The Law of Small Distinctions (Identity Politics, the "Christian right" and Mormonism)
The Law of Small Distinctions states that, For any group large enough, members of the group will make internal distinctions that seem trivial or non-existent to observers outside the group.
An exercise for the reader:
Before reading any further in this diary/post please recall that The Rev. Fred Phelps and Lyndon LaRouche are both registered Democrats. Whether you and I like that fact, there's nothing we can do about it. I'll get back to that later, but keep it in the back of your mind as you read the rest of the diary.
Now back to the Law of Small Distinctions, starting with a story:
The heretic
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well, are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are your Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, Me too! Are your Episcopalian or Baptist? He said, "Baptist!" I said, "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord? He said, Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.
Like the men in the story I was baptized in a Baptist Church. In my case I was nine and it was a Southern Baptist Church. It had once been where the Governor of the state would go to church when in office (and the Governor was always a Democrat and almost always a Baptist). Where the pastor before the one I first knew used to preach the 11 AM sermon wearing a morning coat and striped trousers. The congregation had not yet begun its Magnificent Ambersons-emulating social-class swan-dive when I was there, but most of the snobs seemed to have migrated to the suburbs.
The largest room in the Church was called the "Auditorium." A handsome space built in 1910, it combined styles: a little low Gothic, a little Romanesque and more than a little Arts and crafts. The baptistry was a small pool with a painted backdrop and heavy red/maroon velvet curtains in front. Located upstage center in the auditorium, the baptistry sat behind and raised above the choir and beneath the pipe chamber for the three manual Hillgreen-Lane organ. Originally, the organ console (the part with the three manuals) was between the baptistry and the downstage center pulpit. Later, the console was moved to a position on the main seating level at stage left (i.e. house right). There was a Steinway grand piano (an 'M' I think) off the other side of the stage. The regular seating on the main level was three sections of curved oak pews. The largest section was in the center of the room. There was no center aisle.
Some of those details were matters of style or function suited to that particular building. But some of those details defined the nature of that congregation. If you were brought up in a Baptist church in the middle of the 20th century you probably know which are distinctions, and which are decor. The Law of Small Distinctions suggests that if you were brought up in the Roman Catholic Church you would consider those details somewhat foreign if not downright bizarre (except, perhaps, the low Gothic and Romanesque architectural elements and maybe the Hillgreen Lane, though be aware that pipe organ enthusiasts come with their own sets of very strong distinctions).
We knew the Roman Catholics as the people that got the Bing Crosby movies. Baptists in the movies were invariably African-Americans portrayed as worshiping more like Pentecostals than the rather restrained Baptists we knew - white or black. We also knew the Catholics had a Pope. The closest that Southern Baptists came to having a pope was probably whoever happened to be the pastor of - wait for it - the First Baptist Church of Dallas Texas. The very same congregation with the pastor that recently said he thinks Mormonism is a cult.
"Cult" is a very loaded and unfortunate word. Understandably, a number of people here jumped to the defense of the Mormons. And threw in some Baptist bashing at the same time. I didn't read all the threads but I know some commenters even applied "Cult" to just about every person identified as a Christian, from Mister Rogers to Pope Pius XII. (Actually neither name got mentioned, but I wanted to illustrate the range of distinction, or more accurately, the lack thereof.)
And that's where the, "Identity Politics" part comes in. Progressives don't like to see bullying. And the First Baptist, Dallas's pastor's use of the word, "Cult" smacks of bullying. But from the point of view of anything remotely close to mainstream Christian belief, he is technically correct if he is using the word, "Cult" to define Mormonism as being well outside that sphere.
Now there's an interesting phenomenon at play because of the current alliance of the modern Republican Party and those that self-identify as Christian conservatives (as opposed to conservative Christians). The far right has seen the way for example that John XXIII-admiring Catholics have little problem working together with Tikkun-reading Jews when they share a common goal. (Similarly, the Baptist Church I described above had an arrangement whereby the local Reform Temple [Jewish] baked the unleavened bread for the quarterly Lord's Supper commemoration [Baptist communion].) It no doubt seemed a win win at the time to conservatives, political or religious, to hook-up their respective causes and blur some of the most jarring distinctions.
Some good things have come out of the right-wing's blurring of Christian distinctions. White churches explicitly excluding black attendees is no longer seen as the conservative default position. Like most alliances, though, their partnership has not been an equal one. Conservative political distinctions have sharpened since the Reagan era, rather than blurred. But the independence of the right-wing church has largely been subverted to the interests of the Republican Party in all aspects of public life except for sexual matters.
In the right-wing church, the God of Abraham, the God of social justice, the God of mercy, has been re-cast solely as the Lord of the Penis and the Lord of the Womb. Since the rich can afford to cavort in exclusive privacy, the price of gratuitous queer-bashing and draconian abortion restrictions has been little more than a token payment to them. The Church, if it wishes to play on right-wing turf, is expected to pay with its soul.
This is a delicate matter for publicly secular Democrats and inclusively inclined people of faith. How to point out all the very real contradictions that conservative Christians must allow in order to become Christian conservatives? The answer is, you don't. A long laundry list of contradictions coming from the opposition will not work for convincing most people.
Instead, it's often that one little thing that gets a person to start questioning some of their own assumptions. Take Jesus of Nazareth, for example. He was chauvinistic about his Jewish heritage during most of his life. His reputation for healing, though, had spread to the gentiles. And one day:
...For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter...
Shaw says that this was when Jesus became a Christian. Could the "Baptist Pope's" comment about Mormonism have a similar effect on 'Christian conservatives?' I can't say. But I do know when it's politically wise to shut up and get out of the way.
Or you could claim that Mormons are full-fledged Christians because they mention the term. Just be prepared to agree that Fred Phelps and Lyndon LaRouche are full-fledged Democrats.