Article 2: Understanding the Extremist Right-wing Religious Voters, pt. 1?

Note: This is completely unedited. One day I will have time to slow down and fix everything.


When I look at how Liberals (young progressives in particular) engage with those Republican Christians, I see a lot of frustration. That frustration takes the form of rage, but it's not productive anger because you continue to do the same things, communicate in the same way. And I realized that most of the frustration is because SERIOUSLY, HOW CAN YOU DENY SCIENCE??? I get it. It's frustrating to argue numbers that are true, and have someone go, "no... I don't believe that." so you give them more numbers . and then MORE!...it's a perpetuating cycle. It's almost enough to give a young Liberal an aneurism. And that would be bad.


So, I'd like to try to help you understand the mind of a Right-wing, Religious Christian voter:


Today, I received an email from a think tank in Washington, DC. Their website describes them as a "Christian Think Tank in Washington DC" whose "vision is a culture in which all human life is valued, families flourish, and religious liberty thrives."

The Email:

Date: June 14, 2017

Subject: HOW OBAMA'S "SHADOW GOVERNMENT" THREATEN YOUR VALUES...FROM ONLY ABOUT TWO MILES FROM THE WHITE HOUSE!

(Hi, It's me here. I'm going to interrupt and try to explain as we go along. Just like I did here)

Dear Ivan,

Ex-President Obama is out of office. But after six months, he's still a serious threat to your religious freedom. (Every week or so during the Obama Administration, XXXXX claims another attack on the religious liberties.)

He even purchased a mansion command center within walking distance of the White House. (I'm not sure why that poses a threat, that he lives near the place they've lived for the past decade.)  His political right arm, Valerie Jarrett, moved in with the family to continue the Obama post-presidency influence. From that location, he can work to undermine President Trump. And according to former Attorney General Eric Holder, "He's ready to roll."

In what Washington analysts describe as a "soft coup," Barack Obama and his operatives both outside and inside the government are participating in activities to derail conservative policies, including recent gains made on behalf of faith, family, and freedom.

And their war chest is bulging with millions of dollars from the likes of George Soros, Hollywood moguls, and liberal dot.com CEOs.

That's why I am emailing you today. XXXXXXX needs your help to oppose ex-President Obama's campaign. We have not yet reached our $1.1 million fiscal year-end funding goal. It is critical that we meet this goal to have the resources necessary to stop Obama today and reverse his eight years of attacks on your values and freedoms.

Thanks to a $300,000 Matching Challenge generously provided by concerned XXXXXXX supporters, the impact of any donation you send today will multiply the grant-but only if your tax-deductible gift is received by midnight, June 30.

Nothing like this has been seen in American history-and it must be opposed, or it will succeed.

During Obama's eight years in office, same-sex marriage became the law of the land...schools were forced to open their restrooms to members of the opposite sex...nuns were ordered to fund drugs that can destroy human embryos in their health insurance plans...military chaplains were punished for teaching biblical values...and Christian business owners were given the choice to leave their Christian beliefs at the door or face crippling fines.

On the other hand, President Trump is remaining true to his promise to protect our First Amendment rights. On the National Day of Prayer, he issued an executive order to safeguard many religious freedoms. But the battle for religious freedom in America is far from won.(You can read the text of that particular piece of government nonsense here)

Former President Obama's Organizing for Action money machine has raised millions of dollars in order to unleash a storm of agitation against President Trump's pro-life and religious freedom action items. And Organizing for Action is trying to influence Congress against faith, family, and freedom.

(Organizing for Action advocates for 6 platforms: an aggressive campaign against climate change denial, Immigration reform, Healthcare reform, women's healthcare, marriage rights for everyone, and economic reform)

XXXXXX needs to reach our $1.1 million fiscal year-end goal to counter this onslaught.

My team and I will use your year-end gift to support and encourage President Trump and his staff to press forward for even more faith, family, and freedom initiatives.

XXXXXXX will also use your gift to inform and encourage (Is that what money buys these days? a million bucks worth of Encouragement?)  Members of Congress. They are getting hammered by protestors and harassing emails demanding they cave in on issues critical to your values as a Christian. (They mentioned me!)

Further, XXXXXXXXX will use your gift to provide information and encouragement to state legislators and governors. They need to take a stand for religious freedom despite the unrelenting pressure from the leftist agitators.

So I hope and pray you can help. Can I count on you to give a tax-deductible year-end gift to help XXXXXXXXX reach its $1.1 million goal? Remember, any amount you give today will be matched dollar for dollar, doubling the impact of your gift. But time is of the essence.

Standing (Eph. 6:13),

XXXXXXXXX

This letter may be shocking, or  it may not be, depending on your worldview. It's very difficult for me to gauge what other people know. For example, do you know Eph. 6:13? If you don't, this is going to look like a simple Fox-news-style rhetoric, laced with strong religious undertones in order to get the masses to pony up some cash ( Churches ask for money mo' often than a clipboard wavin' 22-year old, amiright?) (Sorry. DC humor.)

