I'm fascinated too with Timothy Allman question. Katherine Stewart in her "The Good News Club: the Christian's Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children" exposes a relatively new movement called the Christian Nationalists. Falwell seems to be among the leaders of this this movement.
Side note: I once knew the late Dr. Alfred Lau personally. At one point he was a member of the California Church of the Open Door. He knew Billy Graham. He could rattle off a long list of names whom he seem to refer to as all inter-connected to the same fundamental beliefs. Lau was in favor of such associations.
I was astounded to read in the Good News Club a list of names that I recognized. Whether the Christian Right spontaneously organized itself as we know it today or not does not matter to me. I think Karen Armstrong's historical context has some validity in giving us some answers as to why.
Tandem Katherine Stewart's research of the rise of the Christian Nationalist, and we see a lot of associations were formed surrounding the devastating embarrassment surrounding "Bryan's Failure" in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. The trend of the religious fundamentalists to silence in American politics up into the 60's seems to change suddenly. It seems the under-ground Right surfaces abrubtly in the 80's. I think it goes back to a culmination of over-reactions and fears. Prayer was removed from the public schools in the early 60's the sanctity of life as defined by Christian Fundamentalist received a tremendous blow in Roe V. Wade case of 1973.
The Right's American Dream of a Christian Nation was not tenable. They understood this deeply, but were too invested to give it up. The rise of the "moral majority" in the late 70's was all a reaction of fear.
I think these reactions are late on the scene. ACE was a valiant attempt by the "right" Right, but as this site so adequately demonstrates, THIS EFFORT HAS FAILED, at least on us. I now recognize William Jennings Bryan for what he was! A buffoon. ACE your closed circuit propaganda has backfired! Obscure "heroes" of american history, are just that, obscure, and people like Bryan should have not been elevated to such pedestals of "godly leadership". He was a fallible person that suffered greatly from a selective memory syndrome and an undeniable existential angst over the validity of the bible.
The part that does concern me about these discussions, is that we all here have suffered unfathomable injustices when looking at what "moderates" comprehend as "that's their beliefs" "there's no harm, right"----in reference to the strange beliefs that led our parents to subscribe to the idea that public education was evil.
The evil is found in that most of us here on this site and others (http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/acesurvivors/) were denied a free public education and now feel ourselves to be short-changed. We were born in a modern world, but were denied a modern education.
Another concern, is that the "moderates" and liberals may not be sneering at the obscurity of the "Moral Majority" in the near future. We have new problems. ACE is evolving. Howard's mission is unchanged, and now in America we have charter schools using the same old same old that we here so oppose.
Maybe we do have some responsibility to speak up and speak out. Could we possibly play some part in the unfolding drama of our current polarity in US politics. The rising polarity of religious and political biases seem to bringing America to the edge of an abyss of anarchy (well if all the Rushs and Becks and there fear mongerers are correct).
Are we somehow, in some small way a living organism demonstrating not only the great evils of the Religious Right's human experiments, but also a living organism that displays the resiliency and power of the human spirit to survive in spite of these evils? I hope to not only survive but thrive! Maybe we'll even be able to kick the beast in the teeth. Who knows.
Side note: I once knew the late Dr. Alfred Lau personally. At one point he was a member of the California Church of the Open Door. He knew Billy Graham. He could rattle off a long list of names whom he seem to refer to as all inter-connected to the same fundamental beliefs. Lau was in favor of such associations.
I was astounded to read in the Good News Club a list of names that I recognized. Whether the Christian Right spontaneously organized itself as we know it today or not does not matter to me. I think Karen Armstrong's historical context has some validity in giving us some answers as to why.
Tandem Katherine Stewart's research of the rise of the Christian Nationalist, and we see a lot of associations were formed surrounding the devastating embarrassment surrounding "Bryan's Failure" in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. The trend of the religious fundamentalists to silence in American politics up into the 60's seems to change suddenly. It seems the under-ground Right surfaces abrubtly in the 80's. I think it goes back to a culmination of over-reactions and fears. Prayer was removed from the public schools in the early 60's the sanctity of life as defined by Christian Fundamentalist received a tremendous blow in Roe V. Wade case of 1973.
The Right's American Dream of a Christian Nation was not tenable. They understood this deeply, but were too invested to give it up. The rise of the "moral majority" in the late 70's was all a reaction of fear.
I think these reactions are late on the scene. ACE was a valiant attempt by the "right" Right, but as this site so adequately demonstrates, THIS EFFORT HAS FAILED, at least on us. I now recognize William Jennings Bryan for what he was! A buffoon. ACE your closed circuit propaganda has backfired! Obscure "heroes" of american history, are just that, obscure, and people like Bryan should have not been elevated to such pedestals of "godly leadership". He was a fallible person that suffered greatly from a selective memory syndrome and an undeniable existential angst over the validity of the bible.
The part that does concern me about these discussions, is that we all here have suffered unfathomable injustices when looking at what "moderates" comprehend as "that's their beliefs" "there's no harm, right"----in reference to the strange beliefs that led our parents to subscribe to the idea that public education was evil.
The evil is found in that most of us here on this site and others (http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/acesurvivors/) were denied a free public education and now feel ourselves to be short-changed. We were born in a modern world, but were denied a modern education.
Another concern, is that the "moderates" and liberals may not be sneering at the obscurity of the "Moral Majority" in the near future. We have new problems. ACE is evolving. Howard's mission is unchanged, and now in America we have charter schools using the same old same old that we here so oppose.
Maybe we do have some responsibility to speak up and speak out. Could we possibly play some part in the unfolding drama of our current polarity in US politics. The rising polarity of religious and political biases seem to bringing America to the edge of an abyss of anarchy (well if all the Rushs and Becks and there fear mongerers are correct).
Are we somehow, in some small way a living organism demonstrating not only the great evils of the Religious Right's human experiments, but also a living organism that displays the resiliency and power of the human spirit to survive in spite of these evils? I hope to not only survive but thrive! Maybe we'll even be able to kick the beast in the teeth. Who knows.
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