tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post331946964772618822..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Winning the Culture Wars, Losing the Country?Dale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-68803084844316289792010-08-30T13:24:33.440-07:002010-08-30T13:24:33.440-07:00This is not about denying the existence or the thr...This is not about denying the existence or the threat of right-wing crazy, but recognizing the secularizing convivializing context in which the crazy is rendered desperate and dangerous in the specific ways that it is -- the better to diagnose and respond to it.<br /><br />One of the points I made in earlier posts on this topic, by the way, emphasized that part of the immediate context for the latest wave of anti-Muslim hysteria was the role of Republican activists in gay marriage fights, signaling the loss of the "gay" in the old "god, guns, gays" formula supplementing the white-racist southern strategy. The other part of that story is the dawning recognition that anti-latin immigrant hysteria is a long-term loser for the GOP.<br /><br />We are mis-reading things, missing opportunities. We should have kept pressure on the Arizona story -- they sense they were in danger of looking crazy to independents, even the ones who were mildly crazy on race but sensed which way the wind is blowing. Obama should realize that he is out of touch on DOMA and that DADT will energize the left base without costing him with the right in the way he fears.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-89027902997815924942010-08-30T12:33:33.807-07:002010-08-30T12:33:33.807-07:00Dale wrote:
More from Brueggemann:
p. 21, "T...Dale wrote:<br />More from Brueggemann:<br /><br />p. 21, "The Homosexual Assault on Family"<br /><br />"'Moms and dads, are you listening? This movement is THE greatest threat<br />to your children,' James Dobson warns. Another moral scapegoat for<br />society's problems revolves around gays and lesbians, and especially<br />the goal of legalized same-sex marriage. Gays and lesbians are often<br />lumped together with feminists as the offenders responsible for everything<br />from moral decay to God's wrath. Two days after September 11, Jerry<br />Falwell exclaimed, 'God continues to lift the curtain and allow the<br />enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.' Why?<br />'I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the<br />feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to<br />make that an alternative lifestyle, the A.C.L.U., People for the American<br />Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point<br />the finger in their face and say, "You helped this happen."<br /><br />More recently, John Hagee declared that, 'All hurricanes are acts<br />of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans<br />had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients<br />of the judgment of God for that . . . there was to be a homosexual<br />parade there on the Monday that Katrina came. And the promise of<br />that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never<br />demonstrated before in any of the other gay pride parades.'<br /><br />Such preposterous claims could be dismissed if they were not spoken<br />by influential people who command the attention of tens of millions<br />of conservative Christians as well as important and mainstream<br />conservative leaders like George Bush, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum,<br />and John McCain. In April of 2008, the Religion News Service<br />released a list of the ten most influential GOP "King Makers" who<br />had influence on the Republican campaign. It included Dobson,<br />Tony Perkins, Rod Parsley, and others who proclaim militant<br />antihomosexual stances.<br /><br />By 1980, one estimate suggests, some 61 million people were tuning<br />in to evangelical television and radio programs. While the likes<br />of Falwell and Robertson speak for many fundamentalist Christians,<br />they are some of the most reviled figures in public life and do<br />not speak for more sophisticated conservatives. However, there<br />are other more nuanced but nevertheless problematic assertions about<br />the role of gays and lesbians in the decline of moral order in<br />America. 'Gay marriage is not some sideline issue,' the columnist<br />Maggie Gallagher recently declared, 'it **is** the marriage debate.'<br />Once the third-ranking Republican leader of the Senate, Rick<br />Santorum wrote that advocacy for gay marriage represents just 'the<br />latest liberal assault' on the 'natural family.' The result of<br />this 'dangerous social experiment,' Zell Miller suggested of 'same<br />sex marriage,' will be disastrous. 'Over time, if not stopped, this<br />practice will destroy the traditional family. It will affect our<br />children in a terrible, harmful, and lasting way for generations<br />to come.' America will lose a common set of values if same-sex<br />marriage is legalized. In that event, 'Losing this battle means<br />losing the idea that children need mothers and fathers. It means<br />losing the marriage debate. It means losing limited government.<br />It means losing American civilization. It means losing, period.'<br />Expanding the rights and amplifying voices of gays and lesbians in<br />our society would no doubt be enormously significant. But<br />civilization does not rest on this single issue. Regardless, this<br />kind of hyperbole detracts from the most serious threats to the<br />family, and it is strident enough to make some wonder whether there<br />is at least some truth in it."jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-17812763607489788902010-08-30T12:32:48.526-07:002010-08-30T12:32:48.526-07:00Dale wrote:
> BooMan writes, "I haven'...Dale wrote:<br /><br />> BooMan writes, "I haven't seen a poll in six months that would indicate<br />> that we're winning the Culture War or anything else." But of course he has --<br />> he need only take a look at polls on nationwide and generational attitudes<br />> toward gays serving openly in the military or about gay marriage,<br />> about inter-racial relationships, about smoking marijuana, about regular church attendance,<br />> about our wars, about basic fairness, about whether getting rich is more important<br />> than having fulfilling relationships, about pollution...<br /><br />Like this one, for instance:<br /><br />http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2010/05/13/gay-marriage-opponents-inch-closer-to-death/<br /><br />In the shorter run, though -- well, I'm afraid it may get darker<br />before it gets lighter.<br /><br />BTW, I was browsing in an interesting new book this past weekend<br />at Barnes & Noble:<br /><br />_Rich, Free, and Miserable: The Failure of Success in America_<br />by John Brueggemann<br />http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Free-Miserable-Failure-Success/dp/1442200936<br /><br />The author claims that gays, for example, are convenient scapegoats<br />for other social forces that are tearing apart family and civic life --<br />primarily, according to the author, the triumph of market values<br />uber alles (something that's not likely to get better any time soon,<br />short, of course, of the collapse of civilization -- or the coming<br />of the Singularity, I suppose ;-> ).<br /><br />There are some amusing quotes in the book from the Christian Right.<br />The best one is from Pat Robertson (p. 20):<br /><br />"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about<br />a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave<br />their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism<br />and become lesbians."<br /><br />I wonder if I've ever met any lesbian witches. I once met a pair of<br />lesbians who were dressed alike (and very stylishly) in silver<br />and black.jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com