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When I refer to the "Christian Taliban," I'm not joking. I wish I were, but I'm not. When you monitor the militant, Christian fundamentalists, you find out that they are just as determined to create and run a totalitarian theocracy as the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The relatively reasonable public face that Rick Warren, the corporate media, and the Obama transition team have tried to present doesn't fool people who know about the Warren or who have followed the activities of the Christian Right closely. But, if you haven't invested the time and energy in the depressing enterprise of monitoring the fundies, you might be easily fooled by the spin.
Warren's generation of Christianists behaves differently than people like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. The latter let their hatred show as bellowing fury. The people who they have indoctrinated are different. Their hatreds make them feel like good, moral people. Their prejudices make them smile serenely because they think those prejudices make them good Christians who are following Christ and who will go to Heavan.
This brings up the more general issue of the difference between what the Christian extremists say in public versus what they say when they think they are communicating with each other. All of the following are direct quotes of things I've heard or read from these nutjobs, and they accurately reflect the agenda and values of the Christian Right.
Anybody who isn't a Christian will go to Hell.
Women should be submissive to their husbands.
America is a Christian country.
Homos want our children.
Jews are Christ killers.
Women who work are bad mothers.
Muslims should be killed.
Catholics aren't really Christians.
God's laws come before man's laws.
Homosexuals should get the death penalty.
Abortion is today's Holocaust.
Those AIDS people get what they deserve.
I would ordinarily be reluctant to repeat these things, but people need to wake up. In fundamentalist churches throughout this country, statements like these are considered perfectly normal and reasonable.
Like all cults, fundamentalist churches know to keep much of their belief systems as secret as possible from the general public. This serves two purposes. It makes their churches seem more socially acceptable to the general public. It also keeps from scaring off recruits with the more bizarre and frightening aspects of those cultish faiths. Cults generally wait until people are partly indoctrinated and dependent before they reveal their less mainstream beliefs.
It's easier psychologically to turn away from the kind of filth I quoted. However, those disgusting views shape a lot of public policy and also show up in behavior such as hate crimes, employment discrimination, and rapes. It really is dangerous to look the other way from the real nature of the Christian Taliban.
You are right. They try to disguise these beliefs with Biblical quotations but it's easy to see through once you hear what they are saying.
I actually attended a fundamentalist Christian church for a short time back in the 70's. I won't go into the whys and wherefores that got me there but I'm just grateful I got out. I left when they started praying one Sunday for Anita Bryant to be successful in her crusade to prevent gay people from teaching children in schools. I couldn't believe my ears when they started praying about that. I never went back to that church and I wrote a letter to the person who was "sponsoring" me explaining why. I haven't joined another church since.
Up here in ultra-conservative GRMI they don't hide their feelings at all, because they assume that all, or most, white people (because they're racists, too) are as narrow minded as themselves.
What's most interesting about them, I think, is that they actually know well enough to hide these strong beliefs from the public, like a serial killer hiding the bodies. They don't want anyone to know their true intentions or what they have in store for others. That makes them far more dangerous than your everyday fire and brimstone Christians because it's like they KNOW what they're thinking is fucking crazy, yet they don't care.
This is certainly my experience of the fundies here in Utah. These are fundies like no other. We are the reddest state in the Union. If Hitler ran for President as long as there was a R on the ballot and he was a Christian, Utah would vote Hitler in all the way.
I'm bipolar and old and I go to a mental health center that carefully monitors the old bipolars. We are unusual since most bipolars kill themselves young. So precious as we are they know the holidays are especially hard for most of us. So I was in a group therapy session on the 23rd in a group of about 12. There were two black women in the group and so I assummed that I would have allies on at least one front. We go around the room and talk about what our issues are this holiday season, and it's all about the diabities and the nursing home and being alone for xmas until the get to me. I'm pissed off because the Mormon Church pumped so much money into the California Prop 8 amendment that it passed. So my issue is them. They don't even know what prop 8 is so I explain it. Then the question is "how does this effect you?" "Well," I say, "lets say I'm gay and I want to marry my beloved who lives in California and we wanted to get married on Valentiens. Your church has prevented me from marrying the person I love. You have denied me my civil rights." And their eyes roll back in their heads. They have just realized that the devil is in the house. More rambling bullshit goes on and then we talk about our coping strategies. They all pray to cope. I ask, incredulously, "Does that help?" Oh yes, it helps every one of them. I say, I'm an atheist, so prayer is no cure for what ails me." More looks of dismay. Then we go around the room and talk about what we're looking forward to. It's all so boring I can't remember anything, but when they get to me, I say, I'm looking forward to the Inauguration of Barack Obama. And the two black women stand up and high five me. All the rest of them are nearly cowering in the corner, hiding behind the group leader. He says, "We don't talk politics in group." I say, "Every little thing is political. From your belief system to the food you eat, so I call bullshit on that one."
Sorry for the rant, but I live in Utah.
I think I've just found a new favorite site. I'm straight, but it embarrasses me to admit it. It hasn't worked out that well for me. Straight men seem to be assholes just because. Maybe it's my generation of straight men.
I recently wrote a post about outing myself in solidarity with my gay fellow citizens. I really pissed some people off. Someone said it was condescending and in appropriate to pretend to be gay. I would have marched in Selma and I'm not black. I don't see a difference. But I could be wrong. What do you think?
You speak the truth.
Look at the garbage Obama's BFF, Rick Warren, says about gays and women, at his Saddleback Church.
Curing gays?
Denying women control over their bodies?
These are dangerous people.
"Cult" is right.
Unfortunately, I have a cousin who spouts these very same things.
I've personally read at least 8 out of the 12 statements on her blog that you posted.
She converted to Catholicism when she was engaged to be married. She claims that she "saw the light" when she was in college and had to take a class taught by a "liberal" professor. It was then that she became a right wing nut!!