Despair drives the Christian right

Extremism: Radical preachers offer a magical world for battered believers.The engine that drives the radical Christian right in the United States - the most dangerous mass movement in American history - is not religiosity, but despair. It is a movement built on the growing personal and economic despair of tens of millions of Americans, who watched helplessly as their communities were plunged into poverty by the flight of manufacturing jobs, their families and neighborhoods torn apart by neglect and indifference, and who eventually lost hope that America was a place where they had a future.

This despair crosses economic boundaries, of course, enveloping many in the middle class who live trapped in huge, soulless exurbs where, lacking any form of community rituals or centers, they also feel deeply isolated, vulnerable and lonely. Those in despair are the most easily manipulated by demagogues, who promise a fantastic utopia, whether it is a worker's paradise, fraternité-egalité-liberté, or the second coming of Jesus Christ. Those in despair search desperately for a solution, the warm embrace of a community to replace the one they lost, a sense of purpose and meaning in life, the assurance they are protected, loved and worthwhile.

During the last two years of work on the book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, I kept encountering this deadly despair. Driving down a highway lined with gas stations, fast-food restaurants, and dollar stores I often got vertigo, forgetting for a moment whether I was in Detroit or Kansas City or Cleveland. There are parts of the United States, including whole sections of former manufacturing centers such as Ohio, that resemble the developing world, with boarded-up storefronts, dilapidated houses, potholed streets and crumbling schools. The end of the world is no longer an abstraction to many Americans.

We as a nation have turned our backs on the working class, with much of the worst assaults, such as NAFTA and welfare reform, pushed through during President Clinton's Democratic administration. We stand passively and watch an equally pernicious assault on the middle class. Anything that can be put on software, from architecture to engineering to finance, will soon be handed to workers overseas, who will be paid a third what their American counterparts receive and who will, like 45 million Americans, have no access to health insurance or benefits. There has been, along with the creation of an American oligarchy, a steady Weimarization of the American working class. And such distortions, as Plutarch reminded us, have grave political consequences for democracies. The top 1 percent of American households have more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined. This figure alone should terrify all who care about our democracy.

The stories believers told me of their lives before they found Christ were heartbreaking. These chronicles were about terrible pain, severe financial difficulties, struggles with addictions or childhood sexual or physical abuse, profound alienation and often thoughts about suicide. They were chronicles without hope. The real world - the world of facts and dispassionate intellectual inquiry, the world in which news and information were not filtered through the comforting ideological prism of radical religion, the world where they were left out to dry, abandoned by a government hostage to corporations and willing to tolerate obscene corporate profits - betrayed them. They hated this world.

And they willingly walked out on this world for the mythical world offered by radical preachers - a world of magic, a world where God had a divine plan for them and intervened daily to protect them and perform miracles in their lives. The rage many expressed to me toward those who challenge this belief system - to those of us who do not accept that everything in the world came into being during a single week 6,000 years ago because it says so in the Bible - was a rage born of fear, the fear of being plunged back into a reality-based world where these magical props would no longer exist, where they would once again be adrift, abandoned and alone.

The danger of this theology of despair is that it says that nothing in the world is worth saving. It rejoices in cataclysmic destruction. It welcomes the frightening advance of global warming, the spiraling wars and violence in the Middle East, and the poverty and neglect that have blighted American urban and rural landscapes, as encouraging signs that the end of the world is close at hand.

Believers, of course, clinging to this magical belief, which is a bizarre form of spiritual Darwinism, will be "raptured" upward, while the rest of us will be tormented with horrors by a warrior Christ and finally extinguished. This obsession with apocalyptic violence is an obsession with revenge. It is what the world, and we who still believe it is worth saving, deserve.

Those who lead the movement give their followers a moral license to direct this rage and yearning for violence against all those who refuse to submit to the movement, from liberals, to "secular humanists," to "nominal Christians," to intellectuals, to gays and lesbians, to Muslims. These radicals, from James Dobson to Pat Robertson, call for a theocratic state that will, if it comes to pass, bear within it many of the traits of classical fascism.