Eph. 6: 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

This a callout to a holy war.

Now, if you were raised like I was, when I asked, "do you know eph. 6: 13?" the answer would have been, "of course, and you would have quoted it. Except if you went to AWANA on Wednesday nights, or Christian boarding schools. or bible college, you would know, you don't memorize verses, you memorize passages. So you brain would have gone back a sec and thought of memorized Ephesians (did you even know what "Eph." stood for? Oh boy, there's gonna need to be a lot of explaining.)

Ephesians Chapter 6: (Yes, I really did have this whole chapter memorized. In high school, we were required to write the passages from the bible from memory on every test, once a week.)

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— ³ “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”^[a]

⁴ Fathers,^[b] do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. ⁶ Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. ⁷ Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, ⁸ because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

⁹ And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

(Now, this is a letter from Paul to his friends in the city of Ephesus. Early Christians, the first couple thousand, maybe, who believed the Jesus story knew Paul personally, and he wrote them letters. While he was in Jail, this was a personal letter to them. He even closes the letter with:  Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. ²² I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you. Literally, he's saying, "guys, A lot's been happening, and I can't write it all down, I'm sending Tychius to tell you what's been going on." Only in Greek. Translated in to English. Then modernized in 198...2? The New Internation Version It's very controversial in the Religious Sphere. To "use the NIV" instead of the "KJV" (lit. King James Version. As in,  yes, King James the 1ts, Who the Puritins and the whole... English Civil War... It's all connected. <sigh>

 OK History is in Green. If you don't want to know, skip it.  

The Europe back in the day was super pissy about the whole religion thing. Mainly, because their entire political structure was built on the fact that God ordained Kings to rule. That's how they justified the whole, "I guess we're going to let his kids be kings... you know... instead of somebody qualified...." The Legitimacy of the government relied on the strength of the people's tie to their religion. And vice versa. It was a neat little system, especially when no one read Latin! 

Then, William Tyndale in 1525 translates the Bible into English. So now, everyone can read it. I imagine you'd be pretty upset to learn that what you read wasn't what the clergy had been saying...Those prople sure were. So now, these little sects spring up of people who are reading the Bible one way or another, and it's chaos. Catholicism made it so that everyone was the same religion, 'cause no body knew what the book actually said! Now the Puritans and the Episcopalians, and the Presbyterians... They each had their own way of seeing the exact same thing, except each group was pretty sure that they were the only ones Correct. And they would kill you over it.  

In 1604, James IV of Scotland becomes James the Ist of  England, and he was a Calvinist. ...They followed the teaching and scholarship <ahem> of John Calvin. (If you ever here someone describe themselves as a Calvinist, they might as well be saying, Look out, World, you're Going to Hell!

Welll, the Bible that had been all the rage only 70 years earlier was really starting to irk some schools of thought, the way that Schools won't teach Huck Finn because of the graphic depiction of child abuse. Times change and our perception of what it "right and wrong" sometimes shift.

(Wait, what was that?  That's not why schools ban Huckleberry Finn?... it's because of the foul language of the characters? huh. I just would have guessed that child abuse was worse. My mistake)

So the Puritins went to James, and asked him to order a new translation. And James was like, absolutely. He had some issues with the Divine Rights to Kings that needed to be cleared up, and so he order a new Translation. The 1611 King James Version.  

 According to Wikipedia, "James gave the translators instructions intended to ensure that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy". he had them tweak it to support his authority!

When I grew up, this was the bible of choice of the Bibliratti. So 1611 = Calvinists. Charles I, who ended up starting the English Civil War that ended the Monarchy in England, was an Armenian (They followed the teaching of this guy Arminius, who was the opposite of Calvin. Except also protestant) He liked his Divine Right to Rule in the flavor of the old "Everybody needs to believe the same thing, like the Catholics do, guys!" and so they killed him.

So... 1611 bible history.

 Paul, the first Christian rock star, was in jail at the time, 62AD actually, and was writing letter to his peeps like a Jewish Nelson Mandella. And they kept the letters and later on, just made them part of the bible. The Biblical Supplemental. <Sigh> fucking Paul.

End Aside.

The Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Read that last verse again, This is what you're fighting--Ok--, Verse 13! from the letter, remember? ) ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

So. These are the instruction of what "a good Christian looks like" from the guy who just taught you what Christianisty was in the first place. He's sending his letter, saying do this:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² 

“Honor your father and mother”

⁴ Fathers,^[b] do not exasperate your children;

⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear

⁹ And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

So when you hear a Christian say, "Well, it says "Slaves, obey your Masters" know that they are quoting a personal letter from Paul to his friends, not God. And then that letter was translated into English in such a way that it would reinforce a particular monarchs ideology. In order to establish the power of the Ruling class of the day. How do you be a good Christian? Honor and Obedience.... and also fight for Jesus. 

