Far-Out Religious Right Comes Out of a Crazy Mold

"Far-Out Religious Right Comes Out of a Crazy Mold"--Excerpt From Article By James Haught,Secular Web. by ABratt, 5-26-2014.   

"Think not that I come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." -- Jesus, to his Disciples (Matthew 10:34)

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The Religious Right: 

America [...] has a fundamentalist mass movement with a violent fringe attached. Television evangelists and their political organizations -- the Christian Coalition, the Christian Action Network, etc. -- endlessly call abortion murder and portray clinic doctors as monsters. Yet they deny any responsibility for the True Believers who take their words at face value, and resort to guns.

"America is more pious than other advanced democracies, and suffers a high rate of religious ferment. Currently, the so-called Christian Right, allied to the Republican Party, is gaining ground for its political goals. It seeks to impose religion in public schools, ostracize homosexuals, censor movies and magazines, increase executions, revoke women's right to choose abortion, curb sex education, cut welfare for the poor, stop teaching of evolution, provide tax money to church schools, end public funding of arts, allow carrying of pistols, reduce day-care centers, amend the constitution to require a balanced budget, etc. To call this agenda 'Christian' seems bizarre." (100)

 "The Republican-fundamentalist alliance also is embarrassed by the goofiness of some leaders. TV minister Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, has declared that his prayers can deflect hurricanes, that he is 'God's prophet,' and that the European Community may signal the coming of 'the Antichrist.' In his nutty book, The New World Order, Robertson said a conspiracy by the Illuminati secret society and Jewish international bankers causes most wars and other horrors. He said American presidents unwittingly serve 'a tightly knit cabal whose goal is nothing less than a new order for the human race under the domination of Lucifer."' (100)

 The Gun Cults:

"Vaguely allied to the Religious Right is America's zoo of armed, white, hate groups: self-styled 'militias,' the 'Christian Identity' movement, neo-Nazis, Posse Comitatus, white supremacists, the Church of Jesus Christ Christian Aryan Nations, skinheads, the Cosmotheist Church, the Covenant, Order and Sword of the Lord, the White Aryan Resistance, the Christian Patriots Defense League, etc."

"Leaders of these outfits tend to be born-again ministers or gun dealers, or both. They preach pure paranoia: that U.S. officials are conspiring to disarm 'patriots' and allow the United Nations to suck America into a 'new world order' -- that Los Angeles street gangs are being trained to seize guns from American homes -- that government black helicopters stalk 'patriots' by night -- that secret prison camps have been built to hold the 'patriots.'"

"In my state of West Virginia, one militia leader, the Rev. Ervin 'Butch' Paugh, solemnly told news reporters: 'The U.N. forces worldwide are going to be the powers that help enforce the Antichrist's dictates."'

"Researcher Philip Weiss wrote: 'There is a religious component to the hard-bitten right. Dan Fuller, a retired crop duster who last year joined a 'Christian covenant community' in Idaho, glimpses signs of the 'mark of the beast' from Revelations in government fiscal policy. He shares a widespread fear among Christian patriots that bodily implanted microchips will replace cash, ultimately spelling slavery for ordinary Americans. Vicki and Randall Weaver had visions of an apocalypse brought on by a Babylonian Federal Government, or ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government)."

"The Weavers were white supremacists involved in a government siege, in which Vicki and a son were killed. They've become martyrs of the militia movement -- as have the armed cultists who died in David Koresh's Waco compound."

"Out of these right-to-bear-arms fever swamps came the plotters responsible for the Oklahoma City tragedy. The stew of guns and crackpot beliefs simmered until it produced horror."

Text Book War:

"Among America's various zealotries, the one I know personally is bound-for-glory mountain fundamentalism. As editor of West Virginia's largest newspaper, I'm a seasoned observer of the Bible Belt, with its serpent-handling churches, talking-in-tongues congregations, money-grubbing evangelists, 'holy rollers,' and all the rest."

"I've seen how easy it is for religious agitation to turn violent -- as it did in The Great West Virginia Textbook War of the 1970s. It began when evangelists denounced sex education in the public school system based in Charleston. (The same ministers sought a return of the death penalty in West Virginia.) Rallies were held against 'pornography' in the classroom. A preacher's wife called sex education a 'humanistic, atheistic attack on God.' She became the movement's candidate for school board, and won in a flood of religious votes."

"As a board member, she advocated Bibles for students and expulsion of pregnant girls. Then she started a wildfire by proclaiming the school system's textbooks 'godless.' A committee of 27 born-again clergymen called the texts 'immoral and indecent.' (Rascals like me hunted for indecency in the books, but found only ordinary school topics.)"

"More than 1,000 protesters surrounded the school board office. A group called Christian American Parents picketed for removal of the books. Evangelists urged 'true Christians' to keep their children out of school. Attendance fell 20 percent. One minister, the Rev. Marvin Horan, led a rally of 2,000 irate Christians. Mobs surrounded schools and blockaded school bus garages. Teachers were threatened. So were families who didn't join the boycott."

"About 3,500 coal miners went on strike against the texts, and picketed Charleston industries. Flying rocks, screams and danger were constant. Frightened people began carrying pistols. During confrontations at picketing sites, two people were shot and wounded, and one was savagely beaten."

"Several ministers were jailed for inciting violence. One of them prayed for God to kill school board members who had chosen the books. A grade school was hit by a Molotov cocktail. Five bullets hit a school bus. A dynamite blast damaged another grade school. A bigger blast damaged the school central office. Near-riot conditions continued. Robert Dornan of California, a pornography foe, addressed 3,000 book protesters in Charleston, and the national exposure boosted his ascent to Congress."

"Minister Horan and three of his followers were indicted for the bombings. Ku Klux Klansmen held a Charleston rally to support them. During the trial in 1975, other followers said Horan had led the dynamite plot, telling them there was 'a time to kill.' They said the plotters talked of wiring dynamite caps into the gas tanks of cars in which families were driving their children to school during the boycott. All four defendants went to federal prison."

"Nobody was killed in the textbook war, luckily -- but it was a vivid demonstration of how baseless religious accusations can bring mayhem."

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Far-Out Religious Right Comes Out of a Crazy Mold   (1128)