The Dominionists are coming! The Dominionists are coming!
Some contemporary Paul Revere’s of the internet write breathlessly about the Christian Right as if the advocates of theocracy have all but won. They conflate a sense of urgency about the situation or concern about the “agenda” of the Christian Right, with the inevitability or even the imminence of victory. I am writing this from the perspective of over twenty years of researching and writing about the Christian Right — and up front I want to say — don’t believe everything you read. As the song goes in West Side Story: “stay cool, boy.”
Has the Christian Right gained great political power? Yup.
Should we take it seriously? Yup.
Do we have a lot to learn? Yup.
Is it over? Far from it.
One more quickie Q&A.
Does this movement have a theocratic political agenda? Yes they do, although most of its leaders deny it, and certainly most conservative Christians would not agree with the more theocratic or “dominionist” elements. They have, however, been sold on a form of historical revisionism that claims that the U.S. was founded as a “Christian nation,” and that this legacy has been stolen — stolen! — by those who would betray God and the original intentions of the Founding Fathers. This is a powerful myth. And it is but one element of why the Christian Right is the best organized faction in American politics.
But politics is about many things, and it is always in motion. Many people have a tendency to freeze certain perceptions about political realities in thier minds — hence the danger of getting the notion of the power of the Christian right fixed in one’s mind such that one cannot see outcomes other than a Christian theocracy and a looming inquisition. The truth is that this is the stuff of B horror movies.
Well, OK. There is also The Handmaid’s Tale. (Margaret Atwood’s novel is much better than the movie.) But whether this tale of a future corrupt theocracy is a warning or a prophesy is entirely up to us.
But there are reality-based ways of evaluating the Christian right. And there are a lot of people who have spent a lot of years acquiring the kind of knowledge that will be useful in this time.
Meanwhile, let’s consider that the polls are way down for the GOP — and that the Christian Right that has bet everything on electing Christian Right pols via the Republican Party and that they may be in for a drubbing in 2006.
But whatever the next elections may hold, the doomsaying style of thought, analysis and writing about the Christian Right, can be deeply discouraging to the point of actually diminishing the capacity of opposing political forces to win elections. Can those who feel all is already lost be able to imagine victorious political and electoral outcomes? Can they participate in civic life with imagination and what John F. Kennedy used to call “great vigor” if they feel hopeless and defeated?
This kind of problem is not new, it just takes on different forms anc character in the age of the blogosphere. In my book Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, I devoted a whole chapter to the tendency in political and journalistic circles to treat the Christian Right as either a juggernaut or a joke. (There is less of the latter these days, but a good bit more of the former.) I particularly dissected the way that the media hyped and exaggerated the strength and power — first of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority organization and later Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition. Its not that these organizations were not strong and important at the time of these articles, its that they were not nearly as strong as reporting often made them out to be, and they had weaknesses that reporters often did not dig enough to see.
One of the key Christian Right strategists of the era, Colonel Donor (his name, not his rank), later marveled about this. “It was true,” he wrote of the late 1970s and early 1980s, “that the Christian Right… was viable and growing; but the media consistently gave the few national Christian Right organizations credit for larger budgets, more memberships, and more ‘muscle’ than actually existed. Memberships and financial strengths were routinely inflated by both the media and the Christian Right organizations themselves. But the media needed a good story in 1980,” he continued, “and the emergence of the Christian Right seemed to be as good as any.”
There are many players on the Christian Right, just as there are in any other sector. It can seem overwhelming to take it all in. It can be even harder to discern what is important from what is not. Thanks to the Bush administration, we all know the consequences of “flawed intelligence.” And while we know that there is a vast difference between errors and lies, what Colonel Doner is talking about above — is lies by Christian Right leaders that were printed as fact by the media. (And lets not get huffy about the mainstream media here, the alternative press was not immune from these kinds of errors.)
So lets keep a cool head. (And I say this as someone who is running a fever and gulping chicken soup as I write.) There are many pitfalls in understanding and evaluating the Christian Right in all of its manifestations.
