Radical Politics - the Faith of Fundamentalism

By and large, fundamentalist Christianity has absorbed radical right wing political views. This merger of an ignorant biblicism with an abhorrent political philosophy has resulted in a grotesque religious organizational monstrosity seldom seen in this country!

There are a few exceptions. For example, a few months back, the pastor of a mega-church in Minnesota had the audacity to suggest that the Christian faith is not a political system nor is it exemplified by Republican right wing politics. Several thousand parishioners walked out and took their religion elsewhere but so far as I know the church survived and continues to prosper.

For the most part, however, those journalists and investigators who travel the country reporting on the freakiness of fundamentalist Christianity present an almost unanimous picture of a peculiar form of Christianity that has identified itself with the politics of the radical right.

In many fundamentalist churches, everything and everyone has become politicized and a person's Christianity is defined in large part by his/her political views. It is simply inconceivable, for example, that a member of John Hagee's Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas would claim membership in the Democratic Party. [It could also be dangerous!]

In a recent essay, I noted that this combination of faith and politics represents a significant religious metamorphosis in this country: fundamentalist and evangelical Christians have mixed a radical political ideology into their religious beliefs. They no longer base their political views on what their religion teaches, but their religion is now defined by this radical political ideology.


Matt Taibbi, in his book, "The Great Derangement," captures the reality of this metamorphosis in a deliciously satirical description of a worship service led by "Hagee the younger," in a chapel at the Cornerstone Church.

Taibbi says that Hagee's son "seemed to follow the Bush model of political heredity, being both dumber and more vicious than his dad. ...

"He [Hagee the younger] began slowly, asking the crowd if there was anyone here who was concerned about global warming and the environment. ...

"Pastor Hagee then snorted and said something about being tired of being told that using nonrecyclable cans was destroying the world. I am not of the opinion that that is true, he said. Doesn't sound right to me, he said. Then he mentioned the Oscars from the previous weekend, and the Oscar Al Gore received for his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

"He asked if anyone had seen the excellent speech by our former vice president, spitting the words 'vice president' out like they were dead flesh. When the chapel filled with hisses, he plowed on. 'I felt a need to rebut this individual,' he said, and proceeded to rail against Gore, the environment, and global warming for a half hour.

"'These environmentalists,' he said, 'they're trying to tell you that somehow all of these terrible things are going to happen because of us. Something WE did.

"'They want to tell you,' he went on, 'that it was America that did something bad, because they want to be able to tell us what we did wrong and send us a bill for it. China burns coal like--they burn so much coal, like it was nothing. But it's all America's fault, of course. If you ask anybody who knows whether America is a polluter, they'll tell you, America is the cleanest country there is.'

"'Amen!' shouted the crowd.

"'Now,' he said, 'why do they want you to believe this? Because they want to control what you do. They want to control where you go, what countries you go to, what cars you drive. They want to use the environment as a way to control the world.'

"'Amen!' I [Taibbi] shouted.

"'I'll tell you want they want to do,' he said. 'They want to use the environment to force America to reduce its population. And how do they want to do that? Through abortion.'

" ... There were more Amens ..."

Taibbi says that during this "religious" farce, Hagee the younger made several false statements about the American population, an "environmental" meeting in Brazil, and The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Then the son of Hagee started in again on global warming.

"'These people, what they do is, they tell you that something is a problem when it isn't,' he said. 'That is how they control you. And who else does that?'

"'The Devil!' some voices shouted.

"'The Devil, that's right,' he said. 'You know who else? Hitler did that. What did he say Europe's problem was?'

"'Jews!' the voices cried out.

"'The Jews, that's right. Now, were the Jews a problem in Europe?'

"No, No!

"'Of course not,' he said. 'Of course the Jews weren't a problem. And that's exactly the same thing they're doing with global warming!'

"'Hear, hear!' shouted Brian [sitting close to Taibbi]

"Amen!" I shouted.

"Hagee smiled.

"'They say we're all going to die because the ice caps are going to melt," he snorted. 'No we're not. We just gonna get wet--IF they melt.'

"The crowd roared.

"'They want you to be afraid that aerosol is going to contaminate the planet,' he went on. 'So what? Don't worry about it. The earth belongs to God. And God...'

"The crowd finished the rest of his sentence along with him:

"'...did not instill us with an attitude of fear!'

"'Aerosol,' he sneered. 'Aerosol destroying the earth. Ridiculous. Why, if aerosol could kill, everyone on the set with Jan Crouch of TBN woulda been dead a long time ago!'

The sermon ended soon after that witless joke. The "worship" service, as Taibbi describes it, consisted mainly of a political rally with a bit of God thrown in for good measure. But this fundamentalist God is a relatively new invention: this God has seen fit to leave very strange, hidden messages in esoteric Hebrew writings of long ago--writings that only certain people with the proper attitude and intellect, e.g. John Hagee, are able to properly interpret. This new God, properly interpreted, is a dyed-in-the-wool right wing Republican who is less concerned with the problems facing his "chosen" people in Israel, or the horrors of Darfur, or the terror wreaked by Mother Nature in Burman and China, or the everyday, run-of-the-mill violence committed in his name in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in numerous other venues, than he is in the "terrible" things going on in the United States--the fact that the public schools are cesspools of iniquity; the inability of proper Christians to establish a God-loving government; the threat to traditional marriage posed by homosexuality; the law against praying in Jesus name in public places, etc.


The Republican Party has a slight problem as we approach the November elections. Actually, it may turn into quite a large problem. Many right wing Christians and other right wing loonies in the Party do not particularly like John McCain. Even such amoral, unethical, vile creatures as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh had nasty things to say about McCain--they've since changed their tune, of course, when he became the presumptive Republican nominee. Now they are calling his possible opponents the names with which they initially had branded McCain. Nevertheless, the fact that they initially expressed hostility toward McCain indicates a deep-seated dissatisfaction with his candidacy.

James Dobson, the Colorado poohbah who runs Focus on the Family, has said publicly he will not vote for McCain. Dobson, like Limbaugh, has millions of ditto-heads who can't think for themselves and if Dobson says don't vote, they will sit on their hands at home on election day. McCain, who several years ago had several unflattering things to say about extreme right wackos like Robertson and Falwell, realized in this election cycle he needed their goodwill, so he flip-flopped (again), and began pandering for their endorsements. With a few exceptions, he got those endorsements, even though it took a year of pleading before John Hagee succumbed.

Even so, it appears McCain does not have the enthusiastic support of the fundamentalist Christian/political religion. Because this segment of our society makes up such a large mass of Republican votes, McCain could lose the general election if these folks go on vacation in November.

From our point of view, that would be wonderful. Some might even conclude there is a god!

From the point of view of the Christian religious/political right wing, however, a McCain defeat might strengthen the notion that neither of the current political parties adequately represent their interests, in particular their concern that a Christian government be established for this Christian nation. Who knows, maybe if McCain bites the dust in the fall, the radical right Christian politicos would establish a new political party, called "The National Christian Party," or "The Founding Father Party," or maybe "The Christian Republican Party."


I can see it now: The Dream Ticket of The Christian Republican Party - Tom DeLay for president; John Hagee for vice president.

What a nightmare!