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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen religion becomes a mere stand-in for secular values
(This post is about politics, not religion)
There was a time when people took religion somewhat seriously as a set of beliefs about the divine, not merely a set of secular social attitudes.
It sort of mattered whether a candidate believed Jesus to be the messaih or a prophet or a well-intentioned heretic. Whether one confessed their sins directly to god or through an intermediary... and so on.
Then something funny (and not ha ha funny) happened. The Republican party styled itself as the party of religion. Not the party if Jesus, mind you... of religion. Religion is, institutionally, a guardian of traditional values. Unlike faith, religion is intrinsically conservative. It is a bulwark against modernity.
Watch how the thing went down... first, all Protestant differences were blurred. Then Catholicism was accepted as just another Chrstian sect. Then Jews were folded into some newly-minted state religion called Judeo-Christian. Republicans now actually talk about our national religion of Judeo-Christian something or another.
This has all been nessecary in building a reactionary coalition opposed to choice, sexual diversity and Islam. Had geo-politics and immigration patterns gone differently, Islam could have been part of the vast secular traditional values religion but given the history of Israel there was only room for Islam or Judaism.
The RW secular non-faith has paid a lot of dividends for the reactionaries. At the risk of sounding harsh, southern extreme protestantism has numbers and energy but lacks the intellectual traditions to fight secularism. Anti-intellectualism is a handicap sometimes.
Catholics, who were once anathema, now provide the conservative brain trust. The conservative block on the SCOTUS is almost all catholic. Gingrich and Santorumthe current leading keepers of southern baptist valuesare catholic. Despite the vast doctrinal differences, the American right has come to recognize that Catholicism is a superior secular institution for the transition and maintainance of social tradition.
Mormons were once anathema, but they are superior poster children of the evangelical dream. They have lots of kids. They're good at making money. They smile all the time and say gosh-shucks. And they are sticklers for bizarre tradition for the sake of tradition. The oddities of their faith actually become an argument in their favor in the secular RW religion where adherance to any tradition is a good unto itself. (Remember all the RWers who express profound admiration for Joe Lieberman's devotion to orthodox Jewish tradtion, while simultaneously thinking he will spend eternity in hell for precisely the same highly-admirable devotion.)
So we now have the odd situation where a Republican presidential field heads into the uber-reactionary protestant stronghold of South Carolina with two mormons, two catholics, one devotee of an arch atheist (Paul via Ayn Rand) and only one southern protestant conservative (Perry) who may well finish last!
Because this stuff is not about faith, it is about a fairly newly minted secular religion that is the RW world-view as preserved and advanced by the anti-intellectualism and adherrance to antique values that are historically characteristic of religion.
The Magistrate
(95,241 posts)ashling
(25,771 posts)the Holy Ghost was synonymous with "the invisible hand."
RainDog
(28,784 posts)Serial Mom
(2,256 posts)nothing more needs to be said regarding the GOP - they are not decent...
immoderate
(20,885 posts)I grew up Jewish, and it was at the end of hundreds of years of antagonism between these cult factions.
There is some double-think that goes into the notion of ecumenism with an ideology that dehumanizes you.
I guess Judeo-Christian is the oxy-moron of religions.
--imm
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)friends who are not ultimately friends
immoderate
(20,885 posts)I want to add that I grew up with some Catholic and Baptist kids, and it was typical that we would totally ignore religion when adults weren't around.
--imm
Edit to add: I just noticed there are formatting buttons! I had given up hope! This is great!
LeftishBrit
(41,202 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,757 posts)Some may try tosee this as about religion. It isn't, in my view. It is about politics, and it is a good read.
LeftishBrit
(41,202 posts)In the UK, indeed, it is not unknown for people to be admitted atheists/agnostics, or occasionally members of minority religions, and nevertheless to support 'Christian traditions' in the UK *explicitly because* they perceive these as supporting a RW world view. Here is one recent example:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2078208/How-Dave-shamed-moral-cowards-Church.html
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)"It's mythology, but the peons need to believe in it so they stay in their place".
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Fundy Evangelicals and Conservative Catholics each think the other is going to hell, but the enemy of their enemy is their friend, so they work together anyway.