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Let's Stop Calling the Christian Right Christian [1]

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Date: 2022-07-04

The Republicans have weaponized Christianity

Christianity started out 2000 years ago as a mainly pacifist offshoot movement and form of resistance to the Roman occupation of Judea. It devolved into becoming the Holy Roman Catholic Church, the official religion of the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine. Despite many members and clergy that have managed over the centuries to practice a version closer to its progressive roots, its highly centralized, privileged, wealthy and authoritarian leadership was corrupted by the Roman emperors that followed until eventually the power and wealth of the Catholic Church rivalled and even exceeded at times that of Kings and Queens in various nation states throughout Europe.

The Evolution of Racism into Fascism

In America Christianity was even corrupted so as to endorse slavery in the slave states, while more progressive congregations, also mainly protestant, opposed slavery in the Northern states, and have taken a different direction. Slaves were compelled in many cases to attend Christian sermons on Sundays. The political classes in America, up until the unraveling of Democratic popularity in certain quarters and especially in the South after finally embracing Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s reversed the political tables there and eventually ceded those states mostly to the Republicans.

In was then that the Republicans turned to thinly vailed racist appeals to whites. As their extreme positions on many economic issues forced them to pander more openly to racism and other forms of bias against women, gays, immigrants and whomever else they could organize hate campaigns around, we saw them morph into an openly fascist and authoritarian party and enemy of Constitutional law.

The Consequences of Christian Cooptation

Pastor Hursey declared his support for Trump and reportedly then drove his white pickup truck down main streets chanting “white power”.

It wasn’t hard to convince some Christian churches and their pastors in the South to lean further right and today even openly support racism and fascism themselves. How many are like this I have no idea. I suspect Republican friendly media may paint them as larger than they are, numbers wise. But whatever the numbers, racism historically is part of the fabric of America and the number is too high, whatever it might be.

There has been a long been a tendency among white Democratic politicians to steadfastly ignore the trend in America to blur Church and State and to inject right oriented religion into politics. It was considered the third rail of white Democratic politics to openly criticize Christian churches that stray into promoting bias. A second consequence of such trends is the success Republicans have had with the demonization of democratic government, sometimes called “big government.” A code word for policies aimed at assisting African Americans in overcoming racial oppression and poverty.

The Time has Come . . .

Such slogans must be refuted in some manner.

It is long past the time to figure out a way to tackle such developments and undermine the solid hold Republicans have on white supremacist leaning Christian churches and their congregations. There are certainly white congregations that speak out against racism. I suspect they’d be more vocal if not afraid of violence from racist whites. But the larger question for me is do we continue to allow the Republicans to present its racist and deadly version of Christianity and meld it into politics without complaint or criticism.

Republicans have used this trend to pollute the Supreme Court with rightwing religious zealots and threatens (and has already started!) to make the Court into a dictatorial force to turn America into a corporate backed and controlled theocracy. I wish I had a working plan to combat this, but there being little precedent at the higher levels of the party to guide such a campaign, there is no blue-print available.

Mass Psychology Should be Studied by Pro Choice Politicans

Just as the Republicans study, test, and release proven mass slogans and methods for agitating and expanding their base, the opposing party must do likewise. And dramatically improve it’s tactics and strategy. Republican policy is the anti-thesis of what the better side of Christianity has to say to the country. They must NOT be allowed to wear such a badge of dishonor.

A starting point is not to hide from making arguments as to why abortion is NOT murder and should be legal. Avoiding such arguments is one of the major reasons things have gone this far. I think a lot of people on the fence on this issue can be persuaded, we will need all the help and turnout at the polls we can get. Truth be told, abortion = murder is not the majority Christian position on the issue, and we should not allow this to be presented as “the Christian position” and the only position on the subject.

Ideas and Arguments to Consider

To summarize what should be considered by such an approach:

Pro Life is Not Pro Life — Always a good starting point for both a slogan and a discussion.

— Always a good starting point for both a slogan and a discussion. Life does Not begin at Conception — A two celled fetus grows into a survivable life form in about 6 months. This was the civil basis of Roe v. Wade.

— A two celled fetus grows into a survivable life form in about 6 months. This was the civil basis of Roe v. Wade. The Quickening — T he point at which a pregnant woman can first feel the movements of the growing embryo, has long been considered a pivotal moment in pregnancy . Over time, this experience has been used in a variety of contexts, ranging from representing the point of ensoulment to determining whether an abortion was legal to indicating the gender of the unborn baby; philosophy, theology, and law all address the idea of quickening in detail. This does NOT happen at or shortly after conception.

— T pregnancy ensoulment abortion Christians are not of one opinion when defining a human life — Many Christians believe that life begins at birth or the quickening. The Supreme Court ruling was based on its own religious dogmatism and view that a soul is planted into the fetus at conception. Eg: There is no record of Jesus speaking on when life begins or is assigned a soul. Such beliefs followed after his death and are purely a matter of personal belief and should not be substituted for civil law. The belief of the existence of an immortal soul is purely a religious matter, not a civil one.

— Many Christians believe that life begins at birth or the quickening. The Supreme Court ruling was based on its own religious dogmatism and view that a soul is planted into the fetus at conception. Eg: There is no record of Jesus speaking on when life begins or is assigned a soul. Such beliefs followed after his death and are purely a matter of personal belief and should not be substituted for civil law. The belief of the existence of an immortal soul is purely a religious matter, not a civil one. Religion Beliefs must not be a basis for Civil Law — Religion is inherently subjective and it’s not brain surgery to conclude it should never be mixed with civil and state matters.

— Religion is inherently subjective and it’s not brain surgery to conclude it should never be mixed with civil and state matters. Separation of Church and State Protects Religion — from those that would force such beliefs of others and violate religious and personal freedom.

— from those that would force such beliefs of others and violate religious and personal freedom. Religious Beliefs cannot be proved or disproved — Which is why they must be kept out of civil affairs and courts of law. Much tyranny throughout history stemmed from imposing religious ideology and beliefs on others, often backed by the sword and wars.

— Which is why they must be kept out of civil affairs and courts of law. Much tyranny throughout history stemmed from imposing religious ideology and beliefs on others, often backed by the sword and wars. Mingling of Church and State will divide and destroy America — Christianity was intended by its founders to be a peaceful religion and NOT one that forces its beliefs on others.

— Christianity was intended by its founders to be a peaceful religion and NOT one that forces its beliefs on others. The Christian Right is not Christian — Shame on you. There’s nothing Christian about white supremacy.

Would love to hear your ideas on this article. I fully understand the importance of turning our supporters. But I do think there’s benefit in attacking the Republicans in areas they are not used to defending and a certain level of refutation can only help our chances in the fall.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/4/2108306/-Let-s-Stop-Calling-the-Christian-Right-Christian

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