The cult f the Religious Right

[deb (deb)]

Thread Title: The “Cult” of the Religious Right.

If the theme of this thread does not relate to your experience, then I implore you to “go in peace” with God’s blessings. I do not, in any way, want to detract from the important soul-searching and healing that is part of this FACTnet community. But if you find yourself reacting to my post, either positively or negatively, then I would appreciate your input as I struggle to come to terms with, what I see, as the hijacking of Christianity by the leaders of the Religious Right and the NeoCons of the Republican party, and how similar their tactics are to coercive mind control groups, such as we experienced in TBS/GGWO. This may sound a little “paranoid” of me, but please hear me out.

What if someone, or some group, “stumbled” upon Robert Lifton’s books, many moons ago, and, as all these different whack-job cults began emerging (Moonies, Scientology, Est, Jonestown, you get my drift), recognized that this powerful tool of coercion and manipulation might come in handy in another avenue? Of course the approach would have to be modified somewhat ……

And what if this person, or group, wasn’t really sinister, but was, in fact, trying to save America from the evils of “secular humanism” and the “moral decay” that they were witnessing all around them? What would this look like?

Well, it might, theoretically, look like an alliance between some influential leaders of the Religious Right, and some power brokers of the Republican Party (say, for instance, like a friendship between Jerry Falwell, or Tim Lahaye, [founder of the Council for National Policy, a very secretive, exclusive, conservative, filthy rich think tank] and someone like Karl Rove [political mastermind widely credited with putting and keeping George Bush in power, now W.’s Senior Advisor]).

So, what’s the problem with a coalition between the Religious Right and the Republican Party? Absolutely nothing! This is America, after all, where we treasure our Constitution, and the glorious freedoms it affords!

But getting back to Lifton,
(http://www.ex-cult.org/General/lifton-criteria )
do his 8 criteria for a destructive cult fit at all into this scenario? I don’t blame you if your first reaction is a resounding “No, and you’re a nut case!” I dismissed such extreme thoughts successfully, myself, for quite a while. But the strangest thing started happening. Just like when I first left TBS, many years ago, I started having cult dreams again. (Some of you have mentioned having similar nightmares when you made the break.) And these dreams were exactly the same as years before; I would look around and realize that I was back in TBS, with no idea of how I got there, or why I had returned, but there I was, back in the thick of things, and internally screaming “No, no, no.”

Through the years, I’ve come to believe that when I start having troubled dreams, especially when they’re of a recurring theme, then it’s time to figure out what inner conflict is triggering them. And this time, I realized that the culprit was watching the Religious Right portray Christianity as pro-war, anti-environment, pro-rich, anti-gay, etc. etc. etc. This was not the Jesus I loved and worshipped. To the contrary, their “Jesus” was someone who made me want to run, kicking and screaming, in the other direction.

While I might agree with some of their issues (yes, partial birth abortion is horrific and should be stopped) most of their “thought stopping” (oops, did I say thought-stopping? Excuse me, that’s from Lifton’s 6th criteria, what I meant to say was “hot button” issues) most of their “hot button” issues were not designed to create a dialog where rational people could grapple with the complexities of a modern, rapidly changing world and figure out how best to proceed. Rather, they were designed, in my opinion, to line up the faithful on behalf of George W.

I’m getting long winded, so I’m going to stop, and, hopefully, get some feed back from others, but let me just close with this one example of coercion at work.

Number 2 of Lifton’s criteria deals with “Mystical Manipulation,” where a leader, leaders, or a cause is seen as a god, or as an instrument of God, thereby placing him (them) above reproach.

We all know how TBS/GGWO mastered this technique. Carl Stevens wasn’t just a pastor, he was The Pastor, the Pastor Teacher, the One Shepherd for our flock, the Apostle (now I’m showing my age, I’m sure), the Prophet, the one who would be standing along side of Jesus as we were judged at the Bema Seat, the one to whom God had promised that his every word ever preached from the pulpit would be anointed, etc., etc., etc.

But how could the Religious Right and Company pull this “Mystical Manipulation” off? Well, they might say something like this: President Bush is a real Christian, he has a powerful testimony, he prays to God, he is God’s man for this time, God chose him, he relies on his “gut” or “instincts” to make decisions, he can look into world leaders’ eyes and “see” their soul (I.e., Vlad Putin = good, Kim Jong II = evil), or they might just let Jerry Falwell declare that “It is the responsibility of … every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew …. To get serious about re-electing President Bush” (NYT, July 14, 2004)

Oops, I lied, one more thing and then I really will stop. While I don’t discount Bush’s conversion story, and when he says that he prays, I believe him, but is that enough to make us blindly follow him and his buddies? If you answer yes to that question, then please consider all the horrific crimes that have been committed against humanity in the name of Jesus through the ages, such as: the Inquisition, The Crusades, John Calvin’s theocracy, Nazi Germany, Jonestown, etc. I am not trying to say that George W. and his administration are evil, but only that no human being or group of human beings should be given a blank check EVER. Remember that old adage; “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton) or, conversely, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” (Thomas Jefferson).

Thanks for letting me vent.
Deb

[bob_brinton (bob_brinton)]

Hi Deb, When you want to start a really new post, you need to go to the bottom of the list of the threads. Most people don't seem to catch the subthreads like this one. I can't comment further on this topic at the moment. I'll come back to it later on.

[bob_brinton (bob_brinton)]

I've decided I'll respond to this on the nonGG thread.