Tyranny of the Christian Right

Alternet has an excerpt from Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg. It’s a strong call to arms for secular humanists and she makes some good points.

“The top three ‘gainers’ in America’s vast religious marketplace appear to be
Evangelical Christians, those describing themselves as Non-Denominational
Christians and those who profess no religion,” the survey found. (The percentage
of other religious minorities remained small, totaling less than 4 percent of
the population).

This is a recipe for polarization. As Christian nationalism becomes more militant, secularists and religious minorities will mobilize in opposition, ratcheting up the hostility. Thus we’re likely to see a shrinking middle ground, with both camps increasingly viewing each other across a chasm of mutual incomprehension and contempt.

Maybe, the loss of the middle in this context is exactly what is needed. Maybe it’s time we brought the battle to a head. I’m not one of those people that believes there is always a middle ground, there are certain things that are either true or not. If we were reduced to a country of Christian nationalism, then those of us who are fiercely agnostic or atheist would be forced to worship a religion we do not believe in. The converse is not true. If we are a country of secular humanists, then anyone can worship or not worship however they choose, but they cannot inflict their choice on someone else.

I know there are quite a few of you who are religious progressives, and my declaring that the loss of a middle ground (which would include religious progressives) may seem like I wish to discount your beliefs. I don’t and honestly, the only way you all will be able to continue being religious progressives is to side the secular humanists. It is not just us non-believers that will be forced into the tyrannical religious mold of the right, but if you have a different view of Christianity from the right wing version, you are going to be forced to practice religion in a way that goes against your beliefs.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. After reading John Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven I discovered that Mormonism is the fastest growing religion in the western hemisphere, there are now Mormons on the planet than Jews. Because of their rapid growth, and within 60 years it is expected that it will be impossible to govern the United States without the cooperation of the Mormons and the Church of Latter Day Saints. If polygamy is a central tenet in the fulfillment of Joseph Smith’s religious ideal and it was outlawed by the church only because of political pressure, then polygamy and forced marriage becoming legal is a definite possibility with an increase numbers and political influence.

In her article, Goldberg suggests that the solution is to fight the “anti-urban bias built into the structure of our democracy”. Sounds like someone read The Stranger’s Urban Archipelago article after the last presidential election and took it to heart.

The Stranger:

The Republicans have the federal government–for now. But we’ve got Seattle,
Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City
(Bloomberg is a Republican in name only), and every college town in the country.
We’re everywhere any sane person wants to be. Let them have the shitholes, the
Oklahomas, Wyomings, and Alabamas. We’ll take Manhattan.

Goldberg:

According to Steven Hill of the Center for Voting and Democracy, the combined
populations of Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Colorado,
Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Alaska equal that of New York and
Massachusetts, but the former states have a total of nine more votes in the
Electoral College (as well as over five times the votes in the Senate). In
America, conservatives literally count for more.

I’m tired of conservatives counting for more. Aren’t you?

3 thoughts on “Tyranny of the Christian Right

  1. The answers goes back to the left needing to be more intelligent about the issues it chooses to fight. The fundamentalist are much more unified and motivated for battle. The left has barely made any headway since the 60s. Think of all of the secret initiatives that are just coming out about the Bushies: data-mining our phone calls, the theft of the 2004 elections; just imagine the secret programs we don’t know about and you should get an idea about how bad things really are.

    The left needs to just as smart as the right and more diligent. And yes, I am going back to the gay-marriage issue, which Bush is now fighting with the “Marriage Amendment”. Picking our battles wisely will not be easy, but very necessary.

  2. You either believe that all people are equal or you don’t. Putting gay marriage on the back burner doesn’t help us- being assholes doesn’t help us.
    The existence of the gay marriage debate is making more people change their minds about it, the same was true of civil rights. You think Martin Luther King wasn’t told the same thing by the Democratic party leaders- just shut up and let us win, we promise well be good after.

    What the left needs to do is cut the crap- those red state yahoos are never going to vote our way. We need to enfranchise those who already believe in what we do but don’t make it to the ballot box.

  3. But the gay marriage issue is not the same as the color issue. Gay rights are more complicated and require a more complex debate. Put simply by wholly embracing gay marriage, which is so complicated that people who support it don’t know how to frame it, we lose losing the middle that you speak of. Again, we have to choose our battles. If the left is completely marginalized, the gay marriage issues is not the only thing lost; we risk losing everything: gay rights, civil rights, right to free speech.

    Red state yahoos will not vote our way correct, but we the last six years should show we need the middle more than ever. Also, I doubt much support will come from the Black or Hispanic communities, and the latter is one that the left especially needs to coax!

Comments are closed.