I Sat Next to a Whole Bunch of Fundamentalist Baptists at Breakfast

[leftyladyfrommo]

this morning.

It was so discouraging. They all sat there and made fun of global warming and eco crazies. Talked about hos the left was just blaming Bush for everything.

Sometimes I really wonder if there is any hope. A lot of Americans seem to just be plain ole dumber than a box of rocks. And proud of it.

[alfredo]

1. ignorance is bliss.

[opihimoimoi]

2. They have swallowed the cool aid by the drumfuls....Hopeless, move on...

go to those who can be "Saved...."

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. I live in the Bible belt. There is no place to move on to.

And we have Phil Kline trying to force Planned Parenthood out of business. This whole place is just unbelievable sometimes.

[bperci108]

16. I'm here too...

And I've been seriously entertaining thoughts of emigrating once my folks have passed on.

It's been said that the American people get exactly the government they deserve.

If there are so few that still care about American principles, the Constitution and Liberty above their McMansions, creature comforts, consumerism and their 401(k)'s then what else can we do?

Sometimes I get so discouraged.... :(

[opihimoimoi]

31. Hope and PROMISE is on the way...Sanity/Reason/Truth coming to invade the Fantasy/Delusional Realm..

Slowly...the Truth will prevail...but them NumbNuts will find themselves LEFT BEHIND...

Take Heart...vote Blue and things will change for the better...

[Cha]

30. "The Bible Belt" is like 1984 redux..

The Bible is suppose to be the Good Book, no? NO..not if it produces idiots who think down is up, crooked is straight, smoke and mirrors are reality and george bush is cat's ass. Fuck 'em if they can't take reality.

[MetaTrope]

3. Remember, the Conservative gene is a recessive one

Unfortunately, the breeding for it tends to be self-selective...

[Didereaux]

19. and recessive genes require...

...that both parents be carriers in order for it to appear. OMIGAWD, we must prevent a Coulter, Limbaugh liaison!

;0

[opihimoimoi]

32. Them Pubs seem to have a runaway Gene resulting in self DELUSION

[KansDem]

5. I got in with a group of Baptists about 20 years ago...

I don't know if they were Fundamentalist or not. It was a study group to learn Greek. They wanted to learn the ancient language so they could read the New Testament in the original Greek. I wanted to learn the ancient language so I could better translate medieval treatises that were originally written in Greek.

I stayed in their group for a few months until I moved out of the area (and I learned enough that I could translate simple passages!).

They seemed like a nice sort. Never tried to proselytize and were generally friendly.

But that was 20 years ago...

[Lucinda]

12. Sounds like the general sort of religious people I know

I think the extreme groups are a small, but very vocal minority

[leftyladyfrommo]

37. I'm not so sure about that anymore. There are these mega churches

all over. Some of them have thousands and thousands of members.

[LeftyMom]

18. Likely not fundies. Fundamentalist baptists tend to regard the KJV as divinely inspired

so they don't tend to look to more accurate translations, let alone bother to learn to read older texts which they regard as being less accurate or at best only equally good.

Also, fundamentalists tend to regurgitate the interpretations and teachings of whatever mullah they follow. Many of them haven't even read most of the bible, just the passages fundies find important (the works of Paul, Leviticus, the bloodier bits of the OT, the first account of the creation) over and over active investigation like that would definitely not be a fundie tendency.

[leftyladyfrommo]

35. There are different kinds of Baptists.

The ones I was sitting next to all belong to a Bible Believing Church near me. It has a huge membership. They take the Bible literally (well, they really don't because taking everything literally would be impossible). But not all Baptists are fundamentalists. There is a lot of diversity there.

I get along with the fundamentalists OK. I just never talk about religion. Or I just tell them I'm Catholic and they shut right up.

[donsu]

6. here's a hug and a whiff of Jasmin to lift your spirits

did they even notice your dismay

[lpbk2713]

7. It was just a reinforcement and reassurance session.

They know they are wrong but they need something like that every now and then to beguile themselves while all indicators show how idiotic they are. I pity the willfully ignorant. This is where Fred Thompson will draw most of his votes from IMHO.

[Didereaux]

8. You nailed it...that is why I am so upset with Obama...

Courting these people is beyond futile. Worse, doing so alienates much of the middle, the independents who constitue nearly 1/3 of the eligle voters(recent survey). Zealots are so removed from the norm that 'zealotry' is actually included in the list of symptoms fro some forms of mental illness.

[sandnsea]

21. He's confronting them

Not courting them. All religious people are not the same. He confronts the nutso ones and challenges the rest, like Al Sharpton.

[BridgeTheGap]

9. I hear you

My grandparents on my Dad's side were baptists though not very political. I always liked staying at their house - good food and a very calm place. I also got to know baptists at the Southern Baptist Seminary through organizations I worked with. Some of them were very progressive in their thinking.

