A Strategic Stumble Saved America
[Note: I’m planning a few articles about TAM 7, but it will take a few days to put those together. In the meantime, let’s look at what else is going on.]
The current level of religious interference in government and public life is not a new phenomenon. It was actually the norm a hundred or so years ago. In a new article at TownHall, Frank Turek reminds us that the fundies themselves are partially to blame for the greater separation of church and state that we generally enjoy today. Oddly, he portrays this as a bad thing. The current attacks upon the First Amendment are just fundies trying to get back to “the good old days”.
In “Country a Mess? Blame the Church”, Turek writes:
As our great country accelerates its slide into economic and moral Hell, be careful whom you blame. The present boldness of liberals and timidity of conservatives are only the secondary causes. Much of the blame can be placed at the foot of the church.
When I say the church, I don’t mean an institution like the Roman Catholic church, but the entire body of believers—those from all denominations…, and that we are charged with spreading that message and reforming society.
…Our country is failing because too many believers have abandoned this calling.
They began abandoning it in earnest in the 1920’s. That’s when an anti-intellectual movement called fundamentalism led believers to separate from society rather than reform it, and to bifurcate life into two separate spheres—the sacred and secular.
It’s refreshing that at least one wing-nut recognizes that fundamentalism is, at its heart, anti-intellectual.
Reason was given up for emotionalism, and only activities that directly saved souls were deemed sacred. Everything else was considered secular. Careers in clergy and missions were glorified at the expense of everything else. That led too many believers to leave public education, the media, law, and politics in the hands of the unbelievers. Is it any wonder why those areas of our culture now seem so Godless? Take the influence of God out, and that’s what you get.
This is largely a true statement. The fundamentalists did retreat from public life for a few glorious decades in the 20th century. That’s when some of society’s greatest advances in freedom, equality, and tolerance occurred. It is now our job to hold on to those advances. We should also strive to push for more advances, but given the resurgence of fundamentalism, just holding on will be hard enough.
Secularizing public education has been the key to our nation’s moral demise. Once public education went secular, the rest of society eventually did, especially when the products of that system became our leaders. As Abraham Lincoln once observed, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.”
That oversimplifies things a bit, but in general, I can’t argue with it. However, in the next few paragraphs, Turek shifts from accurate history to crazy talk. It’s mostly a rant about how removing the Bible from the schools is responsible for everything that has gone wrong since. There’s nothing new there, so it’s not worth examining.
That first part of his article, though, is refreshingly lucid for something coming out of ClownHall. I wonder how the 20th century would have developed, if the fundies hadn’t gone back into their dark, smelly hole for 50 years.
Society was getting more complex, so the old structure would not have been able to survive unmodified. The population was growing more diverse. Some amount of change was inevitable. If the strong religious biases had remained on the Supreme Court, we wouldn’t have seen the outright banning of prayer in the schools. I suspect the court would have made more accommodationist rulings, such as allowing students to opt-out of class Bible study.
Cases involving religious displays in the public square almost certainly would have been decided in favor of the religious. The court would probably say that one display does not a religion make, thereby ignoring the overall effect of a cross on every city hall and a nativity scene in every town square.
We can thank the fundies for getting out of our way for 50 years. Now how do we convince them to go away again?
July 15th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Perhaps due to their half-century sabbatical they’ve only delayed the inevitable. Let’s suppose that the 20th century did not include landmark social advances such as suffrage, civil rights, and Roe v. Wade. How long could an oppressive, stifling repression of that which most people deem essential to freedom really last? How long would we, as a people, tolerate a theocracy?
I think we’re seeing this scenario play out in Iran right now as a largely secular, and surprisingly pro-American, population seems to be near the end of their tolerance of the Ayatollahs’ rule. Freedom, no matter how long it is squelched, will always be a universal human aspiration. Some cultures will take longer to discover this, but by the time the 20th century began, America had already come too far along to truly allow the kind of theocratic totalitarianism many on the right seem to yearn for. Maybe the fundies could have had a decade or two in control, and they might still yet, but that would be their last hurrah. Start imposing Taliban-like strictures on a population that likes its internet, porn and alcohol, and see how long that lasts. Lock up a few teenage girls who’ve had abortions and watch all hell break loose. Send all atheists off to “camps” and…well, at least I’ll be in good company.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Encourage homeschooling.
While there are a number of reasons why people homeschool, one of the biggest is religious fundamentalists who disagree with the standard curriculum.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
There is no way we will be able to convince them to go away. It is going to be a struggle from this point on and as we gain any foot hold they will increase their efforts to counter us.
I’m just thankful we are here rather then Iran.
We know the thiestards are fairly STUPID as a group because they can look at almost any muslim controlled area and rail against that while wanting the same thing here. They can’t see that no matter who is in charge it will always be very bad for all.
