We Are Headed For A Real Clash With These Fundamentalists. They Are Doubling Down In 2016.

[TheMastersNemesis]

I see the radical fundamentalists doubling down everywhere rather then compromising in any way on their agenda. ONe element of the is saying they will NO longer remain silent. The sanctuary stand off also has a strong religious component to it. People like Kim Davis claim they are on God's mission. They are hysterical about LGBT rights and want to reverse them. And some GOP presidential candidates claim they are called by God or appointed by God.

Such pronouncements make this election more contentious than ever. And it makes this election cycle more disturbing as well.

I am old enough to remember the controversy when Kennedy ran for office. And he gave a masterful speech about separation of church and state. What the hell has happened to us since 1960?

Now the meme is that you must be a radical Christian to run on a theocracy ticket to be accepted by certain elements. We cannot survive as a nation with all this all this pseudo religiosity.

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. 2106? That's 90 years from now. Even if it's this year, let them. nt

[BeyondGeography]

2. I'll worry about it later then

[KamaAina]

3. Won't the Rapture have happened by 2106?

[safeinOhio]

4. Only a quarter of population they are only

Loud.

[TheMastersNemesis]

6. Yes They Are But They Are Moving Forward.

Look how far they have come reducing reproductive rights.

[Hortensis]

20. Fanaticism has brought them far. BUT remember,

the "born-again" era of religious growth is over. Most religions have been losing adherents for some while as society moves back toward levels of the previous era. Although evangelists are the one large religious group in the U.S. that does not have falling numbers, neither are they growing as they should be if they were keeping up with population growth.

They're still dangerous, but we need to not be fooled by their passion and noise into thinking they are more numerous than they are. They'll win a smoke-and-mirrors deception if we are, though they'll chalk it up to God's finger.

Above all, they're causing a lot more trouble for the GOP than us. They've transformed the GOP into an extreme right-wing white party but are still impossible to please because they are far out of step with mainstream wishes. The big question is whether the GOP will finally lose national power from pandering to them too much too long or from refusing to pander to them and losing their critically dependable vote.

[randys1]

9. WRONG way to look at it, they received one million less votes in house elections and still

control the house.

They steal elections, they prevent millions, yes I said millions of Americans from voting.

They dont have to be a majority.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. Less than that.

In the universe of christian americans, only 17.7 percent of the country attend religious services routinely, and even that number was artificially inflated up by redefining "routinely" as 10x a year. (which includes x-mas, easter, etc) Religious folks almost always cite the number as being 40-60% which is patently self-serving and bullshit. In fact, serious studies find the US following the path of secular Europe (except for Poland, which apparently just imported our religious nuttery as well as mindlessly ultra-conservative policies)

Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists now constitute 20% of the population, a sizable increase over the last decade.

The Religious nuts see the scrawling on the wall, and so long as it uses printed letters and small words, they realize that their religious sway over the country is coming to an end, and soon.

Think of these last acts and conspiracies as their Alamo. And I don't mean rental cars.

[valerief]

13. I stopped believing in GAWD when I stopped believing in Santa and the tooth fairy.

However, most adults I've known throughout the years (those not flat-out atheists) are default believers.

Default believers don't attend church but don't say they're non-believers, which makes them believers by default in the U.S. They don't talk about GAWD or GAWDly things. Default believers do the rituals, but only if that means there's a party afterward. For example, if Catholic, they don't go to church--no party--but they'll baptise their babies (party) or have their kids receive communion (another party), etc.

They're too chickenshit to push back against the religious culture they were born into, even if it's not repressive, like with Southern Baptists. Maybe they just like the reasons for the parties.

So I like to break down the believers in the U.S. into these groups:
> non-believers (most honest group; probably the 2nd largest U.S. group)
> default believers (lazy-ass group; the largest U.S. group)
> true believers (they believe but don't want to interfere with the rights of non-believers; 3rd largest)
> psycho believers (these are the megachurch/Cruz fans; they've lost their minds and every last one threatens our rights; 4th largest)

So unless a news stories breaks down a religious population into these groups, it's not telling me anything.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. methinks that your analysis is spot on. I have the same sense

and still shake my head at how the religiosity nuts have managed to wrestle so much power despite the lack of numbers. Oh, I understand that there is a natural reticence among us, allowing those who believe to live and let live. But these nuts not only demand that we let them practice (which we have NEVER tried to stop or regulate, except that crucifixion thingie), but they demand that as part of their religious freedom, they get to dictate what we can or cannot do.

[valerief]

19. Religion has always been a tool to control the masses. It has no other practical function. nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

21. Yup.

I am sure that it has done some good. (in centuries past) The bar against transfusions was a health issue before RH factors were discovered. The bar against eating shellfish was based on the periodic poisoning of them each summer. The bar against women who "leak blood" - TEH HORROR! ICKY! Or to quote Teh Donald, "THAT'S JUST NASTY!" heh, no wonder Falwell endorsed him.

But this is the 21th century, (which, when read, is "Twenty-Oneth&quot except in the minds of Tea Bag Central. For them, it is the first step back to the 16th.

[valerief]

23. Religion never did anything good. Good people who might happen to be religious

have done good things, even if they had to use religion to get people to do sensible things they wanted. Of course, without religion, they could just explain things in practical terms.

