The Dog is not a fan of anger. While it can motivate in the short-term, it can very easily become like a fire, which has to consume more and more fuel to keep burning hotly. This makes it a dangerous tool to use to motivated people. Not that this stops anyone from taking the plunge and lighting fires of discontent, especially in the Tea Party movement and the Religious Right who occupy the same section of a Venn diagram of the conservatives in this country.
"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"
On the one hand, there is the sense of victimization that is required to stoke the anger, on the other there is the need to be tough and bad-assed to take on the supposed oppressors. We have seen the one in the so-called "War on Christmas" and we are seeing the other with the conservative need to change the perception of Jesus.
You may be aware of the Conservative Bible project that Conservapeadia is running. They are re-writing the Bible to fit their ideology, based on these ten principals:
As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:[3]
- Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
- Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, "gender inclusive" language, and other feminist distortions; preserve many references to the unborn child (the NIV deletes these)
- Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity[4]; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level[5]
- Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms to capture better the original intent;[6] Defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words that have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".
- Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction[7] by using modern terms for it, such as "gamble" rather than "cast lots";[8] using modern political terms, such as "register" rather than "enroll" for the census
- Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
- Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
- Exclude Later-Inserted Inauthentic Passages: excluding the interpolated passages that liberals commonly put their own spin on, such as the adulteress story
- Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
- Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."
Notice all the "liberal bias" they are trying remove, while at the same time not dumbing it down. The Dog is completely confused as to how you can take out nuance without dumbing something down, but these folks are giving their best try.
There is also the new trend, small but growing of white evangelical churches that are starting up mixed marshal arts fighting gyms. The New York Times is reporting today that about 700 of these youth fighting ministries have sprung up.
The meme they are pushing is similar to the Conservative Bible Project, that Jesus didn’t really mean it when he spoke of turning the other cheek, or loving your neighbor like yourself or any of the that sissy-liberal-latte-drinking stuff. These guys are pushing the idea that Jesus was a fighter!
From the Times article:
In focusing on the toughness of Christ, evangelical leaders are harking back to a similar movement in the early 1900s, historians say, when women began entering the work force. Proponents of this so-called muscular Christianity advocated weight lifting as a way for Christians to express their masculinity.
"This whole generation is raised on the idea that they’re in a culture war for the heart and soul of America," said Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University.
Paul Burress, 35, a chaplain and fight coach at Victory Baptist Church in Rochester, said mixed martial arts had given his students a chance to work on body, soul and spirit. "Win or lose, we represent Jesus," he said. "And we win most of the time."
Now, being a bleeding heart liberal, the Dog is all about people getting their lives together. If believing in a deity helps anyone to do that, well, the Dog finds it distasteful, but if the end result is good, then it is a net positive. Still there is something deeply disturbing about combining mixed martial arts (which used to be called cage fighting) with religion.
The history of militant religious movements is not a happy one. The stories of one religion and its fighters killing and conjuring others are told time and time again in history and in holy books. Whether it is the destruction of Jericho, the wars between the Shiites and Sunni, or the Crusades it is easy to look around our collective past and see where the combination of religion and martial tradition leads to problems.
That the rhetoric from the Religious Right and the Tea-Baggers is so filled with strong angry statements, things like "Proud to be a Right Wing Terrorist" or "We must take our country back" is not something we should casually dismiss.
When it is combined with religion and this meme that Jesus was a "fighter" not a lover, it takes on a more sinister tone all together. Lest we forget, Mr. Roeder who assassinated Dr. Tiller was pushed there by the religious belief that abortion is murder of children.
Is there anything that can be done about this? Probably not, this is scary all on its own. If we want to have a liberal and tolerant society, putting proactive curbs on this kind of behavior is actually a step backwards. Worse, it would confirm the idea of oppression with these folks.
At best we can keep an eye on these trends and try to get those who are on the Religious Left to talk to their coreligionists and explain why this view of the Prince of Peace as the Road Warrior is wrong.
The floor is yours.