Here are a few pointers from my experience.
Don’t confuse the agenda with the outcome.
Consider the sources of whats reported, and who is doing the reporting.
Don’t be afraid.
As Franklin Roosevelt said in his first inaugural address: “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”
In short, let’s not pyche ourselves out.
Let’s learn the things we need to learn to understand, and better contend with formidable opponents.
Let’s stay cool.
This is the second in a series of essay based on themes taken from Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy. The first was “The Dems Could Take a Cue from Jefferson.”
[Crossposted at Talk to Action]
We need to learn to walk on the stage of politics and public life in ways appropriate to our time. If we engage in hysteria about the dominionists instead of ratcheting up our knowledge and understanding, and adjusting our rhetoric, tactics and strategy accordingly, the hysteria could become self-fulfilliing prophesy.
an exception analysis of what the Christian riechwing is and isn’t.
exceptional
thanks, GdW.
Sorting is all out is tricky. They do indeed have a dangerous agenda we all need to know about. We also need to have very astute understandings of this movement’s strengths and weaknesses. This is the kind of understanding we need if we are seriouis about defending and advancing the values we say we hold dear.
Showing the rest of the country what the agenda is for these theocrats is the most important thing that can be done.
Letting the rest of America know that these self actualized Dominionist Theocratic Fascists are exactly what I just described them, will hopefully scare enough bored, on the fence Americans to get up off their butts and become a part of the political process.
One of the reasons these theocrats have gained so much power is that more than 40% of Americans can’t get off their butts to vote. That leaves the rest of us to fend off that threat to our very Democracy. If just 1/3 of that 40% would vote, we could knock these theocratic fascists into the abyss where they belong, no longer threatening our republic or our rights as US Citizens.
OH NO!
Not another dominionist conspiracy theory diary!
Right wing religious zealots will never rule America
Because the right wing capitalist zealots who already rule America will never let them.
Remember, it is a corporate conspiracy, not a religious conspiracy, that we should fear, especially now that the Chinese are starting to “get it.”
And remember, just because you are paranoid doesnt mean you dont have enemies.
but Illusions, do you realize that many of the fortune 500 are owned by religious zealots, such as WalMart, Tyson Foods, Dominoe’s Pizza and others that want not only to control the capital but the religious idealogy as well.
In a strange, twisted sort of way, it’s almost the other way around. The Christian Right is, to a large degree, a “manufactured demographic”, a “packaged lifestyle”. The sort that include an exclusionary ideology, group activities, and a wide variety of exciting products to purchase to improve and advertise your lifestyle. It’s the same kind of corporate-manufactured crap big corporations have been throwing at youth for decades now, only this time, they’ve hit on one that lets them control a substantial, active voting bloc and which actually encourages mindless conformity. (Much easier to exploit than a packaged lifestyle that encourages defiance) A lot of corporate CEOs – especially in the entertainment industry/content cartel – are buying in because they want to “look cool”.
I agree with you. In fact, your description of the christan right as an easily targeted consumer group also fits the blogging left as well, no?
The world is splitting into these smaller closed units, or being split by marketers, if you prefer.Both left and right, and its not a good thing in my opinion. Yes, and I would tend to blame the internets, which is also not necessarily a good thing, in my opinion. It seems to be capable of greater evil then good…but thats another topic…
Dominionism is a symptom of the West losing hegemony and the desperate fight of conservatives to staunch a force of nature that cannot be stopped…ie, the (relative)decline of western civ and culture.
Hm. I’m afraid you’re quite off about the causes of the behaviour you’re seeing. I recommend reading Cass Sunstein’s latest entries on Lawrence Lessig‘s blog. In a lot of ways, its a reaction to the availability of more and more information without the availability of tools to help a person sift good opposing viewpoints from bad opposing viewpoints. It’s not about the decline of Western culture, whatever that means. Rather, it’s about competition between those who want to see “Western culture” grow, develop, and evolve and those that want to see it stagnate.
