Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Do Religious Right's Beliefs Pose Threat to U.S.?

roachboy · 02-14-2005, 08:45 AM

things like "the rapture" and other such end o the world scenarios are usually best kept vague:
otherwise, you end up with cadres of folk sitting in lawn chairs in a back yard somewhere, outfitted with helmets and mai tais, waiting for the world to end.
then it doesnt, and then there are problems of continuing.
something of ones credibility goes away at that point.
why risk it?

as to the beliefs of the far right evangelical community posing a threat to the rest of us:
it is not obvious what kind of political correlates folk can build from the substance of christian beliefs to a politics. you could think about liberation theology as something of a rosy scenario--emphasizing the dignity of the poor, working to build base communities, generating sophisticated rereadings of gospels, st francis of assisi, etc. then you have the american protestant evangelical movement, and its nasty political expressions....
if the political agenda of these folk were to be adopted without revision or friction, they would indeed be a real danger, in the way that any theological rationale for fascism would be....but i dont think things are going to work out as they would hope. not that i have any faith in the bush administration, but i think that the evangleicals might find that they have been chumped by the karlrove machine, used to mobilize large numbers of folk in old school party machine style--now they want to be paid.

the rosy scenario is that as these folk and their lunatic politics surface, the chances of them expanding gets smaller and smaller--maybe that is the real reason they want to be paid now--this is as good as it will get for them.

they are a real enemy whose work should be opposed in the shorter run: in the longer run, nothing would be worse for them than to have to spell out what they really want.

02-14-2005, 08:45 AM	#10 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	things like "the rapture" and other such end o the world scenarios are usually best kept vague: otherwise, you end up with cadres of folk sitting in lawn chairs in a back yard somewhere, outfitted with helmets and mai tais, waiting for the world to end. then it doesnt, and then there are problems of continuing. something of ones credibility goes away at that point. why risk it? as to the beliefs of the far right evangelical community posing a threat to the rest of us: it is not obvious what kind of political correlates folk can build from the substance of christian beliefs to a politics. you could think about liberation theology as something of a rosy scenario--emphasizing the dignity of the poor, working to build base communities, generating sophisticated rereadings of gospels, st francis of assisi, etc. then you have the american protestant evangelical movement, and its nasty political expressions.... if the political agenda of these folk were to be adopted without revision or friction, they would indeed be a real danger, in the way that any theological rationale for fascism would be....but i dont think things are going to work out as they would hope. not that i have any faith in the bush administration, but i think that the evangleicals might find that they have been chumped by the karlrove machine, used to mobilize large numbers of folk in old school party machine style--now they want to be paid. the rosy scenario is that as these folk and their lunatic politics surface, the chances of them expanding gets smaller and smaller--maybe that is the real reason they want to be paid now--this is as good as it will get for them. they are a real enemy whose work should be opposed in the shorter run: in the longer run, nothing would be worse for them than to have to spell out what they really want. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 02-14-2005 at 08:49 AM..