Radical Christian Xenophobia and Radical Beliefs
Earlier it seemed unimportant to form a position on the danger, if any, Sarah Palin and Dr.Dobson might constitute to the well-being of our republic. However, as the years have gone by, it has become more abundantly clear that Dobson and others of his ilk have indeed formed a network, a cabal, if you will, that is used in service of a determined attempt to co-opt and control the police powers of the state in order to enforce a kind of theocracy in America that has a dangerous undertow and a threat to civil order as we have known it.
The naive provocateur Sarah Palin is James Dobson’s choice, not really McCain's. McCain knuckled under to hold the far right base.
It is not necessary, using Dobson's construct, to mention Obama's race. Race is a not-so-subliminal subtext in Dobson's denigration of the "others" (gay and otherwise) whom he sees threaten his core beliefs and by transference those of his dedicated audience and following.
Continued below the fold...
The danger Dobson and company pose in their dislike of the "stranger" the "other" in our society is palpable and real to them.
The focus of the last years of Dobson's rants has been more and more on the homosexual population. So great is the anger and the angst of Jim Dobson as to propel him to proclaim gays are a lethal threat to the survival of the human race. As to what Dobson has in mind as a mental construct to expand and flesh out this proclamation we may not know. But this statement and many corollary sub-texts related to it have so energized and pumped up Dobson’s radio audience of approximately seven million listeners daily via Focus on the Family that he can threaten to jam the switchboards of Congressional offices at the Capitol and carry it out with a specific plea or directed request.
Today we are very near a very important election
In a desperate attempt to maintain his power and influence in the White House Dobson has knit together the synthetic robe of righteous sainthood for Palin. In the October 22, Focus on the Family radio interview, Dobson fitted the "persecuted Christian" robe on Palin by harking back to the device the radical Christian right has so successfully used: hyperbole.
Dobson recalled the moment in 2000 when presidential candidate George W. Bush named Jesus Christ as his favorite political philosopher:
"That created hatred for him (Bush, not Jesus) for months and months and it's one of the reasons they despise him so much today because he had the courage to speak the name of Christ,"
Dobson said.
"It's the offense of the cross and it's one of the reasons there's such hostility for Sarah Palin, because she is an unabashed Christian."
This is the cleaver dog whistle which rallies the strict religious voters. She’s a "real" Christian out there doing what we need and want and look she’s being horribly and wrongfully being persecuted and rejected because she has "named the name" of Christ for herself. The simple conclusion Dobson hopes his audience will accept (and the majority do) is: the only thing that prevents Palin from being accepted by the voters at large is that she's a Christian with goals and faith that a scornful secular public and the liberal establishment hate and reject. Dobson’s device has worked before, and now Dobson is throwing himself and the network of Christian coalitions and churches into the down-to-the wire effort to rally a sliver of a winning margin in key states.
A Bit of Dobson History
The era that we are closing out is the term limited George W. Bush regime. The election of Bush in 2000, especially the key defeat of John McCain in a bone-ugly, strict morals coalition smear campaign in South Carolina went on to be the historic outcome by Supremes--which effectively appointed Bush president without an honest count of the contested votes in Florida.
The many events which have flowed from Bush’s ascension to the presidency have included traumatic events such as 9/11 and the subsequent rush to two wars as well as other flawed miscues, deliberate power grabs and malfeasance in office. All of that should have spelled defeat in November 2004, except for the unwavering support Dobson and crew shepherding support to Bush because of his approval by the strict morals religious centered around Bush’s claim to be a special child of God, led by a Higher Father, born again, a "real" Christian. This Bush claim to be a high order Christian (a kind of trademark religionist) is praised and repeated over and over by Dobson served as Teflon armor to prevent many right believing individuals from criticism of Bush or his policies.
Therefore, once again in 2004, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and strict Catholics formed a coalition of the believing to reelect Bush for his second and final term. Things have not gone well. Still with Bush’s approval ratings in the late 20 percents, it is the right wing religious who are continuing to be the enablers of Bush engendered failure and disarray. The nation is in deep and, if not corrected, irreparable danger on multiple fronts.
Going into this election cycle, it is well-known that Dobson had little favor for any of the leading GOP candidates for president, one by one, they were eliminated by Dobson for failure to meet his ideological and religious standards. One candidate with high personal moral standing, because of his Mormon religion, Mitt Romney, was stricken from the acceptable men to be endorsed by Focus on the Family and the other networked far right religious organizations in cahoots with Dobson. Dobson held chapel on his broadcast and forgive Newt Gingrich of all his sins last fall, at the time there was a very serious effort to inject Gingrich into the presidential race. Gingrich, while a long shot, was Dobson’s bright hope. However, a major flaw in the Gingrich effort deep-sixed his possibilities. Dobson was left to find a second choice.
John McCain, with his past personal moral failings, and lack of sterling support for Right to Life—purity on the issue such as Dobson demands--was also rejected. Dobson repeated several times and in many venues that there were NO CIRCUMSTANCES under which he would endorse or support McCain until the Council for National Policy, which includes Dobson, forced Gov. Sarah Palin on the ticket.
