Theocracy and the Religious Right

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I've been reading up on the Religious Right (an oxymoron, IMO) and came across a website awhile back that has some good information on it. The site is [url=http://www.theocracywatch.org[/url]Theocracy Watch[/url] . It talks about how the Religious Right came to be and their current influence and goals. I strongly recommend anyone who's interested in religion/politics check out this site. You can watch some videos or audio files for free on the site. I won't go into details because the site is pretty self-explanatory.

I'm a regular visitor to the site, it's a good, reliable resource on the issue (it's a project site for Cornell University's Center for Religion, Ethics, and Public Policy). May I ask what your take is on the situation, Yellowbird? I've also been visiting some of the websites of the religious right such as visionforum.com to better understand their point of view and I find that I do now and that it's not so much the ordinary people involved that I am concerned about but the people who are selfishly manipulating their religious views for political gain. I hope I'm not striking a blow to your credibility by advocating this site in light of a certain thread I started and have regretted ever since

The real threat IMO is how politicians use these issues to foster partisanship, division, and voter base.

YellowBird calling Religious Right an oxymoron is a fair example of this. By bringing up whether religion is left or right, they have framed the debate in a manner which can only divide us inso bickering left-right partisans. Implying religion or Christianity is left, not right, I fear YellowBird adds to the problem.

How about allowing religion to exist largely outside of politics instead of dragging it into left-right partisan wars?

/not left nor right

Religion and politics should not mix. I have said in other posts that the 'Religious Right' is terrifying on many levels. I am not going to go into that right now, as I am too exhausted to start ranting.

Thanks for the link, YellowBird.

*getting on soapbox*

Ok, Im gonna start ranting, and please bear with me as I am under the influance of some cold meds and I might not be as lucid as I would like,..... that said....

I live in the Bible Belt, and I know first hand the power the "religious right" can weild. I am religious, but im far from conservitive in those views. I am a Methodist. the methodist Church allows women to become pastors, and bishiops and so on. I also am educated whough to know that much of the bibical passages that arent pro women were writtne at a time when women were denied rights. That doesnt mean that those times have to be now.
I work in a mans job, and I am riticuled accordingly by many "conservitive christians". and all this time I thought the Bible said we arent supposed to judge....
The picking and choosing of the passages that are to be ignored or adored pisses me off! Who gave any man or woman for that matter the power to decide what we will and wont abide by in the good book???! The passages that are quoted to me in refrence to womens rights, homosexuals, family matters, etc are selected passages. People forget that God is suppsed to be a loving God, and a Forgiving God. He, not us, decide who goes and who doesnt go to hell or heaven or whatever.
And the groups that further the lies? They are just happy with themselves as they enjoy a level of power over the rest of us that arent in their "herd". Well they cant silence all of us.
Im all about religious freedom, that is the freedom to believe what you want or not at all. church and state should be seperate, all religions should be allowed freedom, and all genders should be allowed equality.
The State I live in, South Carolina, is being slowly filled with many of these "Religious right" people. they call their selves the christian Exodius. do a google search on them. I was shocked and appaled at what I read on their website. They advocated sucession from the union if they had to to create a Christian State.... no warm fuzzies here. Go look them up. People that advocate the rights of one oven another for what ever reason make me ill.
why cant we all just get along?
*steps off soap box*
I dont know if I made any sense, like I said cold meds and all, but if you doubt me, come visit the bible belt, it can be an experience....

Thanks for the site, YellowBird. I've been thinking that for awhile now but it's great to see it all summed up.

I think the Muslims had it right when a long time ago they agreed that Politics corrupts Religion and Religion corrupts Politics; therefore, the two should not mix.

Not that they believe that anymore it seems. But they coined that idea, to my knowledge (I was listening in on a world religions class before my psych class, while sitting out in the hallway. Very interesting.)

