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Dominionists in the United States

Started by Recusant, April 14, 2019, 02:50:51 AM

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Icarus

More than a grain of truth in that article Rec. Scary stuff to be sure.

Recusant

Yeah, not that it's news, but more along the lines of those scientific papers which finally put numbers to something that people in the field had previously been well aware of.

"White evangelical support for Donald Trump wasn't about partisanship -- it was about animus toward minorities" | Raw Story

QuoteIn the wake of the Pew Research Center's findings that 84 percent of the white evangelical Protestant vote went to former President Donald Trump in 2020, it is more important than ever for the American public to face the uncomfortable truth about the authoritarian Christian right's deleterious impact on society, culture and politics.

Some of us have been pushing for this conversation for years, with various iterations of relevant data and scholarship helping to elucidate key points. During the 2016 primaries, a few political scientists drew attention to a link between authoritarian personality traits and support for Trump. For Religion Dispatches, I wrote at the time, "if 'a desire for order and a fear of outsiders' predicts Trump support, the question of why white evangelicals are backing a trash-talking billionaire can be easily answered."

Although the mainstream press has only haltingly begun to take such analysis seriously, my conclusion, which was intuitive to me as someone who grew up in white evangelical subculture and attended Christian schools, aged well over the next few years, as the rubric of "Christian nationalism" became an important part of the relevant discourse. No one should have been surprised by evangelical Trump support, and that the American public has done such a poor job of grappling with the issue is a sad commentary on the fundamental weakness of American civil society.

[. . .]

Could the national discussion of right-wing, white Christians as a distinct authoritarian "faction" that transcends party help us to escape from the trap of bothsidesism? Lilliana Mason, associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, seemed to suggest as much in a recent Twitter thread exploring some of the implications of a new paper she and colleagues Julie Wronski and John V. Kane recently published in American Political Science Review.

The main finding of the paper, "Activating Animus: The Uniquely Social Roots of Trump Support," is that support for the former president was driven primarily by negative feelings toward discrete social groups primarily associated with the Democratic Party: African Americans, Hispanics, Muslims, and gays and lesbians.

[Continues . . .]

"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Recusant

Oh my! The Washington Post is shocked to learn that there are Dominionists in the United States.

"'How Theocracies Are Born': Experts Warn of 'Trump's Jesus Fascists' After Report on Christian GOP Churches" | The New Civil Rights Movement

QuoteExperts, journalists, and chroniclers of religious extremism are sounding alarm bells over a Washington Post exposé on "a growing Christian movement that is nondenominational, openly political and has become an engine of former president Donald Trump's Republican Party."

As The Post explains, "It is a world in which demons are real, miracles are real, and the ultimate mission is not just transforming individual lives but also turning civilization itself into their version of God's Kingdom: one with two genders, no abortion, a free-market economy, Bible-based education, church-based social programs and laws such as the ones curtailing LGBTQ rights now moving through statehouses around the country."

This is not just the world they want to create for themselves, as damaging and dangerous as that might be. This is a world they want to mandate for America.

In short, one could say, an American theocracy. Or worse, something that looks a bit like a scene from Margaret Atwood's dystopian work, The Handmaid's Tale.

"This is the world of Trump's spiritual adviser Paula White," The Post explains, "and many more lesser-known but influential religious leaders who prophesied that Trump would win the election and helped organize nationwide prayer rallies in the days before the Jan. 6 insurrection, speaking of an imminent 'heavenly strike' and 'a Christian populist uprising,' leading many who stormed the Capitol to believe they were taking back the country for God."

[Continues . . .]
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Recusant

A nice spooky story for the holiday. Fucking Dominionists.  :FSM moon:

"How extremist Christian theology is driving the right-wing assault on democracy" | Salon

QuoteProgressive policies and positions are supposed to be rooted in reality and hard evidence. But that's not always the case when it comes to the culture wars that have such an enormous impact on our politics — especially not since the unexpected evangelical embrace of Donald Trump in 2016, culminating in the "pro-life" death cult of anti-vaccine, COVID-denying religious leaders. If this development perplexed many on the left, it was less surprising to a small group of researchers who have been studying the hardcore anti-democratic theology known as dominionism that lies behind the contemporary Christian right, and its far-reaching influence over the last several decades.

