Dealing with fundies

[LTRS]

I see a lot of posts that suggest we should try to be more religious, make inroads there, understand the fundies, etc. But come on folks, how realistic is that? It's no more realistic than the idea that we could talk Islamic fundies down from their militaristic ledge. Christin fundies can't be reasoned with any more than Islamic fundies can.

Plenty of Dems are Christian, Jew, Muslim, etc. Our focus would probably be better spent encouraging our allies and fellow liberals who are religious to stop letting religion be hijacked by these fundies, whose actions bare not the slightest resemblance to anything I have ever seen taught by Jesus.

These are the ones who have to stand up and be counted. Say that they don't speak for you and your religious values, because let's face it, they don't. I'm not religious myself, mainly because I have been so turned off by fundamentalism when I lived in the South. I used to be active in the church, but simply did not feel there was a place anywhere for me that lined up with my values. I wish there were.

When I moved to Seattle I even sought out such a place in the burbs where I live. Methodist church had this great commercial on TV about how all were welcome. So I called the local Methodist church and said, is my family welcome? We are two gay parents and a child and we would like to find a church near our home. They were like "oh no! - that's against our doctrine." Suggested I drive 20 miles to the city to find something like that. Yeah, just what I want to do every Sunday - commute 40 miles back and forth to church because even the Seattle burbs are full of fundies.

So, if you are still active, why not do some activism in your church? Get them to speak out, and maybe even be more Christ-like and accepting.

[NoSheep]

1. Tell 'em to join the Army nt

[NoSheep]

2. On a much more serious note...Thank you for caring. I also see very

little resemblance to what I was taught about right and wrong.
I have heard others say the Repubs don't have the right to say they own Morality and religious faith. We need more references to what we know as real morality in the words of those on our side. We are so much more concerned about others and I learned that from Jesus as a child and it still rings right with me today. We need to point to how our Christian upbringings shape our decisions when it comes to policy. :)

[Vincardog]

3. You are right we need to quit letting the radical rabid right define

our parameters. The Idiot Bush is a convenient Christian. He uses the abortion issue to rouse his judge mental base. He started an immoral illegal illegitimate war of aggression in Iraq, and is a war criminal for killing a Hundred Thousand men women and children. However his base says he is forgiven because he CLAIMS to have found Jesus in the past. I believe Jesus tells us that a man is to be judged on his ACTIONS not his words.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

4. Marginalize them like a bunch of liberals

We can take our cue from the right's war on us. Cast them as loony freaks just this side of Jonestown, which is less untrue than their characterizations of us. Point up the snake oil, the speaking in tongues, the Armageddon beliefs, the really scary shit. Say it everywhere all the time! We need exposes on fundie groups to air on TV. And we need to repeat the meme that they are equal to the Taliban, and repeat it all the time.

[LTRS]

6. Exactly! (eom)

[mumon]

5. A couple of replies...

1. First, all evangelical Christians are not alike- in fact, some 20% of them went for Kerry. Yeah, there's a big base of hardcore eyes-glazed-over foaming at the mouth fundies, but so what? What we need is to get people in red-state/red counties, and wherever we find them, however we find them is OK by me.

(Of course being a Buddhist, that's a different thing for me.)

2. Churches themselves need to be "reclaimed." In particular, denominations such as the Baptists (which claims primacy of interpretation of the congregant) need to be confronted.

3. I personally don't share all the "Dems need to get the religious" thing myself (though I submit what you say is true- we need to organize progressive and moderate churches). But what we really need badly, is a counterweight to fundie megachurches- the unions used to be that, but they're not now, and we need that especially.

We get that org in enough red states, and you can kiss goodbye the Repub party as we know it.

[LTRS]

8. Yes, but....

1. I didn't say Evangelicals, I said fundies. You are absolutely correct, there are plenty of evangelical liberals, whether they are actual voters or not (I tend to think a good portion are). My point is that we could really use them to speak up and beat back this meme that the Christian right is the party of values. The hell they are, no pun intended.

2. But this group tends not to want to mix politics and religion as far as I have seen, and that is what is allowing the fundies to hijack all of Christianity in this country. We really need to convince them that the battle for this country AND their religion has been joined and they need to fight to keep both.

3. Yes, agreed!

[footinmouth]

7. I don't even want to stay in the same room with fundies

You can't reason with them, you can't even talk to them. I don't understand the way they think and I don't think I even want to try. Sadly, I wish they had their own state somewhere, far away from mine.