Religion + Politics= People / (opinion * #of people)


Looks like a crappy equasion to me.....

they are also anti-Jewish

Great post Ladysmokeater...um, if you don't mind me saying that is I've been reading up on a few of the websites operated by members of the religious right, and I find a number of things disturbing, and one of those is their views on women. They believe that no methods birth control or sterilization whatsoever be used, which often results in the women having anything from 3 to 12 pregnancies (sometimes more, sometimes less), and that under no circumstances should the pregnancy be terminated even if the mother's life is in danger. All of this comes straight out of selected Biblical passages, which were written, as Ladysmokeater so aptly pointed out, in a time when women were viewed much differently as they are now-as little more than property, really. From what I've read the women are given respect and are said to be regarded as equals (which confuses me a bit, since they are supposed to be subordinate to male authority), so it's not direct hostility but the more indirect hostility towards women, gays, and those who do not belong to the same religion that usually results from fundamentalism. A number of other disturbing things advocated on these sites are a return to Old Testament law and a mandate to take dominion over the earth, which basically means replacing all secular institutions with Christian ones as well as converting everyone to Christianity. I don't really mean to attack or criticize the people who practice these religions-I really don't think that's the right approach since that will increase their already present feelings of alienation and add fuel to their fire-since I understand that for many, it's all they've ever known as they were taught these things from day one, and it can be really hard to break out of that. But I think that fundamentalism in any form does far more harm than good, and I hope that something can be done to stop it, whether it be Christian fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalism, or fundamentalism of any other form.

Anti-evangelical fear mongering (like the last post) will only serve divisive politicians.

Instead, why not argue for a society based on life-and-let-live and the golden rule. Surely that's something we can all agree on without conjuring dreadful images of bible-thumpers run amok.

Really, think what that line of reasoning serves. It's no better than the headless chickens complaining about secularism and "Happy Holidays!"

anarkhos,
You should visit the bible belt. I am reminded frequently that Eve is the reason I should be "submissive" and that the sexest writings of St. Paul are justification for my not being able to "lead men"....
then I remember that the first diciple of Christ was a woman.... His mother......
And I think of St. Joan of Arc that as a teenage girl lead men into battle, though many would acuse her of mental illness, but has she been a he would they have dared.

I like the idea of "live and let live" especally in religion, but its the loud and often times powerful fundmentalists that manage to control the masses in the end through clever manipulation of facts. Those facts are arranged in such a way that the non thinking masses will follow like sheep. I am not a sheep. I am a thinkning and questioning creature. Though I have faith in the unseen, that is in God, I question the interpratations of the devine that are spouted by man. As man (and woman) is an imperfect creature, the mortal mind can not possibly grasp the infinate nature that is enbodied by that which we meekly call God. So the imortal, the imperfect, can not and will not ever beable to prefect an interpration of the devine. Thus man claims to be able to, but in doing so deludes the rest of the population into beleaving that that one, that "Perfect" book is the only truth. But the truth of the matter is that though inspired by divinity, by God if you will, it is still the hand of man that scribes the words, and the mind of man that interprates them and translates them. So religion, even my own, is imperfect. And if the "sheep" knew that fact? Well the entire system would fall apart and some "shepards" of hte people would loose those big salries.... So the shepards use the fear of eternal damnation to keep the sheep from questioning. And it is so when a woman questions her "place" according to the "good book" that the flames and brimstone are again brought unto the people to remind them that one must never question what is writen in the most holy of books. So the sheep live in fear if they do not dwell in ingnorance.... *sigh*.... No one wants to be left from the flock as they are made to believe that their souls would suffer if that would happen... so again the inaccuracies, and even the lies prepetuate themselves on and on....

Some how I think that though God revles in our faith in him (or her how ever you want to look at it) I also think that he wants us to be thinkers as well as believers. for he made us able to reason. I can not see God looking away an anyone that though believes, calls into question the words of an imperfect man.


midge, glad ya liked my post....