Religion
Related: About this forumRepublican party uses religion to manipulate voters
While there are many ways to manipulate people, religion seems to be the tool most often used to control large masses of people. After all, isnt that why we have organized religion in the first place? Christianity is a great example of this. Within the United States we have many different denominations of the Christian faith. Yet within each of these variations of Christianity, we often seen drastically different rules from one Christian organized religious denomination to another. What it breaks down to is somewhere along the line some human decided to cherry-pick what they found important within the Bible. They often did this because they craved power and control over others. Its why as a Christian I dont subscribe to any form of organized religious following. Every Christian religion follows the Bible. Every Christian who knows how to read can read the Bible for themselves. So why does any Christian need human-made rules to tell them what to believe? Its just something thats never made a whole lot of sense to me. But I believe a long time ago the Republican party identified that religion was going to be their tool to manipulate tens of millions of Americans into supporting economic policies that dont benefit them. Because thats exactly whats happened. - See more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/conservatives-wake-republican-party-uses-religion-manipulate/#sthash.5PMu7jl8.dpuf
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)'Not a bug, Working As Intended.'
/Close bug report
Rainforestgoddess
(436 posts)trotsky
(49,533 posts)Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)msongs
(67,441 posts)SamKnause
(13,110 posts)their agenda.
They want to replace the Constitution with the Bible.
They are very brazen about their plans.
They are not shy.
They are not trying to hide it.
They have corporate owned right wing media pushing their agenda.
The airwaves are filled with lunatic, right wing, religious, zealots pushing their agenda.
Their agenda has infested the public educational system.
They are rewriting history to fit their agenda.
They will not stop until the U.S. is a Christian Theocracy owned by Corporations.
They are the greatest THREAT this country faces.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)fundamentalists in this country, and they did it extremely effectively. He and I are in strong agreement there.
But I don't think that is why we have "organized religion". There are many reasons that people gather with others and the fundies were organized before they become politically motivated. Much of his description of organized religion is very simplistic and reflective of his personal experience and POV. This detracts from his piece, but his point is still valid and still stands.
edhopper
(33,615 posts)can be looked at at least two different ways. One is through the organizers and the other the organized.
This has more to do with the "organized" part than the "religion" part.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)So can organized anything.
It was the neo-cons that were organized in the political way. They saw an opportunity to co-opt the already organized but relatively apolitical fundamentalist population.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)The fundamentalist population became political as the religious right before "neocons" existed as a political force. Both forces emerged independently and they suffered a marriage of convenience within the republican party.
Rainforestgoddess
(436 posts)Is a dangerous entity. It is inevitable that the ones in control will eventually try to influence the political situation.
okasha
(11,573 posts)is to convince them they're under attack. It doesn't much matter who the designated hate object is, and the neocons have attributed the supposed threat to African Americans, Hispanics, LGBT's, feminists, you name it. Scary Muslims worked so well that Islamophobia is common even among "progressives."
cbayer
(146,218 posts)That's when people will circle the wagons and shoot anything that moves.
Hermann Göring: