Why Right Wing U.S. Evangelicals Salivate For "End Times" - Amanda Marcotte

While most of us would be alarmed if we thought we were facing down the apocalypse and a worldwide war that will kill millions, they can't wait.

There is a unique, strange tendency of American right wing, fundamentalist Christians to cast around looking for evidence that they will be witness to the apocalypse. The popular hymn may state that “they will know we are Christians by our love,” but when it comes to right-wing fundamentalists, a better bet to know them is by their apocalyptic revenge fantasies.

While most of us would be alarmed if we thought we were facing down the apocalypse and a worldwide war that will kill millions, people like Michelle Bachmann can't wait: “Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand.”

3 out of 4 evangelicals believe Christ will return soon. This is, of course, mostly wishful thinking—they believe they’re seeing the end of the world because they want to see the end of the world. Why would anyone want that, when the Bible they believe in predicts it will be mass murder, hellfire, and every grotesque thing imaginable?

(The fact that none of these beliefs are based on an accurate interpretation of the Bible they so readily thump seems to escape them).

1.They don’t think they’ll be around for the worst of it. Modern American fundamentalist Christians believe in something that has never before been part of Christian tradition: the Rapture. The idea is that the true believers will be whisked away into heaven before the ugly parts of the end times begin.  The idea was invented in the 19th century but has caught like wildfire in 20th Century fundamentalism and amped up in the 21st Century through fantasy films like Left Behind.

2.The end of the world would mean they get to have the last word. History will tell us that end time predictions increase when people are being persecuted or feel persecuted. While conservative Christians are most definitely not being persecuted, watching their privileged position in society justifiably decline as the equality and liberty promised in the Constitution is more fully enfranchised often makes them feel persecuted (and they whine about it to no end).

3.It provides a distraction from and an excuse to avoid the real problems in the world. The appeal of apocalypse fantasies as a genre is mainly that they help believers avoid the fear of death.  However, belief that the end times are near is used by conservatives all the time to direct their followers politically.  The prediction that the apocalypse is near has been used to defend all manner of terrible policies; everything from indifference to environmental concerns to opposition to health insurance to preferred right-wing policies in the Middle East.

4.They want to see the non-believers punished and themselves instated as the rightful rulers of all mankind. The real message for those they regard as unsaved is to thumb their nose and do a little victory dance. That’s why, after any great tragedy, there is a rush of eager-beaver charlatans willing to say this is what people have coming for being sinners (as though we all aren't sinners?!?!?)

The full article is available here

The Psychodynamics of Tea Party Success - Rabbi Michael Lerner

Here’s what I learned about why right-wing extremists are on the ascendency.

After many years as a psychotherapist studying the psycho-dynamics leading Americans to move to the Right, (before I became a rabbi and editor of Tikkun), I began to understand why a fringe and extremist group could be so successful in gathering support that would eventually lead to its ability to shut down the functioning of the government.

Here’s what I learned about why right-wing extremists are on the ascendency:

1. The Right has a coherent worldview, deeply mistaken, but nevertheless held firmly and taught widely through the media it controls and the many institutions it funds. They know what they want—the elimination of government except for its policing, fire-fighting, immigrant fighting, and military services.

2. The Democrats are perceived as wimps, because they don’t fight for what they say they believe in.  So even though temporarily they are slightly winning the battle about who is to blame for the government shut down, they keep missing opportunities to challenge the Tea Party and their supporters.

3. With the decline of American political power and economic power globally, coupled with the intense assault by the 1% on the incomes and economic security of the rest of the population and growing awareness and despair about the way climate change might be real and might lead to environmental disaster, and you get a huge amount of insecurity about the future, and a willingness to grab on to a variety of pseudo-solutions.

4. The takeover of the culture by the ethos of materialism and selfishness (which go hand-in-hand with the Social Darwinism that is Libertarianism). Rarely in history have we seen such a huge buy-in to that ideology and to the common-sense notion that people are basically ego-driven and selfish and that “what they really want is more and more things,” as we see in the media-driven culture of the 21st century.

The full article is available here

Tea Party Created Existential Threat to US, Not Affordable Care Act - Republican Justin Holbrook

Common-sense Republicans like myself understand that the Affordable Care Act is not an existential threat and doesn't deserves an existential response.

By pretending that the Affordable Care Act poses such an existential risk to the republic that it merits dragging our national character through the mud of a government shutdown, tea party Republicans are belittling the very real crises America faces.

Common-sense Republicans like myself understand that it’s not an existential threat and doesn't deserves an existential response.  Freedom of religion, speech, the press; if these freedoms are taken away – not simply re-scoped or modified by representatives who, by the way, are popularly elected – we would have an existential crisis.

We live in a democratic republic. The people elect legislators who pass legislation and a president who signs it into law. By its very nature, there are winners and losers.

Sometimes one party wins and gets the legislation it wants. Sometimes not. But most of the time we compromise. We get a little here and give a little there. We work together.  Unfortunately, it’s a lesson that tea party Republicans – caught in the fog of war and self-appointed last stands – seem to have forgotten.

The existential crisis is the one that tea party Republicans are creating. This crisis is abusing the give-and-take of the political process to such a degree that both our national pride and credit are at risk in the world. It is creating a rift in the Republican Party.

If tea party Republicans want to avoid an existential threat to the republic, they should remember that their first loyalty is not to defeating the Affordable Care Act or winning the next election. Their first loyalty is to the republic.

The full article is available here