We all must keep the government ruled by law and seperate from the delusional(no matter what their name).
July 15th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
“Stupid is as stupid does” – and the fundies’ graphic demonstration of this principle at every opportunity is always going to get in the way of their goal of achieving a theocracy. They are their own worst enemy. They might manage to slip a few retards into positions of prominence once in a while, but, like the dimwitted criminal who shoots himself in the dick trying to get the gun out of his waistband, they’re always going to come off half-cocked.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:52 am
Wouldn’t it just be easier not to let stupid people vote?
July 16th, 2009 at 6:23 am
An interesting thing occurred during the Bush administration. You had a fundie president and a yes-man Congress. Manpulating those two groups was a small group of old white men who, for all we know, might be atheist (certainly, at least, Karl Rove is known for being apathetic to religion until it suits him). Cheney could not possibly care less about religious morals. For the past eight years it really seemed like the fundies had more power than they actually did. There was a lot of lip service, but when it came down to it, the evil things done had nearly no religious component at all (neocons have wanted to kill brown Islamic people long before W saw it as a New Crusade of sorts).
Anyway, I think that’s an important thing to note. Fundies certainly helped get those war criminals into power, but even with the most power they had ever aquired in recent history, the “fundie” side of the agenda was largely a complete failure.
I do want to ask a question though…
What government is he talking about? What boldness of liberals? What timidness of conservatives? For crying out loud, there’s over 170 amendments to the health care bill submitted by conservatives and NOT A SINGLE ONE is going to vote for it! That’s some freakin’ huge balls on the conservatives and some serious “thank you for anally raping my bill while I bent over to accomodate your interests” on the part of liberals.
July 16th, 2009 at 7:29 am
PL:
He’s an extreme conservative. He’s viewing reality through a funhouse mirror.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Mark,
My wife was a college professor teaching English 101. She did have students who were home schooled by fundie parents. I read the papers written by these students. The stuff they were taught was outrageous. One of the common themes was the confusion of correlation and causality — crime rate going up after group prayer in school being banned, etc.
“Home schooling” is fundie indoctrination.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:45 am
** Junk food faith for a fat head nation **
A nation overwhelmingly god-fearing also overwhelmingly rejects science. My fellow citizens lack the critical intelligence to evaluate the garbage they put into their brains.
The US is an aberration among developed nations in its affinity for religious enthusiasms and in its failure to accept now elementary basic truths like evolution via natural selection. (Check the Pew Forum for Religion and Society.)
The US has been a secular state from its inception. Thus, it is not (and never has been) one nation under god, power, force or immaterial being.
The people rule here. Not child molesting priests, not fanatical tax-dodging televangelists, nor cabals of delusional dominionists seeking to overthrow the Republic.
Christ is not sovereign . . . God is not sovereign . . . Allah is not sovereign . . . they do not exist. They are fictions no more real than Zeus, Sherlock Holmes, or Batman.
The people are sovereign. We abide by the laws which we create for ourselves.
anti-supernaturalist
July 17th, 2009 at 9:16 am
You shut your mouth. Batman is very real and kicks ass!
July 17th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Yes, unfortunately – and that is the problem.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Here’s one for fundies and their effect on society that’s especially salient this July (wish I could remember where I read this):
“Science flies people to the moon…Religion flies people into buildings”.
July 18th, 2009 at 5:34 am
I do hate to see things uncorrectly stated, but prayer wasn’t banned in schools. School mandated prayer was banned in public schools (you can pray on your own, voluntarily, but the school, as a representative of the State, can’t force the class to). I see the religious right make the same mistake all the time, but I expect them to be wrong. Don’t follow their example.
July 18th, 2009 at 8:18 am
You’re right. I misspoke. That’s what I meant.
July 18th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I’m not sure it’s a mistake. At least not in all cases.
July 18th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Modusoperandi:
Regarding the misstatement about prayer being banned in school:
I suspect that the fundie leadership will say things like prayer is banned in school because it inflames their followers, and there’s no better way to excite the idiot patrol than to make them think their rights are being infringed. This leads to more money in the collection plate Sunday morning.
I really see the religious leadership as a bunch of folks who truly define the word evil. For thousands of years, they’ve had a pretty cool gig. Everyone else is out working their butts off milking and plowing while these bastards sit in a shady temple and collect the offerings of the suckers. The sales pitch is: worship our god and you’ll receive a free trip to paradise. Since no one ever comes back to tell the truth, they can say and do almost anything they want.
Some of them even get off on the power trip that bending the minds of the faithful provides.
July 19th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Plus they don’t seem big on things like “details”, “shades of grey” or “context”. I put those in quotes because they’re codewords for the Great Liberal Conspiracy.