As an atheist I’m deeply disturbed by the rise of religious fundamentalism around the world. In Western society the media mainly focuses on the radicalization Islam and as disturbing as it is, a movement has been growing closer to home that may be just as dangerous.
I’m talking about the rise of the evangelical Christians and how it is taking over the US. I was almost speechless after reading the article Home-schooling special: Preach your children well in NewScientist. Below are a few excerpts that I find particularly disturbing…
Now evangelical home-schoolers can also opt for a college like PHC. The school was founded in 2000 to “prepare leaders who will fight for the principles of liberty and our home-school freedoms through careers of public service and cultural influence”.
It worked. By 2004, PHC students held seven out of 100 internships in the White House, a number even more striking when one considers that only 240 students were enrolled in the entire college. Last year, two PHC graduates worked in the White House, six worked for members of Congress and eight for federal agencies, including two for the FBI. “Patrick Henry is something to worry about because these kids end up in the administration,” says Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, which campaigns against the teaching of creationism as science.
Or
Exodus Mandate is urging each home-schooling family to bring one new family into the movement. If they succeed, several million families could take to home-schooling over the next several years, Moore says. “If we could get up to 30 per cent of public-school students into home-schooling and private schools, the system would start to unravel and at some point implode and collapse,” he says. “The government would be forced to get the states out of the education business altogether. It would go back to the churches and the families. It’s a strategy for the renewal of society.”
Source: NewScientist
If this type of thing were happening in any other country or if it were another religion, the world would be outraged. Just imagine the headlines if it were Islam and the country were one in the Middle East…
Am I the only one who thinks this is insane? Of course with Bush (himself an evangelical Christian who believes he’s on a mission from god) in office, the Christian movement has gained huge momentum! Please don’t get me wrong, I do not have issues with people of faith but I do have problems when a movement tries to push its view onto the population (ie doing away with the separation of Church and State). Perhaps it shouldn’t bug me as much seeing as how I’m a Canadian however this same movement has taken roots in Canada too and the outcome in the US will dramatically affect what happens here.
Think about it this way, would you want the religious front in the US to install another president like George W. Bush? If I were an American, I’d definitely prefer a leader who bases his/her judgments on facts and evidence than “the voice of god” in their head. I honestly thought as time went on our society would become more secular but it seems at least in the early 21st century, the world is dominated by faith rather than logic and reason.
I just posted something related to this on my own site. I think you’ll like the documentary I watched last night. There’s 4 links (two sources, two parts) so I won’t post the links here, but it’s called “The Root of all Evil” and the author is talking about religion… right up your alley.
Heh yeah I saw that this morning damn you beat me to it. 😉
Still it’s a topic that’s been on my mind (you know, we talk about it all the time) and I felt I had to post something after reading that NewScientist article. I’m playing airsoft on Saturday but I’ll check out those videos on Sunday.
Interesting. I am a Christian intellectual (in case anyone need evidence, my view of divine foreknowledge is Molinism), and we probably have slightly different takes on separation of church/state, but I agree that this is disturbing… for different reasons, however.
What I see in American evangelicalism is the use of religion to bring divine validation upon a very particular set of cultural values. They start with patriotism and “THE” American way of life, and then take anachronistic interpretations an integrate them into the power structures they create/sustain.
One major problem, I’d argue, is how they try to spread their influence. It isn’t through tolerant, understanding, compassionate interfaith (or interview, as political philosophies can easily count as views in themselves) DIALOGUE. There’s no real push for “let’s train a group of thinkers, trained in the sacred literature of the day (which would be research).” Instead, there’s a push for “stand up for THE right way of life.” Instead of a strong consideration that–hey, other people are humans, too–they create and sustain a dehumanizing binary of us/them. If they pushed for dialogue, then that would probably come out of the recognition that they’re dealing with other humans.
I find these discussions interesting in terms of political philosophy: aren’t there methods very appropriate in a democracy? They’re trying to sway the numbers: numbers are what speak in democracy–at least, democracy as it is in America.
You make a great point about the double standards of religion. If Christianity rises, well, there aren’t that many people who would react. But people (well, western people, really…) are very concerned with the growth of Islam. Even in some essentially Islamic countries (I think of the Javanese Muslims), the state tries to restrict the influence of Islam. Now, while I don’t like thinking of America as a Christian nation (where do you see ethical precepts like ‘love your neighbor’ in the Iraq war?), the issue of restricting Christian practices isn’t an issue. Javanese Muslims protested for the right to veil; Christians wasted a lot of time and energy about removing the Ten Commandments. Javanese Muslims protested for something that was immediately relevant to them; Christians wet their pants over something that wouldn’t affect anyone’s behavior. I wonder if it’s the Muslims who are fighting for religious equality under the West’s Judeo-Christian heritage–that would go towards a dialectical explanation of why there’s such concern with the rise of Islam.
Even while you are an atheist, I would caution you not to underestimate the power of religious ideology (cf. ‘Exodus Mandate’ — Exodus is a big freedom story, and mandate carries a similar force to the word ‘ultimatium’, obligatory to no end). Labelling is a powerful social force, and the more people associate the category of sacred with a particular set of cultural norms, the stronger they will struggle to keep those norms in power.
Personally, I think that getting people to question things severely reduces the influence of strong rhetoric and merely asserted truths. Imagine what change American evangelicalism would have to undergo if people no longer believed that “God told me so” was a reliable epistemic argument. Well, God told me that He didn’t tell you anything, nah nah nah…
Hey there Jashen.
First thanks for your opinion, it’s nice to have a view from the other side. 🙂 In a multicultural society like we have in the Western world, I do not believe that one’s faith or ideology should push itself onto others. Regardless at how the belief is spread, the goal of the evangelical are to turn the US into a christian nation.
I have to give the christian movements credit, they’ve been able to organize mobilize their followers well and are now too large a group for politicians to ignore. They’ve also done things in a smart way, instead of starting up a christian (which would probably be considered an extremist party), the evangelical movement has virtually taken over the Republican party. Just because they’re successful though does not mean they speak for the population, it’s just that they’re better organized to get their views across.
With Bush in office evangelicals have become very aggressive with other things and have essentially demonized science (trying to get creationism taught in schools, stem cell research, climate change just to name a few). Let’s speak hypothetically and say you an American citizen and it has become an islamic state, how as a christian would feel if the leaders continually reference allah or taught the quran in school? Separation of church and state is necessary not because religion is evil, it’s because a civilized society must remain neutral and respect all faiths.
If one feels that god speaks to them, that’s fine I don’t have a problem with that. It’s when people are in power that they must rely on logic and evidence to make their decisions, not the word of god. Claims/evidence requires facts and I have no qualms saying the word of god is not enough when making decisions that affect people worldwide.
Heh you’re still coming out on Saturday with your family right? 😉 I’m sure we’ll have time to discuss this further. 😀
I pretty much agree with that. 😀
It seems to me pretty silly to say that the ‘word of god’ (whatever one thinks it is) is enough, when policy assumes views on sociology, culture, race, gender, psychology, etc, etc… when I hear a bland, simplistic “we’re following the word of god” I either cringe or am compelled to challenge the person’s ideology. Agency, as one provisional definition goes, is the socioculturally mediated capacity to act. Therefore in acting, one’s lens has already been shaped by society and culture, and what imperialist horrors we are risk when our own lens is not critically analyzed…