The Politics of Religion
The Politics of Religion
Recent Gallup data confirm a significant and growing relationship between religiosity and partisan identity in the U.S.
Everything else being equal, the more religious the individual in the U.S. today, the higher the probability that the individual identifies with or leans toward the Republican party. I called this the “R and R rule” in my 2012 book on religion, found the phenomenon alive and well in my 2014 review of Gallup data, and now, nine years later, Gallup’s data confirm that this religiosity gap is more evident than ever.
Americans’ political identity is a powerful correlate of a wide range of Americans’ attitudes and behaviors, including, in particular, a wide range of attitudes about hot-button political and social issues. And we know that political identity is related to views of the national economy, views of the nation’s institutions, happiness, perceptions of the nation’s most important problems, and a variety of other measures. It is thus not surprising that political identity would also be related to religion.
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This is interesting:
University of Pennsylvania political scientist Michele Margolis, in her 2018 book, From Politics to the Pews, makes the case that political identity is the primary causal factor in determining Americans’ religious identity, more so than the other way around.
Republican first, religious second. That explains why the supposed religious right can be as cruel and hateful as it is while still calling themselves religious. The Bible fits into their political ideology rather the other way around. So, they can reject a type of compassion as satanic rather than be unconditionally compassionate.
Living in the American South this is pretty plain to see, however in the American Northeast Catholics are starting to do the same, which hasn't been the norm until recently and even the Pope has noticed.
My thoughts on it are that Right wing corruption affects everything it touches, the religious leaders wanted to batter down the wall separating church and state, and now many of them are losing their congregants to congregations that are lining up behind their new Orange Joseph Smith, because politics and religion are now intersecting within the Right wing. The MAGA Qult isn't going away anytime soon, the Global Right Wing conspiracy is implementing their state religions and unless we increase mental healthcare and deprogram these individuals we're going to have a religious extremist insurgency.
I'll leave you with this quote from Barry Goldwater:
Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.
Except we're not just dealing with Christian Nationalists, we're dealing with Islamic and Hindu nationalists, and simply Chinese Nationalists and other fascists, all working together to carve out their own territories.
There us a strong divide between Orthodox Catholics and Liberal Catholics to the point the extreme Orthodox are pushing the Liberals out of the religion. People are leaving because they don't agree politically with what their Diocese is saying, especially on Family Planning. Even myself argued with the Diocese over such issues originally put in place after the black plague ravaged the human population.
I mean it's been clear for a while. The culture of American Christianity has long had little to do with the text of the Bible, the traditions of the Hebrews, or anyone else who had traditionally held the religion.
Religion in the US has long been part of a larger culture of being a "good" American. A good American buys a new car every couple years, votes republican, raises their daughter to be a good housewife, goes to church 15 times a year, and just thinks American culture should be more like it used to. It's always been so empty.
It's sad that we don't teach the history of symbolism / society media consumption patterns. Multimedia presentation of Fox News is way more televangelism than a dusty old book named The Bible. We just let advertising and marketing media act upon the population and people behave as if there are no side-effects or conflicting influence systems. We could educate everyone on the world-wide patterns of this and the history, but we do not. We behave somehow as if the Middle East / Levant is a role model of people fighting it out over their favorite story patterns.
the history of symbolism / society media consumption patterns.
I feel like this could be a college-level class all by itself!
Of course. Moreover, people who aren’t dicks grow up and move on from religions whose dogma justifies dick moves, while the dicks remain. It’s only natural.
Fuck religion. So incredibly devious to spin the (normal) fear of death into a lifetime of obligation. Taking advantage of the curious intellectual property of human nature in order to plasticize the population. So gross.
Ewww, I stepped in religion.
Couldn't have said it better myself 👏
Of course. Sects like The Religious Society of Friends and the UUs are definitely brainwashing and oppressing people. That’s not at all an overgeneralization based on your experiences with the strictly hierarchical and imperialist forms of religion that are most dominant in the culture.
My favorite part of this ridiculous interaction is how you took my blanket statement and tried to make spcific examples fit into my generalization, which you already have convinced yourself are not worth metal effort. but here you are letting whatever the fuck you just said, live rent free, and spew out randomly and awkwardly. Have fun with that.
This is a very interesting phenomenon that I wrote about already in the context or relation to the rise of the Third Reich. I am extremely concerned that this same pattern is repeating itself again in the United States. What appears to be a perfect storm of social, religious, economic, and political circumstances are brewing here that mirror the hostile insurrection of Nazism in Germany.
See this comment below where I discussed the similarities: https://lemmy.world/comment/2264852
Fascism doesn't have a lot of support in the United States outside of those who would benefit from it. That's always been the case. Any chance it had to entrench itself died on January 6th, 2021. That was their attempt and high water mark and it failed dramatically. They made a mistake and broadcasted what they were doing publicly. Going forward you can expect a slow swing to the left for at least a generation and perhaps longer.
As for religion, it's decline was long overdue. What started with Gen X has grown generation by generation. What is needed is an organization that replaces the social space to fill that need religious people want, but without the indoctrination and hate.
Do remember that there was a lot of sympathy for fascism in America, but the fascists never got in charge, not even when it looked like Germany might get the upper hand in the early days of the war, despite the 1940 election.
Fascist were in charge in Italy in the early 1920s through the early 1940s mostly driven by ultranationalism. Seems very much like something we see on the Republican side of the aisle in the US.
Fascist were in charge in Italy in the early 1920s through the early 1940s, mostly driven by ultranationalism. Seems very much like something we see on the Republican side of the aisle in the US.
Fascist were in charge in Italy in the early 1920s through the early 1940s.
I always hear American evangelicals cry about being shown "hate" and being "persecuted" because of their faith. But, honestly, I think very few people hate or would have any interest in persecuting Christians or any other faith group.
However, evangelicals have gotten themselves so thoroughly into bed with the Republican Party that it's often hard for others to see the difference. And a lot of people do hate the Republican Party. At this point, what evangelicals feel is hate by proxy.
The solution seems simple: Get out of bed with the Republican Party. Spread the gospel of spiritual hope instead of a political gospel of hate.
The issue is that there just often aren't non political churches to go to in many areas anymore.
In the seattle area, I think the only new church that has gotten built in the last 30 years has been prosperity gospel while the ones that serve the poor have been in the area for a hundred years or operate on weekends out of a high school gymnasium.
The story of Christianity on the west coast is one of land deeds.
I always hear American evangelicals cry about being shown "hate" and being "persecuted" because of their faith. But, honestly, I think very few people hate or would have any interest in persecute Christians or any other faith group.
However, evangelicals have gotten themselves so thoroughly into bed with the Republican Party that it's often hard for others to see the difference. And a lot of people do hate the Republican Party. At this point, what evangelicals feel is hate by proxy.
The solution seems simple: Get out of bed with the Republican Party. Spread the gospel of spiritual hope instead of a political gospel of hate.