2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumAlabama Woman: Their White Churches Preach Racism (VIDEO)
Last Friday MSNBC Ed Schultz had a town hall in Alabama. He wanted to go to the Deep South and talk directly to the people. He complained about the Right Wing talking heads using a narrative of dependency as well as race bating to create a level of angst within the white community. One wonders if he expected to have two women in the audience with prescient stories that put it all in a microcosm.
The following is the transcript of the video that follows. The two women made explosive accusations against many white churches in the South and against local Republican Parties. While many may find what they are saying hard to believe I have had many Republicans in our local Baptist churches tell me similar stories.
Alabama Teacher: I have been a part of public education since 1970, when the schools were first integrated. I see more hatred in the South now than I ever saw in 1970 and I will tell you why. Its been preached in the pulpit. Its in the White churches. They are teaching people that if you vote anything but Republican, you are going to hell pretty much.
ED Schultz: Oh! They are preaching it and people are buying it. One Alabama state legislator told me a chilling story about a recent attempt to segregate a local school.
Alabama Legislator: I got a call this week from a White female Republican. We have a school district in our county that has made an application to become independent. The reason she called me was because in the church this past Sunday, they were bullied and told youve got to support this school district pulling away from the county so we can minimize the number of blacks that are in our school district. Even though she was Republican she was disheartened because she says she never looked at the party from that perspective.
Many believe that Americans spend too much time on race issues. The reality is that it is important to do so especially now. The Right Wings Southern Strategy is in full vogue. What makes the womens statement important is the context.
Martin Luther King said the most segregated hour in America is at 11:00 on Sunday mornings, during church services. That presents several realities. It allows those of ill will to use that homogeneity to indoctrinate and to foment a false reality to be feared, a fear of the the other.
With the church providing the moral permission to be fearful and hateful of the other, it is not difficult for the Right Wing hacks like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill OReilly and others to finish the indoctrination. This evil most be continuously exposed and disinfected.
dem in texas
(2,672 posts)I have a disabled nephew whose parents are deceased. He lives alone, but my family helps him. He attends a conservative Baptist church. I take him shopping once a week and I hear all the stuff they are putting in his head. He hates Obama and Michelle, he says Obamacare is going to bankrupt the country (although he is on Medicare due to his disabilities) and on and on. He spouts all the tea party favorite points without questioning any of them, after all they were spoken by good Christian people.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)To the IRS. Have "spies" come in and video tape them, and put it up for the world to see. Take away their tax exemption, and fine them, or take the church and close it.
WCLinolVir
(951 posts)Stuckinthebush
(10,818 posts)Too big to tax.
Many of these churches are part of the Southern Baptist Convention. The churches are effectively independent but are part of the larger whole. So, if you take away the tax exemption of one church do you take it away for the entire denomination? It gets sticky.
Also, very few of these churches actually preach GOPism from the pulpit. They are too smart for that. It is strongly suggested at other meetings and barbecues and Sunday school classes - not by the minister but by the laity.
I do say take the spies into these churches and record what happens and what people say. Then, if nothing else, these people can be publically shamed.