I’m not saying they’re an easily target consumer group. Rather, I’m saying that they’re a manufactured consumer group. The blogging left as exemplified here on Booman Tribune is not such a group – we have an inclusionist ideology, have no real regular group activities, and have no need to really buy any products to participate in the group. (As opposed to the Christian Right, which advocates purchasing “approved” music, books, movies, clothing, etc.)
you may not be saying the Christian right are easily targeted consumers, but fact is they are….
The blogging phenom is another instance where (at least on some very popular websites) a marketer can advertise a product and be sure to find a fairly like minded audience in the millions gathered together around the internets.
I am a marketing consultant by trade, so I know alittle bit about this stuff. It can easily take you down a slippery slope that makes you begin to doubt the very concept of “freedom” in a capitalist, “information” driven world.
Just because you qualify Booman Trib as inclusionary (and I agree it is MUCH more inclusionary than some of those other blogs out there) doesnt mean that we are not just as easily targeted and segmented as the christian right.
You are simply making a value judgment btwn “us” and the christian right that, at least to me, is beside the point, and quite possibly not even accurate.
Manufactured? Not sure how you determine what is manufactured versus what is organic in this world. The word in your useage has no meaning to me, actually. You would need to have a philosophical discussion at that point, for which I am not very well qualified.
I would say that most of our desires, wants and what we call “needs” are manufactured elsewhere. Our brains are hard wired and empty at birth, but what we subsequently fill them up with, ie our thoughts, surely cannot be entirely or even very much organic, can they?
We are all mind controlled to a lesser or greater extent, and the addition of newer and easier means of communication make the controlling by others that much easier.
That is what I meant when I expressed reservations about the internets being a necessarily good thing.
Good discussion. Thanks and dont hesitate to come back after me– I truly enjoy the give and take with intelligent thinkers like you.
Where I digress from your point, is that we can unplug from the mind manipulation of the Marketers, Mass communication manipulaters and the Internet if needed. The other point that I think you miss or at least failed to address, is that human beings are capable of discarding information that is not perceived as in their best interest. Case in point, the many great writers on both sides of the political spectrum that do not just breath out the mainstream talking points. Nor do they fail to question their own leadership as to what is actually going on in their world.
Do I believe that the MSM and Major Communication outlets are trying to manipulate society and therefore gain a modicum of control over that society. You bet I believe that. That is why I strive to acheive the broadest media sample I can access, so I can balance out the manipulations. I personally don’t watch any TV, listen to multiple radio stations, scan the Internet for reliable information (reading multiple online newspapers and multiple blogs) to garner as wide a perspective on the information that is available.
Am I being manipulated, probably, but not the degree that someone who only watches faux news or network news is being manipulated.
I still have free will and until the theocrats/capitalist/fascists completely take over the world, I will continue to have that free will and I will gladly shout out when I see injustice, illegalities and out right lying from those who are supposed to represent all the people of this country.
Well, yes, I would agree that YOU can turn away from the “other” voices because you are (from my reading of your diaries) in a very different spiritual place than most of us.
This topic has been uppermost in my mind recently as I have been struggling with personal relationships, the need to be true to myself, etc.
I am also something of a devotee of Buddhism, which requires nothing less than the complete stilling of all outside voices and even nonattachment with the organic thoughts as they arise in our own minds. In other words, let them all go out and up into the air to evaporate like a child’s soap bubbles.
All in all, easier said than done, especially when we are inundated with outside voices all day every day, media generated and otherwise, many delivered subliminally and not even recognizable to our conscious minds.
While I don’t agree with all of your points, I think you bring up some good ones. It’s always a good idea to examine how we are being influenced. I once taught a critical thinking course in which one of the assignments was to identify specific instances of how media has shaped one’s thinking or behavior. About half the class simply couldn’t do it, no matter how hard we profs struggled to get them to see it. They kept insisting that only “other people” (clearly in their view, weaker, inferior types) would be influenced this way. They on the other hand, were “independent thinkers” that were never influenced by advertising, MTV, news programs, etc.
