My Favorite Hate Email From the Religious Right
I received this email from a priest. At least it was signed! (The misspelling of the President's name, double question marks, capitalization etc., is in the original.)
Frank, I just read that you are supporting the pro-abortionist Barach Hussein Obama... Now you support a man who is the dream come true of everything ANTI-Christian. Are you no longer Christian?? I was stunned... Please respond, How could you post on the Huffington Post, the most anti-Christian, anti-traditional site?? These people HATE everything Christianity stands for!
In Christ, Father G.
Rant starts here: I can only imagine the steady diet of junk ideology that must have been pouring from right wing web sites, evangelical leaders, talk radio and bizarre newsletters into Fr. G's head to have pushed him -- a priest no less, supposedly a confessor, shepherd and comforter -- to put politics ahead of faith and thus berate a complete stranger and question his faith on the basis of who that stranger voted for or what web sites he writes for!
The Religious Right has seduced millions of Americans with titillating hatred and lies, including people like Fr. G. Lies -- the Earth was created in six days and is not warming, Obama is a secret Muslim -- perhaps the Antichrist! -- and wants women to have more abortions, gays are trying to take over America, the United Nations (and/or Obama and/or the president of the European Union) is (also?) the Antichrist, an unregulated free market economy is Christian, guns keep people safe, stem cell research equals infanticide, capital punishment is good, immigrants are the enemy etc., -- are accepted as truth by a whole substrata of "Christians" determined to judge their country as "fallen away from God" because they don't agree with their fellow citizens' politics.
Appeals to facts get nowhere with these folks because they don't trust any sources but their own emanating from an alternative right wing universe, so arguments become circular. The more impartial, serious or academic the source, the more suspect it becomes. Propaganda, fulminating (and fund raising), hate of gays, women, our government, big city folks, the educated "elite," everything-not-like-us-"Real-Americans," supplants compassion and even common sense. And one is guilty by association. Write for the "wrong" people -- "these people" in the words of Fr. G -- vote for the "wrong" president, and it's off to the stake.
It's not fair to hold fundamentalists, even ones masquerading as priests -- I say "masquerading" because nothing could be further from the spirit of faith than Fr. G's smoldering email -- to a higher standard than the rest of us. Fr. G's lack of connection to reality, let alone the compassionate tradition of his beliefs (or to simple manners) is a symptom of the larger American entertainment-oriented and compartmentalized moron culture we live in and have all been tainted by.
The late Neil Postman, author, New York University professor and prophet, predicted how and why people such as Fr. G would be living in a half-assed dream world cut off from reality. Postman was best known for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which he wrote:
Television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information -- misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information -- information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing....What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumble puppy.
Postman is not the only person to have accurately predicted where we were headed and the sort of society that our disjointed news media-as-entertainment, texting as "writing," blogging as "news," would produce. RoboCop (1987) was a mediocre (and nastily sadistic) little movie but director Paul Verhoeven got one thing right: the "news" shows on TV in his futuristic dystopia. His parody of glib, cheerful trivia clips as news has come horribly true, even more so with the advent of the ideologically divided web, wherein people have their "information" filtered by like-minded ideologues and rarely encounter views they disagree with. As Postman predicted, Huxley's prophetic vision came to pass: we are "a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies."
We live in the spiritual/political/intellectual equivalent to the 1979 movie Mad Max. Unlike that movie's post-apocalyptic landscape, the external trappings of our civilization are in tact but our intellectual life is running on inertia. Metaphorically speaking, if Fr. G is all of our "priest," then his "flock" is made up of the sorts of people that Jay Leno interviewed on the street in his hilarious (and depressing) recurring "Tonight Show" gag where he used to ask questions such as, "who is the vice president?" or "who was Christopher Columbus?" or "finish this saying, a stitch in time saves -- "and most respondents could not answer.
We have become a nation of not terribly bright children who essentially have a collective learning disability manifested by an inability to concentrate or defer gratification, hold one thought long enough to see it through to a conclusion or contemplate making real sacrifices for long term benefits. The Fr. Gs of this world are the result.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer. He is author of the forthcoming Patience With God -- Faith For People Who Don't Like Religion (Or Atheism) and also of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back (Now in paperback in bookstores everywhere).
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Things are really under stress nowdays. Change must be coming.
Politics..
The Republican party is the party of the rich. Its only real value is in political power to tilt government toward helping the rich get richer. It is no longer working. Can the rich put the pieces back together, or would they be better served by moving their support (money) someplace new? It is of critical importance that the party of the rich not be identified as the party of the rich. For this reason, it may be a while before we understand what they will do next. The faces of the Republican party (the politicians and talk show hosts and conservative values supporters) are of no use to the rich if they are no longer in a position to deliver. These faces are stuck to the party and will keep it alive for some time, but without support of the rich they will ultimately go nowhere and will fade out, and it won't make any difference because the party of the rich will already be someplace else, perhaps in the pro-business wing of the democratic party.
The Church...
Fewer people are saying they belong to a church. The church was held together for a time through political power. Now that is gone, and it will become clear nothing is holding the church together. The non-church portion of this country will grow at an even faster rate. America has stuck with being a religious nation while Europe became more secular. We do not want to follow Europe in any way, so if we have to become more secular we will have no choice but to become more secular than Europe so that we can pull back out in front and they can follow us again.
Evolution.
We Americans have made our share of mistakes by mixing politics or religion with science, but nowhere is this more of a disaster than American resistance to the theory of evolution. Scientific progress in understanding just how true the theory of evolution is continues to accelerate. Rejecting evolution is equivalent to rejecting God.
Frank-
Wonderful piece.