My Dad is a drinker, which concerned my grandparents to no end. Once, they sicked their minister on him. He showed up at our door one evening and said to my Dad: "Your parents are very concerned about you, your drinking and the fact that you're married to Catholic, which means your going to hell." My dad responded: "Get the F*2# off my property and don't ever come back!"

My Mom's parents (the Catholics) were German, beer drinking partiers, but devout in their faith. My Grandfather was very active and the Democratic party, getting me involved too.

Don't give up hope! The fundamentalists are a minority, but a potent one because they meet once or twice and week, sharing the same basic beliefs. As long as we don't fall headlong into fascism, this phase will pass. People are seeing through the b.s.

[mmonk]

13. This phase must be forced out nationally.

The path to fascism reaches points along the way that lead to permanent erosions of liberties.

[guitar man]

10. happens all the time here

the crazy fundies are everywhere, just can't get away from them. I usually try to muster up a good fart when they are nearby :thumbsup:

If I can't do that, I usually whip out my cell phone and have a "conversation" about the latest porno flick I've acquired :D

[Didereaux]

11. ...the Kool-Aid factor (pic)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12461951@N03/

[stirlingsliver]

15. Baptists?

I thought Baptists didn't have priests.

That doesn't look like a picture of Baptists to me.

[Didereaux]

17. priests, preachers, reverends, shamans,....all the same n/t

[stirlingsliver]

24. You Left Out....

You left politicians off of your list.

They tell us they are on "our side", and then they stab us in the back.

[Didereaux]

27. wrong weapon but you are right! n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

14. And when they finally stop laughing at global warming they'll be

saying it's God's wrath for the sins of liberals.

[leftyladyfrommo]

36. There are Evangelicals now who really support environmental

issues. And good for them.

But not these guys, I guess. It was so disheartening to hear their real opinions about stuff.

[flordehinojos]

20. you were very brave to endure it all without either getting up and walking away,

or calling the whole bunch on their apocalyptic mistake. knowing me, i would have probably ended up somewhere in a jail somewhere.

[leftyladyfrommo]

38. You can't do that here. You just can't..

They have every right to believe what they do. And I have every right to disagree with them.

And really nothing I could say to them would make one iota of difference. They are so steeped in that fundamentalist religion that there is no way to even discuss stuff with them.

[monmouth]

22. Did anyone see "Saving Grace" last night. That would scare anyone...eom

[mitchum]

23. Well, you better check your wallet then

[flyarm]

25. they need to talk to the fire officials in Calif..and the 300,000 people in San Diego who had to

leave their homes..let it happen to them and they will sing a different song!

fly

[leftyladyfrommo]

39. They would say that it is just God's will.

Probably God is punishing the Californians for their unbelief and their ungodly ways.

[Stinky The Clown]

26. Consider them embedded citizens of Dumbfuckistan.

They're a growing scourge.

[murray hill farm]

28. It is not just the southern baptists..and

It is not geographical. It used to be that IQ was a measurement of how much one could remember, but it no longer is the main measurement. Now IQ is measured as Emotional IQ. I once heard that the main problem with a democracy was that half the people in a voting democracy had a below average IQ...but that was under the old IQ measure. Under the new measure of emotional IQ...it probably is still half, but the average is much lower than the old 100 as being average. People with low emotional IQ do not have the motivation to know or pay any attention at all to the world as a whole or to form any opinion of it all. Usually they also do not vote...no personal stake is felt so there is little motivation to do so. However, such persons are emotionally made up to look only outside of themselves for direction on how to live and what to believe and what to value. They are lazy and do not like..or maybe are not emotionally capable of taking in the complexities of their world,mulling it around, learning more and making an emotional and personal assessment of what they have learned. Therein lies the problem with groups such as the Southern Baptists. Such persons are these that they turn to their church or religion to do the decision making on such issues for them. There, they are told what they should believe and what it is to be a "good" citizen. They are also told not only how they should vote, but even more frightening, they are told TO VOTE...and they do.

[EVDebs]

29. It starts with their End Times views which ties into Bush's ME policies

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=214&topic_id=150428

[sweetpotato]

33. Denial

I had a friend in college, who was raised a Fundamentalist Christian. She is of the belief that mankind can do nothing to destroy the planet. Mankind does not have the ability to destroy the world. Only God can destroy or create the world.

Her Bible and her pastor tell her so.

So those Fundamentalist Christians who scoff at global warming are doing so because they have been taught that there is no power great enough to cause the end of the world except the power of God.

Their faith is an instrument of their denial.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if their premise (that only God can destroy the world) were true? That would take away a lot of the worry wouldn't it? If you accept that what we are doing is destroying the world, then you have to actually do something about it. If you accpet their premise, then everything is rosy and its only the liberals/democrats/whomever causing problems.

[Midlodemocrat]

34. WOW!! You met the whole 29%!!! How cool is that?

:bounce:

[DemoTex]

40. Just like frat boys.

The illusion of Safety-in-Numbers emboldens outrageous speech and behavior.

[leftyladyfrommo]

41. That is really true.

I never really hear what they really believe until I get close to a whole group - then they talk to each other without filtering everything.