Many people on the left have a similar hubris, which I find dangerous. As you say, “. . . we are inundated with outside voices all day every day, media generated and otherwise, many delivered subliminally and not even recognizable to our conscious minds.” Our best hope for acquiring some independence of thought is to be aware of this and consciously seek out ways to avoid the worst of the attempts to manipulate our thinking, expose ourselves to alternative points of view, find time for quiet reflection, surround ourselves with people who challenge us and don’t just confirm our prejudices, etc.
If you haven’t already read this essay by Sut Jhally, you’ll probably find it interesting.
Thanks for the link and comment.
Hubris is dangerous and stubbornly persistent, which is amazing, since the Greek playwrights clearly and dramatically showed us the dangers at the very beginning of our Euro Civ, and these plays are still being widely taught (arent they?).
We never really learn, do we?
I am one of very few on the typing left who believes Dems current electoral challenges were largely selfcreated (mainly thru Clinton’s inability to keep his dick zippered, actually) and can be resolved only by us, and not worrying so much about changing them, or deriding them, or name calling them…every time I see a reference to “chimpie” or whatever, on a leftblog, I sort of cringe.
Not because I have any respect for the Primate-in- Chief, but because I worry more about OUR souls in this process.
Yes and Primate in Cheif is much more civilized than Chimpie now isn’t it? snark
pri-mate: 1. an archbishop, or the highest ranking bishop in a province, etc. 2. any of the most highly developed order of animals, including man, the apes, etc.
—Webster’s New World Dictionary
If I were an ape, I would be doubly insulted.
Read the essay, so allow me a few observations:
I am not an academic, but am a capitalist, in the sense that I run my own business, so please allow me to be critical (once again, haha)without taking it personally.
Everywhere I find these excellent critiques of current society and nowhere do I see any realistic solutions.
The only solution I see is the complete collapse of the environment, etc. that the author claims will take place in about 150 years without some kind of (unknown)action to retard the advancing destruction.
Karl Marx is/has/always will be as great a hero to me as Buddha and Jesus. His understanding of the dialectical nature of human history still astonishes me in its correctness.
His only real “mistake” was the Leninist/Stalinist and Maoist regimes which claimed to be “Marxist.”
Human beings are destructive. Life is nothing more than a process of destruction and decay, both for individual human beings and our socities.
Both Liberalism and Conservatism unfailingly deliver a very weak (and very hypocritical in the sense that both seek something they cannot honestly deliver, ie a “better world”)sort of yearning for a life that is not destructive or marked by decay, yet these are natural laws which cannot be changed through human political or economic activity.
As an example, we in the West may be able to totally clean up our shop (though I doubt it, realistically), but what of the third world, who now follow the capitalist model to bring better material lives to their people, most notably the Chinese (ironically, “Marxists”)?
Soon, China’s demand for natural resources will easily outstrip our own. Can we now deny them the right to be destructive consumerists just like ourselves, especially when Conservatives would argue that China’s reforms toward capitalism are a “triumph” for our way of life?
If I am sounding pessimistic here, its not because I am. Mankind will likely survive (again) but only after a cataclysmic catastrophe on the order of the Flood, or the twin French/American Revolutions which brought unprecendented years of warfare throughout the European/American domain.
Historically, human societies have evidenced no ability to reinvent themselves, as this author is yearning for us to do. Change necessarily comes from without, as the Marxist dialectic informs us (ie, the bourgeoisie overthrew the aristocracy through sheer force, Barbarians vs. Romans, etc.)
Hence, our tendency towards worshipping “deities”, whom we imagine to exist outside of ourselves, even as our deities (Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha) all consistently challenge us to go inside of ourselves to find the answers.
While these are large corporations you mention, they are but a mere speck of dust in the worldwide retail/industrial conglomeration, which is, after all, ruled by the financial markets, not by govts or religionists. Ruled in fact by the largest (ie richest) investors, many of whom are not even Christian to begin with….
