Globe and Mail: "America's fundamental sin of abuse"

[Minstrel Boy]

Good column today by Rick Salutin:


I thought of the Fox network's Bill O'Reilly when I heard about the recent prisoner abuses in Iraq. Not because of the normal abuse you get on his show. But I was on The Radio Factor With Bill O'Reilly last week and in the intro to our discussion he referred often to The Globe and Mail as left-wing. I said I had to defend it against that charge, since The Globe has always been a conservative, business paper here. Oh, come on, he scoffed, noting that the Globe is "secular." We sparred and it was only when he repeated the term that I realized that in the United States, the main political divide now runs between Christian fundamentalism and "secularists." I said I was grateful for this insight: that the U.S. may be the only nation that defines politics in such religious terms. Since the Taliban, anyway, muttered a friend.

I'd say this kind of religiosity is now the biggest difference between us. It's amazing how many Americans drop into conversation, references to their faith, or ask about yours. Forty-six per cent call themselves born-again. In Canada, an evangelical group claims 12 per cent, but even those are not self-described; they are extrapolated from a dubious poll. The U.S. is a country that has "creationist" theme parks to offset dinosaur theme parks. Seriously.

When George Bush met with families who lost members in Iraq, he proudly told them he was praying for them. But he's the President. He could do something, not just pray. George Monbiot, in The Guardian, says 15 per cent of Americans hold a fundamentalist view by which the state of Israel must expand to its biblical borders in order to set off a cosmic battle during which believers will be taken to Heaven naked (the Rapture). They may comprise 33 per cent of Republicans, including Attorney-General John Ashcroft and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Those voters are heavily courted by the Bush team and they demand conflagration rather than peace as policy goals in the Mideast.

...

But what's the connection to prisoner abuse in Iraq? Well, a striking aspect of that abuse has been a persistent sexual quality. It is not torture in the sense of thumbscrews or the rack. It has been about nakedness, domination, humiliation, coerced masturbation. It's like porn. "He's getting hard," PFC Lynndie England reportedly shouted out at one point. And Christianity has always had a tortuous relation with sexuality. Think of ongoing abuse by Catholic priests; or Mel Gibsons's Passion, which blends, as Christopher Hitchens says, homoeroticism and brutality. U.S. Christianity is especially convoluted, from the sexual puritanism depicted in Arthur Miller's The Crucible to the national moralistic orgies over Bill Clinton's affairs.

more:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040507/COSALU07/Columnists/Columnist?author=Rick+Salutin

[Darth_Kitten]

1. Very interesting........

Must read bump :kick:

[Az]

2. The right rejuvenated the fundimentalists

They were taking a beating from science and progressive society. Their ways become more and more synonomous with Amish ways rather than modern society. Left to their own they were heading for the dustbin of history.

But the right realised that there was a desperation in there and a zeal unmatched by anything on the left. Thus they started courting this vote. Gave them a voice. Began to restore their sense of authority.

This is now the bulk of the strength within the conservative movement. Their adherance to dogmatic moral authority has created the rift that is the culture war currently raging below the surface in America.

The world fears this revival of fanatical religious fervor in our nation. Just as our fundimentalists fear Islam's fundimentalists. The religious right does not see the gleam in their own eye that chills others.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. The GOP has been cultivating its own Wahabi base for 25 years.

And like the Saudi royals, most of its leaders enjoy decadent, privileged lives while agitating the faithful into homicidal frenzies against enemies of their choosing.