In “The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right (https://newrepublic.com/article/170027/rise-spirit-warriors-christian-right-politics – downloadable below), my suspicions are confirmed. This ain’t about religion, folks!
I’m eager to pursue a conversation about the US version of “American culture wars” and its relationship with “the church,” in its many manifestations. I think this article has taken us somewhere even my most liberal Christian friends may not want to go. So I hope you will join me, whether as a person of faith, of no particular faith, or against faith.
I think we have a common cause for concern: Our nation is being subjugated to fear-mongering religious extremists of several stripes. Using militaristic jingoism to spur on the participants (on any side) is making the search for common ground impossible.
There is a tendency today to reduce social and political analysis to studying the antics of a handful of personalities. Many people blame America’s current political dysfunction on former President Donald Trump, and they take for granted that the problem will go away when he, at long last, departs for wherever he is going. It is true that Trump has been exceptionally successful in weaponizing Spirit Warrior Christianity and has pushed it further along. But the truth is that he was more of a creation of it than the other way around; it preceded him and will long outlast him.
The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right. https://newrepublic.com/article/170027/rise-spirit-warriors-christian-right-politics
Please, read the article! Then, let’s chat.
There is also a tendency to reduce the rise of the religious right as a political force to an ongoing, perfectly static culture war that takes place across policy positions on specific issues within the natural give and take of a democracy. But this is a mistake. The psychological needs of spiritual warriors are not going to be satisfied with a few concessions on abortion policy or same-sex marriage. Those issues are mostly pretexts for a need to settle grievances and claim dominance.
The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right. https://newrepublic.com/article/170027/rise-spirit-warriors-christian-right-politics
Skin of My Teeth 
Hearing rhetoric during political campaigns that paints a target on other Americans as the enemy (including myself, a heathen non-believer) rather than an opponent is sickening. Not only that, but watching as people act out on that rhetoric. I wrote a while back about how the people who scare me the most are not the preachers at the pulpits spewing hate and venom, but the members of their congregations shouting out, “AMEN!” to something rather repugnant.
Watching now as governors are taking away women’s bodily autonomy, banning books, censoring history classes, and trying to figure out how to enforce their narrow-minded, hate-filled, religious worldview on people makes me sick. I would love to participate in a conversation about this.
LikeLike