A question about the "religious right"

[Initech]

Is it safe to say that a lot of the religious right who claim to be Christians havent read the Bible past the book of Deuteronomy? Look at a lot of the rules they want enforced - no gay marriage, no science and technological advancements (ie stem cells) are in this book.

[TomInTib]

1. "The Religious Right is Neither". Great bumper sticker I saw in

Dallas

[DanCa]

2. Conservatives are trying to form thier own religion and twist the bible

to what they want it to mean. How many right wingers for example are against fee health care, and pro war?

[Initech]

6. Yup, so so hypocritical!

I love how they claim to be "pro life" yet they're also pro war. Dont those two things kind of conflict with each other?

[Alcibiades]

3. Many of them have not even read the Pentateuch

Although Protestantism started out as a religion based on widespread literacy, many of the fundamentalists have lapsed into biblical illiteracy. They rely on their preachers, both live and on TV, to give them "the word," so that they don't even have to bother to read it, much less offer a sensible interpretation of it themselves.

The two ironies of this are: first, that this leads to the development of orthodoxy and the mediation between the laity and the word by a priestly class, both of which should be anathema to Protestants; second, you're right in noting that the most questionable of the fundamentalists' teachings originate in the Old Testament, all of which predate Christ. Christ is silent on these divisive issues they seem to care so much about, yet the fundamental teachings of Christ as delivered in the sermon on the Mount are largely ignored, as they don't fit in with their narrow, hate-filled worldview.

Fundamentalists are largely biblically ignorant. Your average fundamentalist is not up to any independent thought about the bible. They repeat bad theology, things others have told them to say. They are incapable of the simplest tasks of biblical exegesis.

[NMMNG]

4. Most of them don't actually read the Bible at all

They only know the verses that are spoon-fed to them by their fundie preachers, Bible study leaders, study guides, and the like. That's why they have no knowledge of anything but the hateful, vindictive crap.

[xchrom]

5. they worship the ''literal'' word of the bible

and so automatically they have misread the bible.

anxiety over what the bible says and means dominates their thinking whether they know it or not.

in it's way -- that anxiety is roughly the equivalent of fear of modernity.

it's very freudian -- since it involves power, control of bodies{i.e. sex} etc.

if they crowd out every other reading of the bible with their own -- then they win -- whether it's an anxiety ridden misreading or not.