And how do we tell?
There is a desire felt by tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement known as the Christian right, to destroy the intellectual and scientific rigor of the Enlightenment, radically diminish the role of government to create a theocratic state based on “biblical law,” and force a recalcitrant world to bend to the will of an imperial and “Christian” America. Its public face is on display in the House of Representatives. This ideology, which is the driving force behind the shutdown of the government, calls for the eradication of social “deviants,” beginning with gay men and lesbians, whose sexual orientation, those in the movement say, is a curse and an illness, contaminating the American family and the country. Once these “deviants” are removed, other “deviants,” including Muslims, liberals, feminists, intellectuals, left-wing activists, undocumented workers, poor African-Americans and those dismissed as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace this peculiar interpretation of the Bible—will also be ruthlessly repressed. The “deviant” government bureaucrats, the “deviant” media, the “deviant” schools and the “deviant” churches, all agents of Satan, will be crushed or radically reformed. The rights of these “deviants” will be annulled. “Christian values” and “family values” will, in the new state, be propagated by all institutions. Education and social welfare will be handed over to the church. Facts and self-criticism will be replaced with relentless indoctrination.U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz—whose father is Rafael Cruz, a rabid right-wing Christian preacher and the director of the Purifying Fire International ministry—and legions of the senator’s wealthy supporters, some of whom orchestrated the shutdown, are rooted in a radical Christian ideology known as Dominionism or Christian Reconstructionism. This ideology calls on anointed “Christian” leaders to take over the state and make the goals and laws of the nation “biblical.” It seeks to reduce government to organizing little more than defense, internal security and the protection of property rights.
Chris Hedges: The Radical Christian Right and the War on Government - Chris Hedges - Truthdig
This is just ridiculous for a first world country like US! However, I'd like to present a counter-view to this. Something similar is happening in India though to a much much much lesser degree. The two major parties, Congress(secular) and BJP(Hindu nationalistic party) will run for govt in 2014, but for a third world country like India, some thought has to be given to whether secular politics that pays more attention to identity than economic issues is setting itself up to fail. The Congress led coalition has been in power for the last 5 years and GDP growth crashed to 5% in 2012-13, the lowest in the last decade. I'm not even going to mention all the other problems like terrorism, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy etc that has gone up over this period. Can any appeal to secularism succeed unless it also embraces a commitment to supply secular goods to the people — such things as electricity, good roads and telecommunications, education and health facilities, law and order, efficient public services untainted by corruption, jobs and opportunities?
ReplyDeletesounds particularly preposterous to me. also a system that relies on simply religion to run a country is flawed. ideological or theological debates with radicals are, as i see, a moot point
ReplyDeleteRepublican party is ruining the party not strengthening it. In other words they are not even close to creating their dream society by taking over the political realm because their agenda and tactics are alienating.
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