Roots of Our Right Wing Menace

What people must realize, as I learned years ago in divinity school, is that there is an anti-intellectual, emotive, deviant version of U.S. protestantism that developed during the mid-19th century in reaction to the Eastern theologically based traditions:

http://genesoc.com/cms4/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=59

The Civil War exacerbated the split between the so-called "new Light" and "old light" Protestants with the former becoming the ardent defenders of slavery, leading directly to formation of the racially exclusive Christian Schools (following the desegregation decision of Brown), the White Citizens Councils, and the John Birch Society. This 'red state' mentality is flourishing out there -- it is really a hate religion at its roots, threatened by minorities and the major urban centers.

If you read Paul's Letter to the Romans where he launches his attack on gays and Jews and plays the sycophantic Roman patriot, you will see these same attitudes being promoted by our right wing born agains. As our genocidal Anglo takeover from the native Americans was viewed as a replay of Moses' formation of Israel (a "New Israel"), so the attack on Iraq is seen as part of the the restoration of another new Israel -- in preparation for its destruction with the return of the Savior as predicted by the vicious Book of Revelations! Such should scare the hell out of all of us with its vision of a final apocalyptic holocaust for all (unconverted) mankind -- one more betrayal of the prophetic gospel of peace and justice of Jesus of Nazareth!

Let me add that there are also some humane and caring evangelicals -- see Jim Wallis and the Sojourners who tried to work with Bush originally and then saw with horror what a menace and a fraud he really is:

http://www.sojo.net/

The traditional churches are fading, but also trying to sustain caring protestant Christianity:

http://www.faithfulamerica.org/home.htm

Some of my former classmates, dear friends, are engaged in the struggle to keep their denominations from being taken over by the right wing, which is on the march in all cultural quarters.

You should also know that William Buckley who lurked around the edges of our Yale life in my days as an undergraduate (God and Man at Yale) with his then explicit Franco and Opus Dei based anti-Semitism (the right wing Catholic lay organization with a very mixed background):

http://www.mond.at/opus.dei/

started the unholy neo fascist alliance of neocons, right wing fundamentalists, and libertarians, which has now expanded to some 300+ right wing think tanks scattered around the country -- Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Manhattan Institute, 'American Family' operations (with various titles), Hoover, Cato (libertarian) -- well supported by big bucks, many from inherited fortunes of old, e.g. Richard Mellon Scaife who funded the attacks on the Clintons.

http://archive.salon.com/news/1998/04/07news.html

Check them out. These are scary times, as these people are extremely dangerous and will stop at nothing, NOTHING! Torture here and abroad and an illegal oil war are just the beginning. EAK