The Christian Right raises eyebrows

[Ms Chicklet]

Latest from Leonard Pitts Jr.:

It was about 25 years ago that a magazine article called to my attention the Christian right. The story depicted a movement of religious fundamentalists who sought to radically restructure American life mandating school prayer, creationism and censorship. I remember thinking the article was a little alarmist.

Actually, it was prescient.

That realization crept over me much as Christian fundamentalism has crept over American life: steadily. The movement has made itself the primary ideological engine of the Republican Party, climbing to power from school boards to state legislatures to Congress to the White House.

And along the way, books were burned and banned. Religion masquerading as science elbowed its way into classrooms. Legislation requiring recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance became law. Pharmacists, citing religious objections, refused to fill prescriptions for birth-control pills. A lawmaker suggested unmarried pregnant women be prohibited from teaching.

http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/pitts13e_20050413.htm

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. I've been telling people for the last 25 years how nuts they are

Unfortunatly, the majority still doesn't understand what we are dealing with. These people are a threat to the foundations of American society.

[flamin lib]

2. It's bigger than that.

Fundamentalism is a world wide problem. US Christian sects are becoming more dogmatic and militant, Muslims sects world wide are becoming more militant.

57% of people in the US believe the Biblical version of Creation and 44% believe the Earth was created in 6 days.

Conversation with my neighbor upon discovering that I'm not "born again":

He "If you are wrong in your beliefs would you want to be told?"

Me "I can ask the same of you."

He "But I'm not wrong."

Me "That's what the men who flew airplanes into the twin towers thought."

He "Yes, but they were wrong."

Me "Their faith is as strong as yours, how can you be sure?"

He "The holy spirit has moved inside me. I know I'm right."

Where to from here?

[Freedom_from_Chains]

3. Yeah I learned a long time ago

Don't use logic in trying to deal with these people; waste of time and breath.

[Technowitch]

4. I had a similar conversation about 20 years ago...

...only it was with my father.

He was absolutely, positively 100% certain that he had the one and only hand-delivered-from-God TRUTH, and that anybody who did not believe EXACTLY as he did was not only wrong, they were doomed to Hell.

Mind you, he thought he was trying to do me a favor, to 'save my soul.' That particular motivation wasn't uncompassionate.

Trouble was, he was of the ilk that also believes 'If they won't follow our way voluntarily, it's up to us to force them.'

My reply was this: "If you want me to respect your beliefs, you have to grant me the right to have mine -- even if they differ from yours."

[Larkspur]

5. I battled a Xtian Fundie on a Hartford Courant message board for 4 weeks

He told me that I was going to Hell. I told him that I was a Feminist and a Pagan, and that Hell was named after a Nordic pagan goddess called Hel. His Hell would be a place where a Divine Female figure ruled and his Hell would be my Heaven. That stunned him.