Letters to the Editor
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Fresh Air
Michelle Goldberg was on 'Fresh Air' last night and it was one of Terri Gross' best interviews. Michelle was awesome and her book sounds fascinating and SCARY. Seriously, it took the wind out of me hearing about all these organizations. Start your New Zealand moving plans now folks. America is going to be f'ed in a few years.
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Where do you people live?
I’ve looked over the responses to this article and they have surprised me. The responses are either shock or “don’t worry”. These Ideas of a Christian nation should be taken seriously, they began to surface with in the working class, Mid-American population around the time Carter was elected, and has grown in popularity since.
As for influence, the power to which these groups have is growing. In my little suburb there is two school board members and one city council member who prescribe to these beliefs. As influence grows so shall their representation. Many voted for these people because of their sincerity and honesty, not realizing what there core goals are.
Dominion and Christian National Views are followed by many in the working class, Mid-American rustbelt segment of my neighborhood and my work place because of the disappearance of hope in the future. This I believe is a result of the disappearance of blue-collar jobs and globalization.
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Hmmm
Just a note here.
Alabama is not a bad place. It's just some of the people in it. I have been all over the country and every state has it's share of knaves, fools and ninnies. (Massachusetts, for example, keeps voting for Ted Kennedy, go figure....)
Roy Moore's numbers have him trailing (thank God?)in all polls these days. It makes him no less a demagogue that could do serious damage if he got in. Anyone who can get people to bow to the man-made graven image (his rock) as he did in Montgomery, is scary. Moore and his political allies do have a very theocratic future in mind. I think Moore considers himself a demigod. I hope they lose.
That said, we better be watching the Islamic movement, they are just as bad a Moore and his ilk, and provably worse. Moore hasn't advocated executions at halftime of the Ala-Auburn game, yet....no honor killings, yet.... no roadside bombings, yet....no chopping off of hands, yet......no suicide bombings, yet.....
I don't think that any of us want a theocracy of any kind. Hopefully Michelle Goldberg will do the same type of article on the Islamic movement. (The Islamic rulers in Indonesia just drafted a bill to impose Islamic law on ALL NON-MUSLIMS, THE MILITARY AND POLICE.) I don't want to see that HERE EITHER.
Please write about the Islamic movement Michelle....we need to resist any theocracy.
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Perspective Please!
It's always good to read the entertaining and lively work of Michelle Goldberg, but in this case her analysis is way off.
Since the President Fuckwit the First (Alzheimers) era of 1980s we've been haunted by the spectre of a loony Christian Right taking over the United States.
In the event, once such movements attract the attention of the mainstream they instantly lose influence and credibility. This is because the American public (even those who vote Republican) know silly ideas and eccentric people when they see them. Mainstream politicians recognise that nothing loses you votes faster than close association with extremists.
Yes, these groups tend to be well organised, and yes they have a certain amount of money behind them and yes their supporters can be frightening. But they are simply too extreme and too weird to ever become a threat to the mainstream. And no, the current President Fuckwit the Second (Dyslexia) isn't one of them, even though he may pretend to be for some fund-raising purposes...
One last point, while I don't doubt anti-Semitic quotes in the article, extreme right wing Christian fundamentalists are amongst Israel’s most fanatical and blinkered supporters and are anything but a threat to Jews.
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Sick of blaming the South
Although I agree with the excerpt (and always have)- I'm sick of Southerners taking the brunt of the blame. I'm from Alabama, I'm christian, I'm a liberal, I believe whole heartedly in separation of church and state, and quotes like this: "On the coasts, he seemed a ridiculous figure, the latest in a line of grotesque Southern anachronisms" just widen the ever growing gap between the "intellectual" people on the hallowed coasts and the poor, ignorant plebians in the middle. I'm down here in the fight- and would like a little credit thrown my way- the people on the coasts are just wagging fingers from a very high soapbox. And lets not forget that it was Kansas, not a "Southern anacronism" that first got Creationism back in the textbook and South Dakota that got the first ban on all abortions, - its a nationwide threat and lets start fighting it on a nationwide level.
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This article: just another Salon.com "quality" indicator (poor)
"Only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought, every aspect of creation."
MIchelle ... ever hear of Islam?
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racial rise and fall...
I've heard about Michelle Goldberg's upcoming book for some time and been looking forward to its publication, and this excerpt certainly does not disappoint. (And before I forget, I'd like to note the exceptional work that David Neiwert of Orcinus has been doing in tracking the rise of the theocratic right as well.)
I have a hard time separating hard-core evangelical Christianity from race. Today our churches are among the most segregated places in society, and contradictorily, if you look at the long term demographic trends, church attendance is in decline and the US will likely reach a point within the next 50 years when less than 50 percent of the populace is caucasian. Even without poring over reams of statistical data, people of all religions and ethnic backgrounds see these things happening all around them.
So from my vantage point, although I am concerned that there are powerful elements working to make America into a backward theocratic state, I think that ultimately the theocrats will not have history on their side, and are becoming more active and more militant precisely because their numbers are shrinking and they sense this, however inchoately. That said, progressives can't afford to just sit on their duffs and wait 40 or 50 years for all of this to blow over, as the theocrats and the proto-fascists will make life very miserable for millions in the interim, and may just launch another "pre-emptive" war, perhaps a even a nuclear one.