Right-Wing Political Evangelicals Find Their Jihad In 2014

What I find so interesting about right-wing, Republican, Christian conservatives is how they like to throw out the term dogma when talking about progressives. When one talks about dogma, you must remember that the idea behind this word is that it is a set of beliefs that religions hold to be true. In America today, the only religion that is trying to trump changing social conventions is Evangelical Christianity with its need for all to genuflect and bow down to their values and vision of the world be it hawking a new war, attacking people’s sexual orientation or demanding that women give up the right to determine what happens to their bodies.

As a society, this idea (dogma) is contradictory to what progressives believe in that they are looking to break away from a religious doctrine in dealing with the present social and political problems. Whereas, our conservative, right-wing Republicans want to use religious dogma to govern modern culture in that they scream that their religious beliefs must supersede all other thoughts as to what should be considered as true and decent.

Take the Hobby Lobby ruling by SCOTUS; in this instance, the religious right is celebrating the fact that they won and are able to impose their values on people that do not hold those tenets to be true. This situation is dogma at its most fundamental, and in no way, defeats a progressive ideology in so much as it imposes religious principles above the established civil and social code of our country. The irony in this situation is that the intolerance associated with sharia laws is being actualized by the Supreme Court and imposed on an unwilling society with this religious based ruling.

Of course there is nothing new in this type of behavior by the Supreme Court or the religious right as they have over the years used their brand of dogma to attack progressives, liberals or anyone that will not kowtow to their belief systems. As a child, I witnessed the use of religion to justify the separate but equal doctrine that was based on the Plessy v. Ferguson case in that the court’s majority “…contended that the law separated the two races as a matter of public policy.” Of course this was overturned in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, but the damage was done and is still being felt all over America.

As Americans we are facing renewed attacks on our freedom in the name of religious intolerance and being called out by the right-wing, conservative Evangelical Christians who see it as their duty to try and impose retroactive beliefs that are no longer seen as mainstream, but represent age old bigoted tactics used to bludgeon your enemy. These are all signs of a religious revival set in motion by men and women bent on proving their morality and righteousness by denying others the same.

For them this is a holy war, and there can be only one victor and that victor must not be anyone that could be labeled a liberal, progressive or a Republican that does not validate their ideology and principles by following their strict moral compass. Jack Schwartz writes eloquently on this exact point in his piece for the Daily Beast, “The Tea Party Isn’t A Political Movement It’s A Religious One”.

For these religious fanatics, blood must be spilled both metaphorically and literally for them to see victory. The sad news in all of this is that politicians that hold no deep religious belief system, but want to gain power through this process have attached themselves to this movement and have formed groups that want to use violence as a means of political pressure and change. This is what is most disturbing about this religious movement in that it can and has morphed into violent responses as in forcing women to be probed by a doctor prior to an abortion..

Helping to foment hate and distrust are right-wing radio talkers who casually add fuel to the fire by attacking any and everyone that refuses to follow their political and religious positions as stated on air. They beat the drum of suspicion, xenophobia, and intolerance. While they act like the victims, they attack calling for liberals and progressives to be disemboweled, thus, trying to turn our democracy into a theocracy in which they control political ideas through religious intimidation.

They base their positions on their misguided interpretations of the Constitution in that they say, “What would the founders do in this situation?" They have decided that they and only they have the correct insight into the way the founders (in other words white, Anglo-Saxon men) of this country thought and would interpret moral, religious and legal issues facing America today, therefore, these conservative Christians like to throw out words like dogma when explaining any idea that does not fit neatly into their rigid view of conformity.

That is the rub for America.  Will the minority determine what is to happen to the majority? It is a woeful fact that too many Americans are disengaged in the political process, thus, giving rise to a small but vocal group that has set out to reverse America's course. They see the acceptance of homosexuality through marriage equality and abortion as personal and religious affronts, and they are ready to fight their own jihad in the name of their god to stop the madness no matter what it takes, just ask Bruce Bradly in Iowa or Mary Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky they each have a story to tell.