Hoo boy...I'm in trouble now.

[anahata56]

This morning, my brilliant niece (and I'm not being sarcastic here--she IS brilliant in almost every respect) posted a link on Facebook where some blogger on the Fox News website was decrying, once again, the rise of the Pinko Commie Fag-Loving folk in the Obama administration who are going to target "Right Wing Extremists" for surveillence and

Comments

[noelleleithe]

The people who live with that level of fear have had it pounded into them by church leaders their entire lives. They've never learned any other way to be. It's a control issue, plain and simple: the people in charge are desperate to hold onto their power, so they scare the crap out of their followers to keep them in line. (Much like the people running the Republican Party these days.)

On a smaller scale, far too many people seem to misconstrue the Biblical instruction to "fear God." The meaning of "fear" here is "be in awe of," not "be afraid of." Very, very different meanings.

[anahata56]

The thing that I find most amusing is that back when I was a "Jesus Freak", the hallmark of a good Christian was boldness. Was audacity. Was fearlessness. It was very strongly driven home that being a Christian meant that you didn't have to be afraid of anything, because we were never, ever left alone by our God.

That was only 30 years ago.

It astonishes me that the philosophy has done a complete 180 in such a relatively short time.

[griffen]

Well, the boldness-audacity-fearlessness bit worked as long as the world seemed to be going along with the ideology. That all started to fall apart with the advent of the Christian Coalition and the Moronal Majority in the 1970s and early 1980s.

[anahata56]

Yeah, and see, that's what pisses me off. Because it's the classic set-up--you get people scared, and then you can get them to do whatever your agenda dictates.

It's not about religion--it's about politics. And political power-play to be more specific.

When you mix the religious with the political, you get a situation where you can lead people by the nose into absolute destruction, and let them feel completely justified, martyred and holy as they're led to the slaughter.

And the slaughter is not for GOD. The slaughter is for Tom Freakin' DeLay and Rush Limbaugh.

How SAD is that? And why can't they see how badly they are being manipulated?

[siliconshaman]

Why expect that? They never have before... lets see, umm... yeah 'Christian mass hysteria' has happened oh, a dozen or more times in the past 2000 years. Usually when some priest or prophet 'proves' that the End Times are a'coming!!

At least they're not literally heading for the hills this time, unlike the last time back in the 1900's when whole towns came to a standstill because folks had gone up the hill tops

[griffen]

You beat me to it. Once again, bad translation into English (and other languages) is at fault for many of the misunderstandings between believers and non-believers and between believers and their beliefs.

[anahata56]

It was bad enough when these people felt that they needed to be afraid of a God who loved them.

It's worse now that they feel they have to be afraid of everyone else.