CJ Werleman — Some Folks Say It's the Beginning of the End for the Christian Right -- Dream On, They're Getting More Powerful

The Christian Right is seizing control of state legislatures and governors' mansions while we laugh at Ted Cruz….

The progressive agenda has already paid a massive price for failing to take the Christian Right seriously when Democrats sat out the 2010 election. In 2014, the Christian Right will be as passionate as it was four years ago, as they see this as the final opportunity to wound a president for whome they have a pathological hatred. They really do believe the Christian agenda is under attack in this country—one only had to witness the vitriol that spewed from the Right in defense of Phil Robertson’s biblically supported bigotry. Angry white Christians feel their way of American life is threatened by gays, women, atheists, liberals, and scientists. When an animal feels cornered, it's even more vicious.

Chris Hedges, author of American Fascists, writes, “All ideological, theological and political debates with the radical Christian right are useless. It cares nothing for rational thought and discussion. Its adherents are using the space within the open society to destroy the open society itself. Our naive attempts to placate a movement bent on our destruction, to prove to it that we too have 'values,' only strengthen its supposed legitimacy and increase our own weakness.”

Progressives still have no idea how to talk to the beast that is the Christian Right, for fear of sounding politically incorrect or equally intolerant. But it’s time to call a shovel a shovel; the ideology of the Christian Right has nothing to do with love and compassion, and everything to do with violence and hatred. The movement draws its power from our complacency and timidity. Political op-eds that foretell the Christian Right’s demise serve only to make it an even greater threat to our democracy.

AlterNet
Some Folks Say It's the Beginning of the End for the Christian Right -- Dream On, They're Getting More Powerful
CJ Werleman

The source of divisiveness is not only class and power structure grounded in wealth and income disparity but religious tribalism. The US is involved in a culture war that is reflected in many other parts of the world as different social groups interface and modern liberalism threatens tribalism. Many tribals proclaim liberty, but liberty is only for their tribe. E pluribus unum is still only a slogan in the US and yet to be realized. That will require overcoming tribalism.

It is important to note also that this is not about Christianity per se, since many of the policies advocated by tribalists are in conflict with Christ's teaching. It is about a politcal interpretation of Christianity that could be called Christianism, comparable to Islamism, Zionism, and Hindutva. Identifying any of the major religions with a political interpretation that is intensely nationalistic and exclusive rather than inclusive would be a grave mistake. All religions and wisdom traditions, to the degree they are true to the spirit, have the same foundation in universality.