Now, doesn't it seem strange that Jesus never talked about fighting. And in fact, he's the "Turn the other Cheek"-While-praying-"father forgive them for they know not what they do"--type.   Not the Take on the Whole armor of god type. But no one said that it was... just... it's the Bible...  so. so it.

This is how the email I received was closed off: a call to be good Christians by taking up arms to fight EVIL.  The entire letter is written as if it is the Tales from the Front lines. Those who read it literally believe that they are on the front lines of a war. And that war is against Evil. Progressive Liberal Democrats.

Here's the thing: in War, you win in one of two ways: you remove the enemy's capacity to fight. Or you remove their will to fight. Either one will work. This Particular D.C. think tank has overtly and subconsciously insinuated that in order to be a good Christian, you must defeat EVIL. and that there can be no backing down or compromise. And what is thatEvil? Public Schools. Women's Health Clinics. Finding ways to help as many refugees as possible. Making sure that everyone has adequate Health Care. Ensuring that people who disagree with each other on Sex Issues still get all the same civil rights.  (they also think Jesus is coming back to destroy the wicked Earth, so honestly, there is no point in saving it. Somehow, they forgot that God's first command, biblically, was  for humans to take care of the earth. To look after it and protect it. That's apparently evil, now, too. *sips tea*

Now. IF you didn't grow up in this community, you may not be aware of how the jump is made from 

"Gays should be denied basic civil rights within the society and the dignity of equality" to "a shadow Government "soft coup," is coming to derail recent gains made on behalf of faith, family, and freedom." to "Fight to the death, For Jesus!" I don't blame you. It's subtle.

A good Christian is obedient. They follow orders.  Like a Slave to a Master. Because since they were little, they were taught that "If the bible says it, that's it. Nothing else can be true. Because the Bible gets it's legitimacy from God". And no one really focuses on the fact that the favored translation of those who taught you your religion was constructed specifically to reinforce the divine right to rule of Kings.

Nor did we focus on the Testimony of a guy who was in prison for treason and Blasphemy (There's that "divine right to rule" thing again. And while he was awaiting trial, He was allowed to write letters to all the friends he'd made. Like the Jewish Nelson Mandela. So it could make sense for him to slip a little, "Don't rebel" in the end.

Nor do we seem to remember that 1611 Translation and it's emphasis on establishing the religious and political order of the day..." 

Also No one seems to remember than the political order of the day was a monarchy, whereas, now it's a democracy, literally, the right to rule is within the citizen.

The Founders understood this. After they were done with the constitution, they started making changes. The first amendment they made? You can believe anything you want; there will be no National Religion, capiche? 

 But over time, crypto-Calvinists found a legal way to continue to enforce their own agendas. The Moral Majority. Focus on the Family. The Heritage Foundation--they have the legal spin

If a christian believes that [insert issue here] is immoral, it must come from their moral compass. Hence, it is a religious belief.

If I must interact or make life easier for someone who disagrees with my morality, it becomes a violation of my religious liberty to not support "EVIL".

If you try to force me to "tolerate" Evil, your agenda is Evil. Therefore, it is clear that you want to destroy our religion and institute some other authority! a one world government! Sharia Law! Something!

But, because I read my bible, I know that I must not negotiate because a good Christian "puts on the whole armor of god so that he can withstand the wiles of the devil. So when you come to tell me about the Gays or the Muslims or the Poor or the Earth itself, I'm a "Christian First, an American Second." So I'm ready to fight.

From a constitutional perspective, the idea of a federal government was to ensure that everyone's rights were protected in a confederation of States, all working toward the same 6 goals. Now anyone who  disagrees with someone else is attacking religious freedom. And trying to suppress social causes you disagree with is a moral imperative.  It's why the SNAP program is so evil. Those food stamp recipients are immoral, so it's a violation of my religious rights if I have to support them and their "lifestyles". Because I was told so by Pastor Dave. 


If every political issue becomes a religious issue, every political attack is a religious attack. And since religion is truth, you must "put on your armor" and fight. It's a battle of good versus evil. they are expecting you to try and trick them. That's what evil-doer do.


They enter into the debate with the belief that they are correct, and if they waver, they have been deceived. Their starting point is that their belief is correct always, because the bible. Even if there are new facts uncovered, the task is to make those facts arrive at the conclusion they believed in the first place. Watch this clip of Bill Nye and Ken Hamm, and you'll get a clear picture of what I mean.

Bill, here, unfortunately misses a huge point in the Debate:


Ken Hamm just declared that he creates hypothetical models in order to find ways of fitting all of the available data together in such a way as it would arrive at his pre-selected conclusion. This act, of twisting facts around to reach your conclusion is something that they do every day. Which is why they don't trust you with your fancy Ivy League book learning--they know your trick, because they do it too. They will never be convinced. Not with an attack.


So what do we do?  To be continued...