Once again school has taken over my life, but I wanted to share a great Sightings email from early October, "Evangelicaldom," by Martin Marty. The topic was evangelicals' involvement in politics, and it made me realize why it is so difficult to have a civil conversation with politically conservative Christians.
Marty references an article in the Los Angeles Times that describes the "absolutist style of religious fundamentalism":
Those who oppose the religification of politics may think all they have to do is change tactics, but they are sadly, tragically mistaken. They can never win, because for the political fundamentalists, this isn’t political jousting, this is Armageddon. With stakes like that, they will not lose, and there is nothing democrats – small ‘d’ and capital ‘D’ – can do about it.
This struck a chord with me, because it is really difficult to reason with people who are truly convinced that their political stances have the seal of approval from God, and moving even a little bit from their stances would be sinful. It would have negative eternal consequences. How can you have a productive conversation with someone so set in her ways like this? With so much "at stake," these Armageddonists are not budging. Political/fiscal conservatives are geniuses for aligning with them. Geniuses.
Great post. You can't converse with people like this. I try on FB to no avail. BTW, this scares the shit out of me. Religious zealots here in the states are just a step removed from the Taliban, and it will not be long before the turn to violence as well.
Posted by: Jason | November 05, 2009 at 10:52 AM
Don't you think some have turned to violence already? Doctors who perform abortions have been killed, and people showing up at anti-healthcare reform rallies wearing the same t-shirts/slogans that Timothy McVeigh was wearing when he was arrested.
And maybe it's because I'm a pacifist, but I think the religious right uses a lot of violent imagery. One of the guys I grew up with in church youth group once commented (since he was going into the military) that he couldn't wait to learn to fly planes and drop bombs on people in Iraq. How are his ethics any different from the people on the other side? Both are just as violent in order to get their view across.
Posted by: Natalie | November 05, 2009 at 06:33 PM
Unfortunately I think you are right. We are already experiencing the "eye for an eye" attitude. In a discussion on fb recently one young lady told me she would like to see Obama die a slow painful death. When I inquired as to why, she said it was because he was not a man of god. This is of course why I no longer want to be associated with Christianity. In my experience she is not the exception, but the rule.
Posted by: Jason | November 06, 2009 at 06:30 AM
You know, when W. was president I tried to work on seeing him as a brother in Christ since he claimed to be a Christian. I tried to love him. I don't know if you've read Anne Lamott, but her attitude toward him was what encouraged me. She is a Christian on the left, and she really worked on not saying/feeling hateful things toward President Bush. I have yet to see this attitude with conservative Christians toward Obama...
Posted by: Natalie | November 08, 2009 at 12:03 PM