Welcome to readers from PA Progress 2010! Keystone Progress held their first conference in Harrisburg Pennsylvania on January 29 and 30. I was honored and excited to be able to participate in this successful event which drew over 500 progressive activists from across Pennsylvania. My presentation was titled "The Sacralizing of Political and Economic Issues" and included a PowerPoint presentation in which I tracked the history and activism related to "biblical capitalism." The presentation is not anti-religious, anti-bible, nor anti-capitalist, but addresses the ideology that unregulated capitalism is dictated by biblical law. In other words, biblical capitalism is the belief that government intervention in the marketplace is against God's will.
As progressives, we are well aware of the role of the Religious Right in issues such as gay rights and women's rights. However, the Religious Right's war on progressive economic policy, regulation, progressive tax structures, and labor unions is often overlooked. Radical free market ideology is being taught to students and adults as a biblical mandate and those in opposition are being literally demonized. Revisionist textbooks rewriting science and social sciences to align with literal biblical interpretations, are widely used in homeschooling, some private schools, and also by "family values" organizations and adult seminars.
Numerous sources were used for historical material, quotes, and graphics. A picture is worth a thousand words and my presentation included over 100 graphics, but perhaps less words than the following summary! Hopefully the following bibliographies and online sources will be useful for those who would like to do additional reading on this topic.
Introduction:
"The Public Eye" is a publication of Political Research Associates, an organization which has tracked the money trail of funding for right wing think tanks supporting radical free market and anti-union policy. The introduction of the presentation included "The Public Eye's" tracking of 170 million dollars of funding.
Link here to a large selection of articles at "The Public Eye" on economic justice and anti-union history and activism.
The chart tracking the money to anti-union think tanks can be downloaded here.
Following the money trail alone does not answer the question of how economic policy becomes "sacralized."
Throughout the presentation quotes were included from various textbooks which include the following concepts.
-A dualistic worldview is taught in which there is only one correct or God-mandated paradigm through which to view science, social sciences, and economics, with all other views being presented as evil.
- Poverty and social problems of populations are claimed to be the result of wrong religious belief, while wealth is portrayed as a product of correct religious belief.
-Societies with "correct belief" are presented as able to find natural resources while the unholy are not able to find adequate resources.
-Sweden and Canada are presented as failed states.
-The Confederate States of America are glorified as a model of religious fervor.
-The earth is described as only a few thousand years old with natural resources such as energy supplies rapidly renewing.
-Labor unions and regulatory policy, including child labor laws are described as having only negative results on American economy and workers. Historic improvements in working conditions and safety are described as being solely due to proper functioning of the capitalistic system such as improved technology.
-The U.S. is claimed as being in decline because of apostasy and must undergo a "reformation."
-These "biblical" worldviews are taught as being held by the nation's founding fathers and later abandoned during the New Deal and the societal changes of the 1960s.
Federal government statistics show homeschooling increasing rapidly with an estimate of 1.5 million students home schooled in 2007. Homeschooling organizations and the Alliance for Separation of School and State claim that number is growing rapidly. The latter is an organization which aims to eradicate public education in America. This agenda to privatize all schooling is supported by numerous religious leaders, and includes Rep. Ron Paul, syndicated columnist John Rosemond, and former Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel.
History:
A short history of the emergence of "biblical capitalism" was included in the presentation beginning with the struggle to counter the "social gospel" in the early 1900s. "The Fundamentals," a series of pamphlets funded by Lyman Stewart, were distributed to ministers across the nation beginning in 1910. William Bell Riley was one of the founders of the World Christian Fundamentals Association and a prominent leader of the fundamentalist movement which declared war on modernism, liberalism, progressivism and evolution. The creation-evolution controversy erupted in the Scopes trial in 1925.
The combined business/fundamentalist war on the legislation of the New Deal is the topic of a book released last month by Kim Phillips-Fein, titled Invisible Hands, the Businessmen's Crusade against the New Deal. This book serves as a good compliment to the bestseller, The Family by Jeff Sharlet, which details a religious/ political fraternity begun in the 1930s which continues today and includes sponsorship of the National Prayer Breakfast. Phillips-Fein tracks the war on New Deal legislation including J. Howard Pew's "Spiritual Mobilization" which distributed Frederich Hayek's Road to Serfdom to churches and ministers.
Continued>>>
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/2/10/223656/720
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