Letters to the Editor
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Theocracy
Those who promote a theocratic governance of America are far more dangerous then any outside threat - including extreme Islam and the like. In fact, what is the true difference between those who live by Jesus and those who would die for Mohammed? It seems to be just that, two different men from history who managed to convince enough people to believe in their ways of thought. Broken down - Christian fundamentalists and Islamic jihadists are one and the same...insecure, power-hungry people who have lost sight what they themselves believe in - treating each and every human with respect and dignity.
I, for one, will fight for the true meaning of Democracy - a secular governing system that allows every citizen to practice their own beliefs, while not hurting or taking away the rights of their fellow citizens.
I am in this fight with confidence - and I for one will not allow these proto-fascists to take control of the country I love. If they want a war - they will have it...and as history proves time and again, the forces of good (secularism) will prevail over those of evil (extremism).
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Oh ye of little faith
Forgive me for using a Christian term, but I worry when so many Salon readers fear that fundamentalism will overpower us.
Fundamentalism rises up like an evolutionary brake whenever the cultural and technological evolution of the world accelerates so much that people become frightened because the world is changing quickly. It is a fairly predictable phenomenon that rears its head with some regularity in human history. And fundamentalism begets fundamentalism. Islamic fundamentalism (terrorists) begets republican Christian fundamentalism (Patriot Act).
But in the end, fundamentalism never prevails. It can not.
That is not to say that we should ignore it. We should oppose it. But we should do so without abandoning the qualities that distinguish us from fundamentalists.
First, and foremost, we should endeavor to oppose fundamentalism without succumbing to hatred and judgment. Many of these fundamentalists are doing what they sincerely believe in. They have come to these beliefs through inexperience, and because they are young souls (regardless of their physical age) who are still evolving.
So I think it is best to respond to them like aggravating children. They are a pain in the neck. They can make life miserable for us. They can hold considerable power. But they are also humans capable of growth – and it is their growth that we should seek, not their demise. The only way to do that is to appeal to their better natures, to find out what it is in their hearts that we can agree with and cultivate that.
I am always struck by the cosmic irony of those who are desperate to see the Ten Commandments put into stone in the courthouse – yet who themselves violently disagree with the sixth commandment, “thou shalt not kill,” with respect to the death penalty or war or the slaughter of animals. I would like to find common ground with fundamentalists around the sixth commandment, which is a moral precept that I endorse.
It is only by recognizing our common humanity with fundamentalists that we can uplift them. I believe we should treat them with respect. It is better to open their eyes than to silence them. But most of all – I believe we should not fear them. The whole force of human evolution works against them. In the end it is the best of humanity that will prevail.
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Damn Abe Lincoln!
We should've cut those damn southern states loose while we had the chance! They're all inbreds anyway! Fiddle-dee dee! I think they're just pea-green with envy!
I won't think about this today, I'll think about it tomorrow, because, tomorrow is always another day!
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To Poco: It's Melvil Dewey, not John. Keep libraries out of it.
The creator of the Dewey Decimal system was Melvil Dewey, not John. Melvil was in favor of spelling reform (thus no final "le" on his first name) and of hiring women as librarians (they worked for less). So get your facts straight before you expect us to seriously consider the rest of what you say.
Libraries: bastions of democracy and humanism, but not the place where John Dewey left his mark.
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Poco?
Hey, I thought Poco was a funny name until I saw "No Name Given," now THAT'S a funny name!
And keep my mother out of it!
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Gene
What the heck???
You say that Sophie Scholl of the White Rose movement, and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer were German conservatives?
Sophie Scholl, who first became politically aware because of the banning of her favorite poet, Heinrich Heine, a socialist and a Jew whose work was printed in his friend Karl Marx's newspaper?
And Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was most moved as a pastor by his visit to a black episcopal church in Harlem in the late 1930s? And who later saved countless Jews from death?
I'm afraid you've just said something that's obviously untrue.
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Moving on, though
As to the substance of the article, yes it should concern us to find anti-semitism in a group that aims to build a militia here in the US, and begin a civil war. Granted, it may be a small group, and yes, it means that the conservative movement is fragmented and self-contradictory, considering that there is a pro-Israel faction within it as well, but yes, I'm concerned to hear them speak the way they do.
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I Agree With David Greene...
David makes reference to some of these fundramoralites' paradoxical fascination with certain tenets of 'religion on paper.' First they say that they follow each one of their parchment laws, but then backtrack when those same laws don't suit their distraught emotional judgements.
A friend of mine once asked a question to what appeared to be a religious specimen and her offspring. The being and her critter were parading anti-abortion posters up and down the street with an extremely graphic picture of dead fetal matter.
Not really in the mood for such crap, my friend asked the hapless figure what she thought about the death penalty. The shape responded that those who are executed deserve to be executed. Funny how these globs can't quite keep their thinking straight on matters that I would assume are of great importance to their auto-theo-legislation (soon-to-be-in-your-legislation-too).
"Thou shalt not kill is only to be used when I say," is what I hear.
Oh yeah, like David noted, we should also not treat these people like not-people.