Letters to the Editor
-
Religion was central to the civil rights movement, and the abolitionist movement.
Two of the most important events in our nation's history. And likely neither would have succeeded without it. I think that's worth remembering.
-
Messianic political cults are a "thing of the past?"
Not the very distant past. In fact, as recently as the Presidential election of 2004, I remember hearing things that sounded suspiciously like claims that Bush was God's annointed vessel on earth. One speaker at a rally introduced him with remarks culminating in the sentences "I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe in George Bush." Later he explained to Bush that he would have said more, but the people in the audience knew what he meant (wink, wink). If Bush's colossal ineptitude has one bright side, it's that perhaps he has sunk the cult of divine leadership again, although it may pop back up sooner than we'd like.
-
This review seems to forget the more recent rise in atheism
It would have been interesting to note if the non-theist crowd factors into Miller's ideas of current trends and whether that influence is directly responsible for much of the evangelical movement we see today.
-
W. Bush Never Has Spoken Against Christianists
He gladly accepts their support, with the "wink, wink, noodge, noodge" another poster mentioned. And the christianists want a full-blown theocracy. You can hear them and read what they say. No doubt about them
We really do not know W. Bush's beliefs. But he allows the kooks to flourish, and he lets them believe that he is on their side. Neither W. Bush nor the christianists know much about the awful bloody battles of the Reformation. And they do not care.
Bush does not care just because he is a lite-wate. And the kooks do not care because they believe God always kills His opponents, and often kills His champion-martyrs as well.
The road to Armageddon is paved with ignorance and bloody silliness.
-
I wonder how the "Bushies" are rectifying his "divine legacy" now?
Certainly when he started out in 1999-2000, many on the right truly did see him as a divine being. Now, with Iraq a train wreck with little hope of a positive outcome, I wonder how they see the divinity they bestowed on him? I have already seen one poster on my local newspaper forum say he isn't a "real" conservative, (didn't Glenn Greenwald warn us they would do that?) I doubt he was saying that in 2004.
We must remember that this assumption of Bush's holiness on their part came about based on the critiria that their pastors and leaders told them due to a very short laundry list of issues they were told were the most important (gay marriage, abortion, ten commandments in public buildings), criteria set down by modern men who cherry picked certain topics they liked best. There is nothing in the bible about trickle down economics or an unregulated market, but good luck convincing many christians today that Jesus never said anything about those issues.
It seems to me that this problem of "political theology" comes about whenever religious leaders start telling their followers that God considers "issue A" the most important thing in the world, and points to an obscure line in the bible to back it up. In the case of Bush, it wasn't just an issue, it was a person. They ASSUMED Bush was going to be a great leader and reformer based on their own criteria, born of a politically convienent reading of the bible. Now that assumption has fallen through and they look a little lost.
Yes, there are still the true believers that hold out hope Jesus will bail Bush out some 20 or 30 years from now but for the most part, whatever original time table the set for him to "save" America and the world, has mostly run out.
No wonder the modern presidential field doesn't look very appealing, how do you follow a guy who was suppossed to be a representative of God and didn't deliver? You can't.
-
It is interesting to note...
...that Islam is roughly at the same point in its existence now as was Christianity during the Reformation and all its attendant bloodshed. What will become of Islam as we go forward we can only guess at - it remains to be seen, and the factional lines are right now barely apparent to most westerners.
One thing that ought to concern everyone now, though, is that the stakes are drastically higher than during the Reformation. Humanity did not then as a species have at its disposal the means to come close to self-extermination.
Perhaps the question is, properly, whether there is a greater supply of wisdom at large in the world.
-
I'll name one challenge now
The vigilant moderns of today face other challenges
I think one challenge is represented by the fact that Salon has a technology columnist and an economics columnist, but no science columnist.
I understand this is because everything in Salon has to have some political spin, and you can't really do decent science reporting if your only criterion for printing a story is political.
But this does sort of play into the hands of the people you oppose.
-
The Still Unborn Elephant in the Living Room
Excellent article, Ms. Miller.
Still, as always in these articles, it seems to me to miss the foundation of all religions. Namely, the psychopathological unconditional surrender of one's relationship to "god" (assuming one believes in a Creator of All That Is) to an outside authority who "speaks" for god.
Usually, a authortative man in a colorful dress.
Religion is essentially an immediate surrender ("Islam" is at least honest enough to name itself for that very word -- "surrender") of one's deepest connection to life, to an "authority" outside oneself.
Surrender to second-hand "dreams" and "visions" as "God's Word."
Religion is fascist. No questions. Ask and ye shall be shunned. Inquire further, thou shall be killed. Give your spiritual essence (and 10% tithe) to your authority figure.
Your only relationship with "God" can be through the Church / Temple / Mosque. Not on your own.
Forget Matthew 6:6, if you believe in the Bible.
Like all forms of fascism, religion contains the seeds of its own eventual destruction. It may take generations, or millennia.
Religions have lost all contact with their ancient, magnificent, origins.
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
Sorry. Neither you nor the thinkers and philosopers you quote ever once address the subservience of Self to Authority that religion, above all disciplines, promotes.
It's nothing to do with Fact or Science and everything to do with self-abnegation to "authority."
You lost me at, "Hello."