Reichenbach,
Director, The Lincoln Initiative.

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Mr.
Posted by: Gerald on Apr 10, 2007 9:18 AM   
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The commentary shows that when paranoid people are not surrounded by enemies they will invent them. In the 1950s, 60s, 70s and even into the 80s the Communists provided the threat, even though they were not much a threat to world order. 9/11 provided us with a new perceived forever enemy.

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» RE: Mr. Posted by: albrechtkrausse
If God is on our side-
Posted by: WitchyNy on Apr 10, 2007 9:18 AM   
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he will stop the next war.

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» RE: If God is on our side- Posted by: brainvib
Every bit as Christian as Jim Jones' "People's Temple"...
Posted by: xbj on Apr 10, 2007 9:24 AM   
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...and leading to the same exact result... suicide and self-damnation.

Jesus said "LOVE YOUR ENEMIES. BLESS THOSE THAT CURSE YOU."

These pitiful bastards aren't Christians, and woe to them when they realize their god was Lucifer.

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Report a Theft
Posted by: brainvib on Apr 10, 2007 10:01 AM   
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A group of unprincipaled fanatics have stolen a word. The word is, "Christian". The definition of that word, to paraphrase the dictionary, is one who believes in Christ.
Why suddenly have we, the english speaking world, allowed this fanatic cult to steal the label "Christian"?
A common question asked by a bac(born again christian) is
"Are you a Christian"? By my definition and that of Webster
and Funk and Wagnall, YES I AM! But by the bac definition I certainly am not. I want my label back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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» RE: eport a Theft Posted by: xbj
» RE: eport a Theft Posted by: Gisele
bah, humbug...
Posted by: jessicalh on Apr 10, 2007 10:29 AM   
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Much of this is true, and it's quite well written. But these are not straw men, and the article doesn't help me understand them much. I'd be more interested in how many people in the radical right christianist movement manage to preach doom and brimstone on Sunday, vote for monsters, and interact with a complex, diverse society on weekdays; or why people - who are in many ways just like us - buy into this as completely as they do. I think the article is right on, generally -- but the standard schtick about urban despair and so on is too polemical and narrow to give much insight.

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» read Hedges' book Posted by: counterpoint
» RE: read Hedges' book Posted by: jessicalh
» Flint, Michigan Posted by: rjgwood
» RE: bah, humbug... Posted by: morticia
Opportunity?
Posted by: Knowmad on Apr 10, 2007 10:39 AM   
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I actually don't blame the adherents so much. Many people are too limited, trusting or lazy to make informed decisions, and these are the fodder of pathetic manipulators like lehay.

Wishful thinking perhaps, but what if progressives could take advantage of these circumstances and inflict some serious damage to these sick enterprises, and have those who benefit exposed for the immoral parasites they are to boot.

If the three most dangerous cabals - the religious right, corporate pimps, and their neocon political whores - could be set against one another somehow (maybe a few smart inside operators, telling 'secrets' to each group about about how the others are going to betray them) they just might all go down in a passionate blaze of putrid self-interest. I don't suggest anyone should actually be hurt, just those responsible reaping what they've sown, and their victims given another chance to chose for themselves.

My own little version of the rapture.

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