Despair drives the Christian right

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 1/14/2007 | Chris Hedges

[FreedomPoster]

That explains much. Thanks.

[DustyMoment]

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 should have come with a Super-Dooper Extra Special Mega Hurl Alert!!!!

This is the sorriest excuse for writing from what is supposed to be a "neutral" journalist that I have seen to date.

Seems to me that we have a case for "hate speech" from the Phildelphia Inquirer.

[Godwin1]

More anti-Christian bigotry from the liberal left. Patently absurd nonsense. A marginal, hysterical, jihad against believing Christians, delivered by an organ of the MSM , an institution that has been almost completely captured by bigoted anti-Christians.
In fact, traditional Christians are not radicals at all. Rather they are engaged in a lonely rear guard struggle to protect their children from the moral and cultural decadence and depravity actively promoted by liberals in Hollywood, the television networks and,increasingly, the government schools. Resistance to the rot is actually done in quite traditional ways--using the political process to elect like minded people and, when this is not possible, abandoning the institutions--public schools in some areas--where the rot has gone too far to be reversed. Make no mistake: the demonization of Christians is conscious and intended to lay the ground for overt persecution. In Illinois, at least one democratic Congresswoman wants to compel Catholic hospitals to perform abortions. Gay rights groups want to criminalize Christian churches that openly affirm traditional marriage. The persecution is coming--a democratic, House, Senate and President would almost certainly lead to overt attempts to close Christian churches as "vessels of hatred." Be prepared.......

[Tennessee Nana]

If this is your opinion of Christians, what do you say about Islamo-Nazis who want to kill you?

[cinives]

religiosity = those who believe in global warming or communism

It works just as well for those "religions".

[RobRoy]

I do not remembering anywhere in the Bible where one of the true attributes of a Christian was despaiir.

OTOH, I do remember we are to be "in but not of" the world.

Frankly, the lack of faith is fear, and the lack of fear is faith. It is laid out pretty clearly here; http://web.mac.com/egoble/iWeb/Site/Kingdom/Kingdom.html

We should not be afraid of people. Any people.

[Ironfocus]

It's pretty weak. He makes no real arguments, it's just emotional rhetoric.

[RobRoy]

Actually, there may be a thread of truth to this article. Despair can drive people TO Christianity as illness drives them to the doctor. It does not mean the doctor is the cause of the illness or some sort of evil brought on by the illness.

Same with Christianity. Ultimately, people will not accept Jesus until they hit some personal "bottom". Sometimes that bottom can be drunk in a gutter, sometimes it can be despair as described in the first paragraph of the article, and sometimes it can be no more than truly grasping the futility of life without Him.

[STD]

Hardly, we know that we're not home yet! The reason we have such struggles on this earth is because "this is not our home" We are just passing on through it.

[gcruse]

"...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."

Existentialism isn't for sissies.

[gusopol3]

is that the philosophy of socialized Europe, where people are in such despair they don't even have kids?

[Red Boots]

This man is clever to couch his own designs as the designs of the "christian right". The time is approaching when all the world will hate us for His name.

I've got to agree with you.

This man's books sound so much like the anti-jewish propaganda that was steadily fed to the Germans for years by Hitler and his minions. It's not to much of a streach to imagine a similiar solution in his mind's eye. After all, if they're so dangerous...

[gcruse]

It's the logical extension of the Enlightenment, which is also a philosophy instead of a pacifier.

[Nam Vet]

How did you ever happen to discover this loon? Do you spend a lot of time at the 'Funny Farm'?

Nam Vet

[gusopol3]

and the logical extension of existentialism, as being demonstrated in Europe, is Sharia law.

[gcruse]

Sharia, summoning its precepts from religion, seems not to be an extension of secular thought.

[gusopol3]

it is if an existential philosophy leads to the suicide by attrition of the native populace; weeds come in where the garden has died

[rottndog]

And WHERE'S the barf alert in the title on this thread...

[Gumdrop]

Hey! This guy must be the one who Rosie O'Donnell was quoting when she said that Christians were just as dangerous as the Islamists.

[driftless2]

Hedges is the same scribbler who was hooted off the commencement stage at some Illinois University a few years ago when he started babbling about the evil of the U.S. He said it was good we lost Vietnam and it would be good if we get defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan. The students listening couldn't take it anymore and they booed him off the stage.