One leading figure within that small group, Rachel Tabachnick, was featured in a recent webinar hosted by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (archived on YouTube here), as part of its Religion and Repro Learning Series program, overseen by the Rev. Dr. Cari Jackson. Tabachnick's writing on dominionism can be found at Talk2Action and Political Research Associates, and she's been interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air.

Her presentation sheds important light on at least three things: First of all, the vigilante element of the Texas anti-abortion law SB 8. Second, the larger pattern of disrupting or undermining governance, including the "constitutional sheriffs" movement, the installation of overtly partisan election officials and the red-state revolt against national COVID public health policies. While Donald Trump has exploited that pattern ruthlessly, he did not create it. And third, the seemingly baffling fact that an anti-democratic minority feels entitled to accuse its opponents — including democratically elected officials — of "tyranny."

[Continues . . .]

A special place in Hell is reserved for those who would undermine human order with subtle attacks on morals and customs!  :lynch: :devil:
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Recusant

As B.B. Rodriquez might say, "Yeah, 'both sides' my shiny metal ass!"

"Michael Flynn Demands 'One Religion Under God' At Far-Right Rally" | HuffPost

QuoteIn his latest journey to the edge of extreme, Donald Trump's former national security adviser and felon Michael Flynn called for a single religion in America.

"If we are going to have one nation under God — which we must — we have to have one religion," Flynn said in San Antonio at a stop for the far-right "ReAwaken America" tour. "One nation under God, and one religion under God."

Such a vision is completely contrary to the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion, and the separation of church and state.

[Continues . . .]
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Bad Penny II

Quote from: Tank on November 17, 2021, 12:11:44 PM
It just gets madder!

Will we at some point reach ultimate mad?
I think madness might be an infinite thing
Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Tank

Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 17, 2021, 12:42:46 PM
Quote from: Tank on November 17, 2021, 12:11:44 PM
It just gets madder!

Will we at some point reach ultimate mad?
I think madness might be an infinite thing

Do you mean Mad Max?
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

billy rubin



"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Ecurb Noselrub

Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 17, 2021, 12:42:46 PM
Quote from: Tank on November 17, 2021, 12:11:44 PM
It just gets madder!

Will we at some point reach ultimate mad?
I think madness might be an infinite thing

With Trump, there is no bottom.  With his supporters, there is no ultimate mad.

Magdalena

Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on November 18, 2021, 07:45:10 PM
Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 17, 2021, 12:42:46 PM
Quote from: Tank on November 17, 2021, 12:11:44 PM
It just gets madder!

Will we at some point reach ultimate mad?
I think madness might be an infinite thing

With Trump, there is no bottom.  With his supporters, there is no ultimate mad.
Oh! Please, let me borrow that quote!
Yes?
It would be a hit at a protest.

"I've had several "spiritual" or numinous experiences over the years, but never felt that they were the product of anything but the workings of my own mind in reaction to the universe." ~Recusant

Ecurb Noselrub

Quote from: Magdalena on November 18, 2021, 07:58:51 PM
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on November 18, 2021, 07:45:10 PM
Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 17, 2021, 12:42:46 PM
Quote from: Tank on November 17, 2021, 12:11:44 PM
It just gets madder!

Will we at some point reach ultimate mad?
I think madness might be an infinite thing

With Trump, there is no bottom.  With his supporters, there is no ultimate mad.
Oh! Please, let me borrow that quote!
Yes?
It would be a hit at a protest.


You can use it as you like - maybe "crazy" instead of "mad"?

Magdalena

Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on November 18, 2021, 08:48:08 PM
Quote from: Magdalena on November 18, 2021, 07:58:51 PM
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on November 18, 2021, 07:45:10 PM
Quote from: Bad Penny II on November 17, 2021, 12:42:46 PM
Quote from: Tank on November 17, 2021, 12:11:44 PM
It just gets madder!

Will we at some point reach ultimate mad?
I think madness might be an infinite thing

With Trump, there is no bottom.  With his supporters, there is no ultimate mad.
Oh! Please, let me borrow that quote!
Yes?
It would be a hit at a protest.


You can use it as you like - maybe "crazy" instead of "mad"?
No, mad is fine.
(No refunds, no returns, no exchanges.) Mad it is. Thank you.
:grin:

"I've had several "spiritual" or numinous experiences over the years, but never felt that they were the product of anything but the workings of my own mind in reaction to the universe." ~Recusant

Bad Penny II

Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.