All radical movements need a crisis or a prolonged period of instability to achieve power. And we are not in a period of crisis now. But another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil, a series of huge environmental disasters, or an economic meltdown will hand to these radicals the opening they seek. Manipulating our fear and anxiety, promising to make us safe and secure, giving us the assurance that they can vanquish the forces that mean to do us harm, these radicals, many of whom have achieved powerful positions in the executive and legislative branches of government, as well as the military, will ask us only to surrender our rights, to give them the unlimited power they need to battle the forces of darkness.

They will have behind them tens of millions of angry, disenfranchised Americans longing for revenge and yearning for a mythical utopia, Americans who embraced a theology of despair because we offered them nothing else.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Hedges' new book is "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America."

I wonder why most of you attack the messenger instead of the message.

It's because this message is so bizarre one has to wonder what kind of person would conceive such dribble. I believe this is the exception in FR rather than the rule. Having said that, I believe it would be instructive to address the "message".

Extremism: Radical preachers offer a magical world for battered believers.The engine that drives the radical Christian right in the United States - the most dangerous mass movement in American history - is not religiosity, but despair. It is a movement built on the growing personal and economic despair of tens of millions of Americans, who watched helplessly as their communities were plunged into poverty by the flight of manufacturing jobs, their families and neighborhoods torn apart by neglect and indifference, and who eventually lost hope that America was a place where they had a future.

Since I consider myself a radical Christian, and I happen to be on the right, I believe I have insights into what drives us. The author is correct it is not "religiosity", but it is in fact despair. Actually, it was despair that got us into the faith, and that despair was replaced by hope. I despaired of the evil in my own heart, of the realiziation that I was in fact an enemy of everything that was good. I despaired of the fact that there wasn't a darned thing I could do about it. No amount of good or of good intentions could erase that wickedness.

The hope came when we realized the For while we were still helpless, at the right time christ died for the ungodly ... But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ... For if while were were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Those in despair are the most easily manipulated by demagogues, who promise a fantastic utopia, whether it is a worker's paradise, fraternité-egalité-liberté, or the second coming of Jesus Christ. Those in despair search desperately for a solution, the warm embrace of a community to replace the one they lost, a sense of purpose and meaning in life, the assurance they are protected, loved and worthwhile.

Again, the author is correct. The message of Jesus' return is fantastic. But a serious critical examination of the scriptures leads to the conclusion that it is a true document and if so, He will indeed return. And it is true that people facing problems are more likely to accept Him. However, everyone has times of desperation in their lives. And His sacrifice is available to all.

During the last two years of work on the book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, I kept encountering this deadly despair. Driving down a highway lined with gas stations, fast-food restaurants, and dollar stores I often got vertigo, forgetting for a moment whether I was in Detroit or Kansas City or Cleveland. There are parts of the United States, including whole sections of former manufacturing centers such as Ohio, that resemble the developing world, with boarded-up storefronts, dilapidated houses, potholed streets and crumbling schools. The end of the world is no longer an abstraction to many Americans.

Agreed, there are some sections of the country like this. But the economy is booming, and overall the country is prospering. And you will find a booming "radical Christian" church in all parts of the country.

We as a nation have turned our backs on the working class, with much of the worst assaults, such as NAFTA and welfare reform, pushed through during President Clinton's Democratic administration. We stand passively and watch an equally pernicious assault on the middle class. Anything that can be put on software, from architecture to engineering to finance, will soon be handed to workers overseas, who will be paid a third what their American counterparts receive and who will, like 45 million Americans, have no access to health insurance or benefits. There has been, along with the creation of an American oligarchy, a steady Weimarization of the American working class. And such distortions, as Plutarch reminded us, have grave political consequences for democracies. The top 1 percent of American households have more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined. This figure alone should terrify all who care about our democracy.

The middle class is actually doing pretty well, if you look at the economic statistics. This may, in fact, be the strongest economy in history. And the fact that the top 1% have such wealth should be an encouragement. Wouldn't you have more hope in a country where you could become a billionare than in a country where the best you could hope for would be an income of $50K? The higher the ceiling, the better for me and you. Oh yeah, someone needs to tell this guy this is not and never has been a democracy. The French Revolution was a democracy. The guillotine is the symbol of democracies.

