The Perpetual American Lynch Mob

[laststeamtrain]

Frank Schaeffer

Posted: April 15, 2010 06:18 PM

The Perpetual American Lynch Mob

<snip>

Dad (my late evangelical leader father Francis Schaeffer) and I did our bit in the 1970s and 80s to pass on the torch of unhinged Lynch Mob hate when we helped create the Perpetual American Lynch Mob's "pro-life" incarnation. That movement -- Our Movement -- was begun by people like us wanting to save babies. It ended up in the swamp of homophobia, hate of the "other" and even inspired the murder of doctors.

And the anti-abortion movement also empowered a Republican Party that sank under the weight of this single-issue to the lowest common denominator. The Republican Party didn't just cater to the Perpetual American Lynch Mob, but became the Perpetual American Lynch Mob.

Without the culture war (which Dad and I contributed to) that I describe and explain in my book Crazy For God there would have been no George W. Bush presidency because there would have been no evangelical Republican "base" to power the politics of the far right as it emerged from the 1970s and 80s. Until we pro-lifers came along, most evangelicals (of that generation) weren't single issue anti-American voters.

We anti-abortion activists helped pave the way for yet another generation of cantankerous, religious nuts to weasel their way into the heart of American history and even into the heart of our government. We helped keep alive the worst of the crank tradition that runs like a dark subterranean river of sewage just under the surface of everyday American life.

We gave a boost to the Perpetual American Lynch Mob that resurfaces in every generation in a new disguise and with a new excuse. But that new "cause" is really only the latest manifestation of hate, fear, isolation and ignorance (often born of rube religion) combined with the insane myth of American exceptionalism.

Thirty-five years plus later right wing hatred of our actual country (and even more hatred of our government) is packaged as patriotism. Every Sunday across America thousands of right wing preachers, from John Haggee to Rick Warren, (knowingly or unknowingly following in Dad's footsteps) rail against a mishmash of "America's sins" from thousands of pulpits.

<more>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/the-perpetual-american-ly_b_538525.html

[POAS]

1. Your only allowed to ctiticize

the government from the "right", especially from the "religious right"!

Criticism from the left is treason! Just ask the Dixie Chicks or Frank Schaeffer.

[classysassy]

2. Hate

is not God Like,its hypocrisy used by the right wing preachers who use their positions to enrich themselves and they have a bunch of willing suckers.