Politics & Religion

There is a noticeable similarity between the religiously motivated posts here and a lot of the political ones. Both lots could be described as having a very conservative, right wing leaning, and both also seem to stretch plausibility to breaking point and beyond. The resemblance of these two groups to each other is so striking as to make it pretty evident that they are part and parcel of the same underlying movement. Either one is worrying enough but both together is alarming.

I don’t know if it is inevitable that an extreme Christian Fundamentalist is also automatically a disturbingly fanatical Republican but it is very difficult to deny a very strong connection between the two. Religious extremism has probably been around much longer than its political equivalent so it seems logical to think that the sickeningly familiar tactics of the political dogmatists have been appropriated from the religious ones. They are basically the same.

The main method of persuasion used by the followers of these sinister ideologies seems to be based on demonisation, with an emphasis on the awful consequences of not seeing things their way. The Christians have a ready made nemesis in Satan, but the Republicans have to keep recreating theirs in order to move along with the times, although they usually have several on the go at once. Obama has been described as the Antichrist and Hilary Clinton is, apparently, the personification of evil, itself.

Would anyone who is not already affiliated to the Christian, Republican, raving bigot faction actually contemplate joining them? It would be nice to think not but in reality there always seems to be a ready supply of witless minions looking for a cause to follow.

History does have a habit of going round in circles and one can only hope that, as the wheel turns, this worrying state of affairs will be replaced by something more palatable, I certainly hope so, and as soon as possible.