And they willingly walked out on this world for the mythical world offered by radical preachers - a world of magic, a world where God had a divine plan for them and intervened daily to protect them and perform miracles in their lives. The rage many expressed to me toward those who challenge this belief system - to those of us who do not accept that everything in the world came into being during a single week 6,000 years ago because it says so in the Bible - was a rage born of fear, the fear of being plunged back into a reality-based world where these magical props would no longer exist, where they would once again be adrift, abandoned and alone.

The author is mistaken. We are still here. And we don't fear reality.

The danger of this theology of despair is that it says that nothing in the world is worth saving. It rejoices in cataclysmic destruction. It welcomes the frightening advance of global warming, the spiraling wars and violence in the Middle East, and the poverty and neglect that have blighted American urban and rural landscapes, as encouraging signs that the end of the world is close at hand.

Weird. I know of no one who welcomes global warming (well, a little warming would be nice. I grew up in the Carribean.) or spiraling wars and violence, or poverty or neglect. In fact the Christians I know grieve over these things. And it's undeniable we are closer to the end of the world than we have ever been before. Simply by definition.

Believers, of course, clinging to this magical belief, which is a bizarre form of spiritual Darwinism, will be "raptured" upward, while the rest of us will be tormented with horrors by a warrior Christ and finally extinguished. This obsession with apocalyptic violence is an obsession with revenge. It is what the world, and we who still believe it is worth saving, deserve.

I think this is the crux of the author's weirdness. He doesn't understand the basic foundations of the religion, or of God. There is a tension within God's nature between the need for Justice and the need for Mercy. And we see this every day. We were in favor of punishing Sadam Hussein for his murderous nature but we grieved that his was a soul that would be lost. I see the same thing in my kids. They need punishment and they need mercy. Humans only rarely know how to balance these two. God did this perfectly at Calvary. No Christian is obsessed with revenge (speaking of the end times) but we trust His nature and we earnestly look forward to His return.

Those who lead the movement give their followers a moral license to direct this rage and yearning for violence against all those who refuse to submit to the movement, from liberals, to "secular humanists," to "nominal Christians," to intellectuals, to gays and lesbians, to Muslims. These radicals, from James Dobson to Pat Robertson, call for a theocratic state that will, if it comes to pass, bear within it many of the traits of classical fascism.

Bull hockey.

All radical movements need a crisis or a prolonged period of instability to achieve power. And we are not in a period of crisis now. But another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil, a series of huge environmental disasters, or an economic meltdown will hand to these radicals the opening they seek. Manipulating our fear and anxiety, promising to make us safe and secure, giving us the assurance that they can vanquish the forces that mean to do us harm, these radicals, many of whom have achieved powerful positions in the executive and legislative branches of government, as well as the military, will ask us only to surrender our rights, to give them the unlimited power they need to battle the forces of darkness.

We need to protect our country and defeat those who simply want us dead. Any objections? (I thought his description of the country going to pot and our cities falling apart and the fact some people have money was an attempt to describe a crisis. Oh well.)

They will have behind them tens of millions of angry, disenfranchised Americans longing for revenge and yearning for a mythical utopia, Americans who embraced a theology of despair because we offered them nothing else.

When did we start talking about the Christians being angy? And I thought he said the attraction to the Christian community was that they were once again "franchised". And the theology is one of hope, not despair.

One has to conclude that the author of this book is clueless about the subject of which he speaks.

Chris Hedges is not a very deep thinker.

Chris Hedges thinks like Nero, and he is not alone. See this related FR thread, Anti-Christian paranoia [no longer just "untrue", Christianity is now "evil"]

Chris Hedges' article is merely a rote repetition of an age-old hatred, and a very close imitation of this article by Jeff Sharlet at Harper's - nothing new here.

As Pietro said at post #79:
The time is approaching when all the world will hate us for His name.

Jesus did not hide this from any; His disciples asked Him, "What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” He replied openly:

Matthew 24:
6 "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

[The historian c. A.D. 60-120] Tacitus says that Nero’s persecution resulted in the apprehension of some Christians who, in turn, testified against their brethren so that “an immense multitude was convicted” and put to death. It is of some interest that there were church members in Rome who were willing to surrender their brethren to the authorities for persecution.
~ChristianCourier.com

Jesus commands us to take up our own cross, and to love one another. God forbid that we should fail.

"In this trial what God determines will take place. We are not in our own keeping, but in God's."
~Perpetua

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