Bubbling and cooing like an enthralled boy fallen in love, Dobson interviewed, vetted and presented Sarah Palin to his radio audience October 22, 2008. Interview audio found @ http://www.citizenlink.org/...
In the Dobson interview it becomes clear why he changed his mind on McCain. For Dobson it is a Palin/McCain ticket and Palin’s specialized and narrowly defined and prescribed confession of her Christianity along with her pledge as a hard-core right to lifer, member of Feminists for Life, which seals his endorsement.
From that endorsement flows with powerful effect a tremendous effort by religious right wingers to mount a huge and desperate effort to perform what Dobson prays is a miracle, and putting McCain across the finish line.
Pandering to Palin
Let’s take a serious look at the Palin package. Her interpretation of the "highest" truth is an entire world away from the perception of most others in our country. Her subscription to a literal truth as found in the inerrant Bible includes an actual apocalypse and Armageddon. For Palin these are real, tangible events possible at any time. As president she would be first Pentecostal to face the world’s major conflicts and dire nuclear challenges; Palin would be called to act with little more than her faith and very limited experience and real world exposure.
This end-time thinking colors Palin’s view of international affairs, just as another member of her churchly upbringing within the Assemblies of God colored his fatalistic view of the world, James Watt, Secretary of the Interior under Reagan. Or take John Ashcroft, son of a prominence AoG leader, who tortured by his faith, forced the Justice Department to hold his style prayer meetings daily in government offices.
The vast majority of religious individuals in the U.S. cannot participate in/or accurately comprehend the depth and breath of barriers to rational reality created by Palin’s moral universe--centered in the doctrines and practices wild religious expression and beliefs practiced by the church of Palin’s conversion and acculturation. The Assemblies of God has had a vigorous and constant internal struggle with managing the fanaticism and wild manifestations of spirit filled enthusiasms such as those that can take place weekly in her church.
These very special "gifts" which Sarah Palin has enjoyed and participated in during her religious development blind her to the wider realities of a real world. They are dangerous to the extreme when placed in the hands of such power as a president possesses. These matters go to the suitability of Palin to ever be commander-in-chief of our armed forces, our nuclear weapons, or our diplomacy.
The choice of Palin as a running mate undermines most of the "straight talk" credibility McCain may have claimed as a prerequisite for the presidency.
For Palin to actually subscribe to the belief in evil spirits which she must wrestle and fight with the aid and power of the Holy Spirit. She is especially conditioned by her definition of good and evil—which could literally come down to actual belief that liberals or secular humanists are a threat to her religious standing and beliefs are totally unacceptable.
Palin’s moral rubric cube has only black and white squares, positive and negative and this radical declension of values and truth supersedes and limits her perception of reality in a manner which makes her, at gut level, unstable and unsuitable, even if she were to acquire some additional skills and education beyond her present naïve worldview and state of mind.
In Palin’s moral universe tolerance, diversity in the broad sense, and compassionate understanding of the "other" is not only missing, it is religiously and morally unwelcome, anathema. Her scripture forcefully reads, "What communication has light with darkness." Palin is incapable to deal with non-Christian values or pagan cultures, much less the radical deal with Islamo-fascism of which McCain is so opposed. Then what about Putin?
The only hope for Palin, if by chance we are to be represented and led by her at some future time, is her encounter with her own moral flaws, foibles, sins creating a small oasis of real human grounding. Other than that, Palin’s religious conviction that there is a "special" knowledge and insight given her personally by the Holy Spirit’s infilling of her soul and mind is her guide to all the most important decisions and directions of her life.
To jolt Palin out of her radical religious acculturation such as a major incident at 3 o’clock in the morning by major incident or foreign threat would put Sarah to focus first and act or seek guidance through fervent prayer?
The common human experiences of "others" be they gay, non-Christian religious, foreign or ideologically left of Sarah, and not so enlightened as she is by her sanctified religion, the actual presence of the Holy Ghost in uttering in tongues unknown, sacred laughter, or super personal esoteric knowledge, are beyond her comprehension and appreciation. Palin is a powerful charismatic Pentecostal...given the power that the voters may convey upon her, she will not brook the failure of others to toe her moral convictions or comply with her moral codex. If she ascends to chief executive, Palin will have authority to utilize the police powers of the state to coerce compliance. She may aggressively use her power use to force civil society to accept her set of values.
James Dobson and the Christian coalition will be going all out to elect Sarah Palin and their activities, sealed behind church doors and in the catacombs, will not be apparent until the last votes are counted.
DO NOT RULE OUT the impact of this segment of the GOP base during these final hours of the campaign.
When Dobson and Palin single out the "other" and the "stranger" they may have in mind the atheists, the gays, the secular humanists, but it is just as easy to include in the ungodly liberal category people of color. That has been their attack history and that may be the winning power of their threat this time.
If they can bring the count close, they can win.
The message work hard, engage until the process is over, there is a real battle to be fought if Obama is to win. We will all need strength and courage.
May courage never quit.