I don't think that the intense, overwhelming and insurmountable ignorance that is so aggressively pursued by the so-called priest is about television or disinformation as much as it is all about consumerism.
The American culture is unprecedented in it's massive and determined consumerism, and disinformation about global warming, abortion law, sex education, stem cell research, health care reform, etc, etc. are all in defense of a consumer-driven economy that supplants the people's right to direct representation in their own government for representation only of corporate bodies that benefit from taxes and tax breaks to maintain power and profit for companies and for individuals that run them.
The "Father" has been brainwashed into defending an authoritarian cultural mind-set that seeks to supplant all reality as well as human rights with corporate greed. I believe that there's no changing such minds. We just have to wait for them to die off.
Perhaps we should do more than just wait for them to die off. There is great tension built up. If you wait for the situation to relax through attrition, you will miss what is about to happen as powerful stresses change and snap in what may seem like unpredictable directions. We need to understand these forces so we can see what might happen and try to be on the correct side.
Centrifugal Bungle Puppy is the name of my new band.
Ugh. I'm so tired of Catholics harping on abortion with their tired ideas. This argument has clearly been settled - a fetus is not human life already!!! Imagine what the population would be if we hadn't had legalized abortion for the last 36 years - and overpopulation is still a real threat. Frankly, we should be promoting abortion, not discouraging it...
Amazing article, Frank! It's really emotional, too. Yes, the Matrix is real.
However sarcastic Sean Penn's Oscar remarks were, apparently his Milk is an outstanding portrayal of struggle against intolerance. And however sassy Ms. Cyrus sez it best, "Jesus loves you AND your partner.." Besides, her paw has a downright stompin' documentary about hillfolk like your hero and mine, the self-professed ... and Senator from the State of Virginia. [Disclaimer: I have yet to see all three shows, so I'm trusting the critics.] So, a couple things Frank, why knock entertainment, when the entertainers are doing the work of exposing intolerance, of empathizing with the suffering and in the case of news, reminding us how absurd most of it really is. And second, I can hear your whip cracking and the clink of the money changers tables getting overturned, but in this blog, it's not clear what alternative you propose. This is going to sound indelicate
How should we live? Politics divides us. Truth is the way forward. The way to find truth is to eliminate contradiction. We are not able to know all truth, but we can know some. Concentrating on what we can know might ultimately lead to a reallignment for the benefit of all humanity.
Truth - The last 150 years of study of the fossil record and especially the recent advances in DNA sequencing show beyond any question of doubt Darwin was right, there is a tree of life showing common ancestory of all living things on earth. America needs to recognize this fact because stubborn belief in contradiction always leads to increasing belief in more contradiction.
Another fine post from an excellent writer who should be more widely read as defender of freedom of thought (and the responsibilities of conscience that demands).
That was not written by a priest! Period. Unless he's mentally unhinged and doesn't know who he is anymore. Those are not the words of a Catholic priest, they are the words of a fundamentaistl hater who calls himself a Christian.
I yearn for the day that science supercedes religion and men that wear dresses and pointed hats no longer dictate the moral ineptitudes that lead to discrimination, feigned self righteous indignities, religious wars and deaths. The day that christians no longer kill the spirit of man by classifying him as a sinner at birth. The day that society recognizes that the hedious religious moral judgements imposed on humanity cannot be reconciled with a compassionate God.The day that the fires of the flat earth mentality are finally extinguished once and for all. That is the day that God will have obtained authenticity.
Well said!
I join you in that yearning..
Here, here!
Psuedo Republican christians should realize that the "Satan" of this world shines brightest on the 'evil' who claim to be "Christan". For years I have listened to the alleged 'christian right', and found them to be the anti-christ of modern day. Please consider reading the bible once in a while instead of listening to ONLY your priest, pastor, minister. It will open the eyes of these psuedo christians, exposing them to the 'real' shining light. Judgement Day will certainly pick those so-called christians first to expose and reveal their evils to our almighty father, who by definition is really the only voice we shoud be listening to, along with his beloved Son.
These 'self righteous men and women' are among the most damned false prophets.
I tell you what, Father G needs to first remove the plank from his own eye before he attempts to remove the speck in someone else's.
In Christ, Londongal
Good character and religious faith are entirely independent of one another.
As it now stands, all of America, even intimidated progressives, have permitted *professed * Christianity and good character to be conflated, when the more loudly politicians claim to be Christians, the more suspect is their character.
Matt 6:1 -- "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."
Atheists, agnostics, and persons of non-Christian faiths are just as likely to be righteous, upstanding, compassionate and spiritual as any Christian.
You have to admire Christians for the strength with which they carry on under the heavy burden of a set of contradictory beliefs.
I refer you to the greatest speech ever delivered.
http://www
Unfortunately, the reason why it appears to be so cogent and breathtaking speaks more to the ignorance of the American populace than the brilliance of the speaker's arguments.
Come on America, wake up, look at the truth evidenced by what you see around, think. You are an educated nation, potentially the greatest nation ever, but you have to act that way. I wasn't born here, but my children were.
Christianity at its most tolerant and compassionate. No wonder they are so admired among the literate.
Of course you saw the poll that indicated that the more church-going one is, the more one has the tendency to support torture (CNN blurb yesterday on it). CHRISTianity indeed.
I am a committed Christian but one thing that horrifies me about traditional Christian thought is the concept of eternal suffering of non-believers. If Christians believe that other people (e.g., Muslims) have been judged by God to deserve eternal torture, what a small thing it is to believe that they should also be subject to (much milder) torture by men.
The greatest number of Christians supporting torture was among evangelicals, by a rather large margin; mainstream protestants not so much. Seems like those with the most dependence on blind faith are the most inclined to believe torture is OK with them.
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