Letters to the Editor
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Rolling slabs gather no moss
BrianWiliam, The providence of legislation is often hard to follow and besides, this “dominion stuff” is just a small part of a much larger religious movement that has put many a politician in office. I’m not worried about these particular KKK goons gaining substantial political office but I think you would be surprised at just how many Americans think that Justice Moore got a raw deal just because he wouldn’t move his 2.6 ton ten commandment slab. That’s all it takes to get that slab rolling.
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When Fascism Comes to America...
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
Sinclair Lewis
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Why is this "frightening"?
What exactly is "frightening" about the events described in this article? That "thousands are flocking" to rallies and conferences calling for civil government to be replaced by biblical law? Thousands flock to Ultimate Fighting Championship matches, but I hardly think the networks are going to start broadcasting UFC during primetime every night. Is it that some of these people are anti-Semitic? Shocking!!! Is it that many Christians want to impose their beliefs on the rest of the country? Why is this news? Christian theocratic movements have been around since the Puritans arrived here; in every instance where it seemed evangelicals were gaining political strength and would erode church/state barriers, they were beaten back by the courts. It is part of the ebb and flow that makes the American religious history so interesting. What does trouble me is the recent attack on the judiciary, because that movement has found allies in members of Congress with substantial influence. We do have to remain vigilant against this danger. As for those who espouse Christian Nationalism, they are not represented by even one national political figure, and therefore have no serious political power. Until they do, I'm not going to worry about them.
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This is 'why it's frightening'
Yes 1000's of people indoctrinated into a hateful philosophy with a large dose of anti-semitism on the march is frightening.
Sometimes I also think- well the Christian Right take-over isn't going to happen anytime soon- but then I remember who the president is.
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I'll tell you why this is frightening
The quest to build a genuine Theocracy really is a pipe dream of the Dominionists. However, this mutated strain of religion is grown in the same soil as the garden-variety fundamentalism that is so popular and growing right now. To marginalize them a wacko’s is dangerous because what they are articulating is just an extreme form of what a good portion of Americans have a very unhealthy sympathy for: more God everywhere!
I’m not worried that Jerry Falwell is going to become a fascist dictator in the ‘Republic of Jesusland’ or that Bob Jones University will become the new Harvard. I’m worried that Roe vs. Wade is going to be overturned, public education dismantled and what’s left of the social safety net turned completely over to private organizations. In other words I’m worried about what’s happening right now- and it’s these fundamentalist elements (whether of the small Dominionist or very large Southern Baptist variety) that are becoming the key lobbying block on these issues.
So no, I’m not really worried about the ‘Dominionists’ per se. I’m worried about the Bible thumping guy next door who shares even an iota of their sentiments and will join them in slowly helping to erode all the progress this country has made in the last half century.
And no, I’m not going to ‘lighten up’. It’s lightening up that put the God-squad in the White House.
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Go ahead, relax!
"…they are not represented by even one national political figure,and therefore have no serious political power."
You’re correct, the Dominionists do not have one national political figure. But their larger and not much less dangerous inbred cousin mainstream fundamentalism does. In fact one of those Jethros sits in the Oval Office!
"Until they do, I'm not going to worry about them."
That’s a good idea. I’m sure that the bulk of the German population thought the same thing in 1928.
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Take Alabama... Please.
If you want an example of why those who are saying "relax" or "it's harmless" or "Michelle Goldberg is making too big a deal" are flat out wrong, go live in Alabama for eight years, like I did. Nothing ever gets done in Alabama-- their school system is one of the worst in the country, their prison system is collapsing-- because virtually every major issue that comes up gets bogged down in some lunatic statewide debate with the well-funded extremes of the Religious Right.
Do you know how much time and energy Alabama wasted on that whole stupid manufactured Ten Commandments controversy, that was, at heart a self-promotion campaign for Roy Moore? Lots and lots. Do you know what happens every time something is proposed to save Alabama's sinking public school system, like proposing a state lottery, as has been successful in other neighboring states? Nothing happens, because it's in the financial interest of the private religious schools in Alabama that the public school system fail, so we get this huge campaign about how "sinful" the lottery is. Do you know what happens when even a Republican governor suggests that there's a huge economic inequality in the state and that a true Christian would make some changes to help the poor? The Religious Right, in league with the state's Christian Coalition, worked to defeat the governor's proposal, because they wanted to preserve tax cuts.
I taught college classes in Alabama where Freshman students entering either from religious home schooling or from Alabama's gutted public school system literally could not write complete sentences, with white students writing essays about "colored people." This was three years ago, not the 1950s.
If all of the above sounds like paradise to you, then, sure, Christian Nationalists like Roy Moore are no big deal. But just to say, ah, we've always had religious zealots, or Roy Moore isn't polling some huge amount in runs for political office ignores the very real influence these extremists have achieved, and their ability to always sidetrack real political and social progress in certain states. To think of the Alabama way of doing things going national is to consider an absolutely broken country.