If you haven’t visited their site lately, this month’s issue of America United’s Church & State newsletter is well worth reading. It includes a list of the top ten Religious Reich leaders, ten steps you can take to fight the RR, and an overview of the power now held by the theocrats who want to rule America.
Make no mistake, the leaders of the Religious Reich want to shove their ultra-conservative theological opinions down the throats of every man, woman, and child in the USA — and then the world. The Talibaptists won’t be happy until America is a theocratic state, just like Israel and most of the Arab states.
The more powerful they become, the more even moderate Muslims around the world suspect America of wanting to defeat Islam in a world-wide Crusade, and the more vulnerable the USA becomes to jihadists.
Remember, Fundamentalists + Money + Political Power = Fundamentalists with Weapons = Terrorists. It’s more urgent than ever than sane people, of all moderate religions and none, unite to stop the religious lunatics from bringing on the Armegeddon they so lust after.
When acting on the ten steps you can take to fight the RR (it always starts with our words, doesn’t it?):
It can be helpful to point out that the present Bush/Blair political emphasis switches from terrorists to extremists — and that extremism is conveniently loosely defined as any deviating from what they strive to portray as “the norm.â€
In contrast, the European Parliamentary Assembly is more precise in its definition of “extremism”, focusing on its conflation with “political extremism”:
“Extremism, whatever its nature, is a form of political activity that overtly or covertly rejects the principles of parliamentary democracy, and very often bases its ideology and its political practices and conduct on intolerance, exclusion, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and ultra-nationalism.” [Resolution 1344 (2003)]
It can help to point out how the RR tries to **normalize** their sense of reality while trying to make everyone else look liberal and extreme. This can enable them to legislate against behaviors that deviate from their “norm.” This can enable the RR to root out those who are in fact in political office and who are fighting for diversity/balance and against normalizing extremism (and certain strains of Christianity) in the present political system.
You might enjoy Laetus in Praesens (“rooting for” normalization vs. “rooting out” extremism?) page. http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/musings/extreme.php
Just wanted to leave you a thank you here as your webpage on the Religious Reich got me thinking a couple years back a lot more about how to try to bridge the gap and be a party that works for peace and reconciliation rather than for division. I explored this theme with folks on The Fluid Druid’s Project X-13 forum before his webserver crashed. At least to this person, peace seems to be the superior way 😉
Peace is usually superior to conflict, but when you are dealing with dualists who equate peace with treason, you may not be able to come to a reconciliation short of surrender. Sigh.
False dualisms and dichotomies are a perennial problem that never completely disappear. As long as there are people who find thinking through complex issues difficult, there will always be these kinds of problems. Many people look at the world through false dichotomies, unaware of it, and even take exception when you point out the failure of their dualisms. But, there is hope since individuals can correct their thinking. It takes careful work, time, patience, and keen insight – in other words, self sacrifice to help someone clear up the fogs in their vision. So it can happen, but we have to decide to put forth the effort to help others think critically about their own assumptions.
And don’t expect much thanks for your efforts! People really hate thinking critically about their assumptions…