[TheMastersNemesis]

5. Oops.

Typo.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

18. that's ok. I am Type O Positive, too.

although my partner is AB negative.

[randys1]

7. They have a well oiled machine not only to destroy Hillary and then Bernie but to steal elections.

Defeating Hillary (or Bernie) means billions of profits in their pockets and it means destroying minorities and Women.

They viciously hate everyone who voted for Obama as they have always hated minorities.

[valerief]

8. I like to think these are the death wails of religion.

Wouldn't it be swell to join the rest of the free world and hammer out religion from our politics?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. see my comment above. I agree with you.

But we still have to be careful. When cornered these crazies are armed with bibles, beer and AK-47s. And I am not so sure about the first item.

[smirkymonkey]

16. That's what I would like to think as well, but they are tenacious and getting

more and more aggressive. I think they know their world is disappearing and they are operating with the desperation of a last-gasper.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. Secularism and modernity itself is what happened.

They were around in 1960. But largely unembraced.

Now they're a clear and present danger to the old world view.

It's scary for them, I guess.


>>>What the hell has happened to us since 1960? >>>>

[Warpy]

14. They peaked during the early 00s, with millennial fever at its height

and now it's all starting to slip away. The old lions from the 70s and 80s are dead or disgracing themselves with dementia. The new bunch seem more interested in power and the cash cow of tithes and can't arouse the faithful nearly as well. Sadly, the world has failed to end on schedule and once more the Great Tribulation will have to be postponed indefinitely.

Now they're being pushed back--hard--by all the humanist reforms that should have been accomplished over the last 50 years but were not.

The structure they're going to destroy is the Republican Party, which will either have to abandon the old neocon power structure that gave enough lip service to fundiies to keep their votes and turn it into the bible party or abandon the fundies altogether. In either case, that party is about to get a bit smaller.

Religious hysterics have always been among us. As long as the calendar isn't undergoing a dramatic change and plague isn't about, their numbers have generally been manageable.

[johnlucas]

15. You gotta recognize that these people are STILL fighting the Civil War

This group of people is just another flavor of the same meal.
These people are the Confederacy & they are STILL fighting the Civil War.
Sort of like North Korea & South Korea have this multi-decade cease fire but still have aggressions between themselves...
...that's how this is.

The United States didn't properly punish those traitors of the Confederate States in 1865 because in truth the ENTIRE country was built off of what that South was fighting for.
How can they kill their brother REALLY?
That's why they have been coddled for all these years SINCE then.
Every now & then the United States will rein them in but for the most part they are complicit in how this Confederacy has festered.
They are complicit in how this Confederacy influences the culture & the policies.
That's why nobody's really doing anything about those armed rednecks in Oregon but will bring out the National Guard for unarmed Blacks in Missouri.

The South spread BEYOND the South long ago.
There's a reason why they call it Country-Western.
But if you look at the origins of where these people ultimately came from you'll see it all link back up to the Confederacy.
Californian Clint Eastwood who's a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans makes a bunch of Westerns & spews "Conservative" views. "Conservative" or Confederate?
All that Moral Majority stuff was formed by a bunch of Southern preachers. Confederacy again.
John Birch Society started by Robert Welch Jr. who was born & raised in North Carolina. Confederacy once again.

All this Southern Baptist, Christian Dominionism kind of stuff comes out of that SAME cluster—the Confederacy.
Different flavors of the same drink.
Even the Mormons have interlinked with it since they took up residency in Utah, a Western state.

The Republican Party once fought this group but ever since 1964 have ironically absorbed it.
So that party will share the fate of that group once the group is dismantled & destroyed.

The Confederacy is older than the 1860s.
It was there in the 1770s too. They don't wanna give up that FIEFDOM.
They have NEVER believed in the "United States" & have been subverting the notion of that idea from the very beginning.
The Confederacy hated the Civil War & they hated the Civil Rights.
They're not Civil people. They're destructive to the progress of humanity.

When Bernie Sanders wins in 2016 & becomes the 45th President of the United States (thank goodness he changed destiny!), I wouldn't be surprised if these fools stop pussy-footing around & try to restart the Civil War outright.
All that talk of succession has been going on already.
They KNOW that coalition is breaking down & Bernie's election is utter poison to it just like Obama's election was.
I recently made a post called The truth is if we didn't elect Obama, we wouldn't have Bernie as President.
Regardless of how you may feel about Obama, his election has changed the course of this country.
It's spelled out in a Salon article called Obama and the dawn of the Fourth Republic.
Obama merely BEING in office has crumbled the "Conservative" Confederate coalition.
After 8 years of Obama, 8 years of Bernie would guarantee their exit from the national & soon regional stages.

There's a reason they're stockpiling guns & walking around neighborhoods with AR-15's.
They're preparing for a war.
But problem is this ain't the 1860's anymore.
Don't bring a gun to a drone fight.
They're gonna lose regardless but before they lose, they're gonna try to go out with a bang. LITERALLY.
It's definitely coming & we have to get ready for it.

John Lucas

[Initech]

22. They're on a mission from god.

Where's Elwood and Jake when you need them?