Dominionism is overblown and the constant repetition on the leftblogs of its so called threat to our “freedom” (which is another debate we could have ad nauseum)is not an issue which will help us win elections. We just begin to look like the mirror image of the rightwingnuts themselves.
When you can cite evidence that Dominionism is overtaking Wall Street, London, Tokyo, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong kong and other capitals of the world financial markets, then I will agree with you and Clarkson.
Look at their numbers, the hard-core theocrats / dominionists are a very small, <25% +-, segment of the voting population. Granted, they have a very high profile, for reasons you’ve expressed much more eloquently, though perhaps too subtlety, than I could.
They cannot, nor should not, be discounted, but there are more people with more reasonable beliefs that need to be reached out to, to successfully counter their argument. Zealots are a lost cause. The key is to somehow develop a dialog with those “moderates”, if you will. There finally appears to be some evidence of that beginning to occur with the emergence of several christian groups advocating a retreat from the theocratic tendencies of the extreme.
Well written and recommended.
Peace
Certainly the more the lunatic extremists reveal the true depth of their own insanity, the harder it will become for them to successfully weaponize the ignorance of those they seek to recruit into their flocks.
And more actual evangelicals, (people concerned more with God than with the behavior of others), are seeing that those who would purport to lead them are spiritually bankrupt.
Many of these religious believers are beginning to understand that, just as rape is about power, not about sex, so too is the supposed piety and zealotry of maniacs like Dobson and Robertson, et. al. about power, not spirituality, not God.
…the Christian Right is ONE OF the best organized factions in American politics
The undisputed reigning champion- the BEST organized faction in American politics…drumroll, please…
The constellation of Pro-Israeli groups found under the AIPAC umbrella.
AIPAC affiliated groups continue to shower BOTH political parties with millions upon millions of dollars with the effect of having most Congresscritters placed securely under their thumb.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Since the 1989-90 election cycle, pro-Israel interests have contributed $41.3 million in individual, PAC, and soft money contributions to federal candidates and party committees. More than two-thirds of that total, or $28.6 million, has gone to Democrats.*
LINK HERE
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/pro-israel.pro-arab/index.asp
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1297/9712042.html
If you don’t know…now you know
are that;
Now, because of the characteristics in point #2, this means that these guys cannot willingly share power. Eventually, each one needs to stand alone at the top of their own power structure.
So, in the long run, these ambitious power hungry types always turn on each other in the end. (Just trying to imagine lunatics like Dobson, Robertson, Falwell or James Kennedy agreeing to share power with each other is laughable). They’re in cahoots generally with each other now as far as their assault on democracy, sex and women goes, but any such alliances are only temporary.
So, I agree with Fredrick Clarkson. these nuts have agendas, they are destructive, they have seized quite a bit of power, and we need to oppose them vigorously, but within their own insanity they carry the seeds of their own destruction. Even now, it’s easy to see that as these various groups have thought they were close to victory on certain matters, (Schiavo, for instance), the more power and influence they think they have, and the less able they are to conceal the true depth and breadth of their own insanity.
Their enthusiasm betrays their caution and their true nature shows through. And, the extremism of their ideology, when revealed in this way, scares even many evangelicals who’ve been following them. I live in the south and I have regular contact with many self-proclaimed evangelicals. And in the last 6 months or so I’ve had numerous conversations with many of them who are expressing a new wariness about the revealed extremism of those who’s views they previously never questioned. (Santorum is a perfect example, as are Robertson, Gary Bauer and the always sleazy Ralph Reed). The revealed wackines of these nuts is turning their own people off.
the King of Republican Direct Mail who behind RedState.org has made it his life work to fuel the abortion debate in the USA and make it a national political issue that is always on the table.
As a woman and a Canadian I don’t see abortion as a political debate. It is a tragic decision taken between a woman and her doctor. To legally deny this option to about 25% of the American population is terribly wrong. But to use the issue in presidential politics is right wing strategy.