if they would listen.
It helps somewhat if one can be amused rather than infuriated at the hypocrisy of the Bible Belt on issues of life and death (abortion, war, health care, the death penalty...) and governance (opposing all social programs that could benefit any person of color). It is entirely silly, and in another context silliness on this scale would be quite laughable.
On the other hand, we also have to determine what to do about it. Let's start with one hot-button issue, taxes and deficits. And let's see what that Old-Time Religion, Judaism, had to say about it in Pharaoh's Egypt.
You might have heard that old tent-meeting song,
Give me that Old Time Religion,
Give me that Old Time Religion,
Give me that Old Time Religion,
It's good enough for me.
Meaning, of course, somebody's twisted and fantastic notion of primitive Christianity. You might not have encountered the sequel, That Old Old Time Religion, with verses such as
We'll sing praises to Apollo
Where the Sun-God leads, I'll follow
From Ionia to Gaul-o
And that's good enough for me!
We will take our mental foe on
As we contemplate the Koan
While we sweep the floors and so on,
It's all good enough for me.
We will all sing Hare Krishna
We will all sing Hare Krishna
It's not mentioned in the Mishna
But it's good enough for me!
Let us worship old Jehovah
All you other gods move ovah
Cause the one God's takin' ovah
And it's good enough for me!
for every pre-Christian religion known to Science Fiction/Fantasy fandom, and a few that came in after.
New verse:
Pharaoh woke from God's dream craving
Explanations free from raving.
Seven cows meant tax and saving
And that's good enough for me.
The story is of course of Pharaoh's dream in Genesis 41 in the Bible.
1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. 2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favored kine [cows] and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow. 3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favored and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river. 4 And the ill favored and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favored and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. 5 And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn [wheat, not maize] came up upon one stalk, rank and good. 6 And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them. 7 And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
After Pharaoh's "magicians" (priests of the Egyptian religion) failed to interpret these dreams, Joseph is brought up from the dungeon to help out.
25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. 27 And the seven thin and ill favored kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine. 28 This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he showeth unto Pharaoh. 29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: 30 And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; 31 And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous. 32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. 33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. 35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. 36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
You know, like Clinton paying down the deficit during the seven years or so of the Tech Bubble, before Bush racked up record deficits during the recession years that followed, and the bubble that came after that, and the beginning of the recession after that, so that we went into the depths of an even bigger recession with as few resources as possible, and even bigger deficits.
But Pharaoh didn't do like Bush. He appointed Joseph to oversee the collection and distribution of grain over the next fourteen years. That's the Bible story, and the Bible-believers are supposedly sticking to it.
But what do we see today? The Fundamentalists, who assert vigorously (and in vain) that they believe every word of the Bible literally, are among those who tell us that we cannot lay up corn against the famines to come, that the land not perish from Global Warming, and that people not perish from lack of Health Care, and that species not vanish from...Wait, that's Noah and the Ark, isn't it? Well, same idea, anyway. Christians call it Stewardship. Jews call it Tikkun Olam, healing the world. So, according to Christianity and Judaism, God has set up Global Warming as punishment for man's sinful hubris, and has provided ample warning of what needs to be done about it.
According to Science, it's all simple cause and effect. Well, complicated cause and effect, to be sure, but the basic idea is simple, and what we need to do is no less evident. You know, renewable power, energy efficiency, cut back on carbon fuels, fund the transition in the developing countries, plan for a few feet of sea-level rise, and for more rain in some places and less in others, more snowpack melting away faster in spring, and more floods, etc. etc. Don't argue about whether it is enough, just go do it, and do more later if we find out that more is necessary.
And so do we seek discourse free from Tea Party/Christian Right/kleptocrat ranting and raving, and so could we use a new Joseph, if anybody on the Republican side would pay any attention. So why is it that a non-Jewish, vastly pre-Christian Pharaoh has faith in the prophet of God, according to Genesis, but our supposed Christians don't? Well, that's a long story, several centuries long, in fact, about slavery, and Civil War, and resentment, and pride, and privilege, and ever-shrinking numbers of the racist and intolerant, and shrieking denial of the facts, and of God's commandments, and of God's grace, and so on. A story that isn't over, but will largely be in the next generation, according to the numbers. Or if you like, according to The Writing on the Wall in Daniel 5, 26-28: "MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to [your enemies]."
I'm not their enemy. I wish them well, including getting over their delusions. But I'm not going to tell them that they cannot personally go to Hell in a handbasket or by any other means that appeals to their vanity. Whereas in their minds, they make you and me their enemy, to be conquered, subdued, and saved from ourselves by force. Still, we will indeed inherit a world with far less racism and general bloody-mindedness when these ideas are no longer in the majority in any state in the US. According to the numbers, that should be complete by the elections in 2024, but we may well be off by a few years. We should get to 60 Senate Progressives, not just 60 Democrats, well before then. Then we can get to work on the real problems.
Disclosure: I'm a Buddhist, and formerly a Jew. My parents were Jewish, Catholic, and Christian Scientist at various times. I learned a lot more about what the Bible means in the Buddhist monastery than I did in any church or synagogue.