I'm not so sure that scaremongering is the right approach to the American religious right. I think I'm going to have to go more with Thomas Frank on this. There are a lot of ordinary people out there looking for a way to articulate some things that are, frankly, lacking in contemporary American culture-- like a discernable morality. Liberal secularists may think they don't want such a thing because it sounds icky but the Truth is, they do. They just don't like the morality of the religious right (and indeed, their moral discourse is moribund).

OTOH there are a lot of self concerned politicians and religious propagandizers for their own causes in need of a public. So the two groups (they are not the same) kind of provisionally fit together.

No project that can be characterized as "Christian nationalism" will ever be successful as such because to think within a religious frame about American citizenship is too historically anachronistic. Period. Get over it.

These professing people, these political actors, can have an impact on policy but that's about it. Liberal secularists can battle them on that front, if they want to do the hard political work. It seemeth to me, however, that most people professing such profound concern about what the religious right is doing are much more interested in scaremongering via publication because it is much more gratifying to their own liberal individualist egos.

But, if that's what you're into (and, hey, why not) then a more productive response would be to try to figure out what it is that the Thomas Frank population actually wants. There may be more common ground there than liberal secularists think. This may also be a more intellectually sound response than the sort of superficial "us" and "them" propagandizing we've seen getting into print so far.

It also hasn't escaped my notice that the old phrase "religious right" has become "Christian right" over the course of this propaganda campaign over the past several years, a rather interesting linguistic transformation.

Not that giving people what they already want to hear doesn't sell books. Of course it does!

You may also say that "scaremongering" is not what the article does. I have to disagree. In many of your responses "scared" is exactly what you say you are!

You know. Come to think of it, I'm scared too.

I keep wondering what's gonna happen if/when these wingnut Domi's get into power. I wonder how they'd deal with the thousands of prominent writers, artists, teachers, doctors, lawyers, TV/film/stage industry producers, directors, actors, and others who speak out against their theocracy? I suspect a wave of mass arrests and televised show "trials" in kangaroo courts identical to those Stalin's prominent victims or those implicated in the 1944 Bomb Plot against Hitler were subjected to, where the verdict and the sentence, mostly death, is a forgone conclusion, and any defense counsel they may be allowed to have would be nothing more than a mere formality because the lawyer would not be able to mount any real defense of their client without jeopardizing their own careers, freedom, lives, or that of their loved ones. Of course if the Domi's do succeed, I'd have to say that Michelle Goldberg, Katherine Yurica, Norman Lear, and other anti-Religious Right figures are going to be in danger for their lives unless they flee the country. Truly scary times we live in.

Sure, these guys seem scary, but bear in mind that Judge Moore couldn't even win a Republican primary in Alabama. They have a long way to go, if they are ever to pose a real threat.

anon.

If a woman shoots someone trying to physically interfere with a medically necessary abortion would it be self defense. A minority can imposes its views on a majority if the majority is conflicted and/or unwilling to fight back. Something to think about.

Be careful of those redundant and repetitive cliches.

Although I recoiled in disgust at much of what was being written about in this article, I couldn’t help but also recoil at the following: “On the coasts, he seemed a ridiculous figure the latest in a line of grotesque Southern anachronism....To the growing Christian nationalist movement, though, Roy Moore is a martyr, cut down by secular tyranny for daring to assert God's truth.” So, I’m not on one of the “coasts” so that automatically makes me a Christian nationalist – or what else could I be?

As an atheist and Midwesterner, I ask you to please stop perpetrating the condescending attitude that all of that live in “fly over country” must be either bible belt extremists or maybe even just moderate Christians going along for the ride. I too feel that our country is on the dangerous precipice of religious based fascism. Could you please reach out to us in the rest of the country rather than slapping us in the face?

This is a very scary article.

As an athiest, lawyer, ACLU member, and resident of the San Francisco area I consider the ideas put forth by the "Christian" leaders quoted to be frightening.

Living on the so-called "left-coast" I could ignore what happens in "fly-over country" but I cannot. The religeous right must be stopped.

We on the left can do that only by organizing and being informed. Here in San Jose (10th largest city in the US with one of the most highly educated populations) less than 20% of people read the daily paper. Yet I can only guess at the percentage that watch "reality TV" night after night.

The situation in the US is like the frog in the pot of water. Warm the water slowly and the frog stays in it until he boils to death. He never tries to hop out until he cannot.

Sincerely,

Gerard F. Roney

San Jose, CA

Wow! You have 2 stories here, the "Kingdom Coming..." and the reservoir of hatred and ignorance exhibited in many of these letters. What's worse? Christian fascists or bile on the rampage? Two early letters talked about the ebb and flow of religious nuts, but that didn't resonate. People weren't content with real history so they pull out there own horrid biases.

I'll tell you. I'd hate to be a Jew reading these posts because much of the sentiment sounds like nascent National Socialism. The Jews killed Christ? When is that going to be put to bed? Christ was a cult leader who turned against Judaism. What were the Jews supposed to do, cultivate his rebelliousness? Dear reader, whatever belief you hold doesn't seem to allow you to honor those rebelling against it. Why would the Jews have been different from you? It's sad. You listen to many Jews and they have been alienated almost everywhere they went. Then you listen to antiSemites and the Jews have been responsible for ruining civilizations. Where's the reality? Lost in hatred and ignorance.

For the sake of argument, let's say the Jews were directly responsible for killing Christ. If Christ wasn't a martyr you wouldn't know much about him and you certainly wouldn't be part of a church claiming to represent his core values, which they rarely do. Simply, without the crucifixion, you don't really have much of a religion except the golden rule, which the Hebrew elders had already held as sacred.

Salon do yourself a big favor. Make sure these comments go into a time capsule so that sometime in the future, after all the rubble settles, anthropologists will understand the cause of how we ruined ourselves - ignorance.