tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703298219148864437.post6053222504518485941..comments2023-05-15T08:45:11.289-05:00Comments on Jack Scott's Discussions on Male Sexuality: The Complicated, Contradictory World of EvangelicalsJack Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08273576581155029176noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703298219148864437.post-57446323405847142092012-02-08T13:24:24.075-06:002012-02-08T13:24:24.075-06:00Thanks Jason for a thoughtful comment.
There was ...Thanks Jason for a thoughtful comment.<br /><br />There was a time I thought of fundamentalists as a misguided but well meaning group of Americans. I no longer see it that way. As you correctly note, they are an increasingly dangerous group.<br /><br />If left to their own many of them would willingly abandon the Constitution of the United States and replace it with a fundamental theocracy that stripped individual liberties in favor of religious decrees.<br /><br />We are not only endangered by theocrats from the Middle East. Some of the danger lies much closer to home.<br /><br />Jack ScottJack Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08273576581155029176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703298219148864437.post-34713306227348054762012-02-08T13:12:06.751-06:002012-02-08T13:12:06.751-06:00Thanks Anonymous for the comment. I'm happy yo...Thanks Anonymous for the comment. I'm happy your finally found your way.<br /><br />Real religious faith can be so comforting and supportive. The false kind of faith taught by so many fundamentalists can be neither of these in the long run.<br /><br />Jack ScottJack Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08273576581155029176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703298219148864437.post-82725374502182475882012-02-07T09:34:46.781-06:002012-02-07T09:34:46.781-06:00Jack-
This issue of anti-intellectualism and anti-...Jack-<br />This issue of anti-intellectualism and anti-science as a major feature of most evangelical movements is also part of a larger and dangerous way that so many Americans have self selected to live only among those like themselves and take all their news and opinions from a narrow band of believers. Susan Jacoby's excellent and very readable book, "The Age of American Unreason" looks at these trends that go back into other eras of American culture, and are often linked to demagogues who stir up anger and resentment in the pursuit of their own power. <br /><br />The difference in the modern era is that the secular "leaders" of the right wing are not just cynically manipulating the masses, many of the elected leaders who espouse this stuff actually believe what they say - and there are plenty of right wing highly funded "foundations" that pump out pseudo scientific arguments. It is not that the right wing is anti-science...they actually use logical arguments and false science to make claims to support their world view.<br /><br />Now we have the super PACs with no limits on their spending in campaigns, ready to pump out even more outrageous claims and lies. And just who is contributing to all this dissemination of falsities and pieties and hatred of those who do not conform to their view that a middle class family has more to fear from the poor and queers than from the rich?<br /><br />And why does the platform of the evangelicals or their chosen candidates for office embrace the notion that the government is the problem, that tax cuts for the wealthy are in the interest of the working class, and that the "welfare" problem we have is taking care of the unemployed and poor (not the much bigger subsidies and tax exemptions for large corporations, many of which pay no US taxes)<br /><br />Let's not think this rise of a manipulative right wing, using the evangelicals as their "shock troops" is just a threat to those of us with aberrant sexual orientations. I know you are a Republican Jack and I am a very left leaning Democrat, but what we both seem to agree on is that we are all becoming captive to an extremist group. And on the Democratic side, the influence of the "Israel can do no wrong" types and the tech sector corporations who want their own share of tax breaks are also making huge numbers of campaign contributions too.<br /><br />Thanks for verging into this territory Jack.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2703298219148864437.post-4365880391796494442012-02-07T08:44:00.659-06:002012-02-07T08:44:00.659-06:00Thanks, Jack, for taking on this topic. I spent ma...Thanks, Jack, for taking on this topic. I spent many years in a new religious movement with just the same us vs. them evangelical fervor. When I finally realized that this faith did not speak for me, and in fact marginalized who I am as a human and spiritual being...I made my exit. But it took a decade of grieving and searching for me to find my way. We must speak out against hatred and small-minded individuals who would legislate what we are to believe and how we are to act in the world. This is already an innate part of us by virtue of our humanity and higher selves...and our lifelong experience of living and learning who we are.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com