Terrific commentary ~ makes even more sense when we relate it to some we know have "Christian right" mindsets ~ Sooz

AlterNet / By Amanda Marcotte
Why the Christian Right Is Obsessed With the Collapse of Civilization
America's Religious Right is losing the fight.

December 12, 2013 | Most of us are so familiar with the cluster of issues that compel the religious right—opposition to gay marriage and abortion, hostility to the separation of church and state, hostility to modernity—that we don’t often think about the underlying theme holding these disparate obsessions together. It might even be tempting to believe there isn’t a unifying theme, except for the fact that conservatives themselves often allude to it: “civilization collapse.”

Over and over again, right-wingers warn that all the things they hate, from pro-gay Broadway shows to immigration to multiculturalism, are not just signs of an evolving American society, but portend the actual end of it. The Roman Empire is often darkly alluded to, and you get the impression many on the right think Rome burned up and descended into anarchy and darkness. (Not quite.) But really, what all these fantasies of cities burning down and impending war and destruction are expressing is a belief that the culture of white conservative Christians is the culture of America. So it follows that if they aren’t the dominant class in the United States, then America isn’t, in their opinion, really America anymore.

Once you key into this, understanding why certain social changes alarm the religious right becomes simple to see. Hostility to abortion, contraception and gay rights stems directly from a belief that everyone should hold their rigid views on gender roles—women are supposed to be housewives and mothers from a young age and men are supposed to be the heads of their families. School prayer, creationism and claims of a “war on Christmas” stem from a belief that government and society at large should issue constant reminders that their version of Christianity is the “official” culture and religion of America.

It’s hard to underestimate how much of a crisis moment the election of Barack Obama for president was for the religious right because of this. And his re-election, of course, which showed that his presidency was not a fluke. Even before Obama was elected, the possibility that a black man with a “multicultural” background was such a massive confirmation of their worst fear—that they are not, actually, the dominant class in America–that the campaign against Obama became overwhelmed completely by this fear. The media frenzy over the minister in Obama’s church was about racial anxieties, but it was telling that it was his church that was the focal point of the attack. The stories were practically tailor-made to signal to conservative Christians that Obama was not one of them.

Sarah Palin’s campaign as the running mate to John McCain made right-wing fears even more explicit. On the trail, she notoriously described conservative, white, Christian-heavy America with these words: “We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.” McCain’s campaign tried lamely to spin it, but the subtext was text now. The Christian right believes their culture is the only legitimate American culture, and the election of Barack Obama was a major threat to it.

Birtherism, a conspiracy theory movement that posits Obama faked his American citizenship, is easy enough to understand in this light. It’s an expression of the belief that Obama cannot be a legitimate president, because, in white Christian right eyes, they are the only legitimate Americans. So how can someone who isn’t one of them be president?

That’s why the election of Obama has triggered an all-out response from the Christian right. If they seem more enraged and active in recent years, especially with regards to attacks on abortion rights, it’s because they really are afraid they’re losing their grip on American culture and are casting around wildly for a way to regain what they perceive as lost dominance.

Of course, the belief that they ever were the dominant group in America was always an illusion. It was an illusion when Jerry Falwell started the Moral Majority in 1979. The name obviously indicates a belief that white Christian conservatives are the “majority,” but even then, it had a protest-too-much feel to it. While most Americans, then and now, are nominally Christian, most of them do not belong to one of the fundamentalist groups—including the subset of Catholics who are in bed, politically, with fundamentalist Protestants—that make up the religious right. But it was easier for the Christian right to delude themselves into thinking they spoke for the nation in an era when white men who identify as Christian were nearly all the power players in politics and when the percentage of Americans who identified as non-religious was relatively low.

Nowadays, nearly one in four Americans is not even labeled a Christian, and non-religious people are a rapidly growing minority. More importantly, it’s much harder for members of the religious right to ignore evidence that they simply aren’t the representatives of “real” America and that real America is actually quite a diverse and socially liberal place. Contraception use and premarital sex are nearly universal, the pop charts that used to be mostly white and male are sexually and racially diverse, gay people are rapidly approaching equality, and no matter how hard they try, most Americans just don’t think there’s anything offensive about greeting someone with “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas." Oh yeah, and we have a black president who doesn’t seem to be bothered that his wife used to be his mentor.

If you ever want an explanation for why some Republicans have grown downright giddy at the prospect of shutting down the federal government, this helps explain why. It’s not a coincidence that some of the biggest Bible-thumpers in Congress are those who are most supportive of finding some way to shut down the government. If you believe America isn’t really America unless the Christian right runs it, it’s not a short leap to look to destroying the system altogether. “If we can’t have it, no one can,” seems to be the guiding principle behind the push to shut down the federal government. They like to frame their claims that America will collapse if they aren’t in charge as warnings. But really, a better word for what they’re doing is “threats.”

http://www.alternet.org/belief/why-christian-right-obsessed-collapse-civilization?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

There's also this Old Testament idea that God treats with nations, as He is supposed to have done with the nation of Israel. And if God becomes displeased with the nation, then His wrath is visited upon eveyone who is of the nation. Hence the anxiety of Bible literalists when they think they perceive their nation "turning away from God".

The definition of nation has been changed from those times, of course. Then it meant tribe. Israel is a nation now, but in Biblical times it was a tribe, descended from a common patriarch. The USA is a nation in a political sense, but really not in a cultural sense, as old Biblical Israel was. The closest thing we have to a common patriarch from ancient times is...our venerated Founders. And they didn't found a tribe.

While we're a nation politically, culturally we are more a confederation of tribes. So the Fundies should rest easy. If God's looking for an old-style Biblical nation to treat with and punish for it collective sins, he ain't gonna find it here.

Shutting down the government, economic downturn, black people in top ranks, all signs that the rapture is right around the corner. The red-staters are gonna be picked up and taken to the pearly gates where they get to sit on clouds with harps playing, everyone is yelling Hosianna 24/7 and for snacks there are piles of manna.

Really?
I thought they perched on corn cobs while sipping tea.

That's the purgatory you're talking about.

Will there be olive oil for dipping the manna? In that case I may be tempted to move.

Not where you're going, it would melt the manna anyway. I'll let you have some of the booze I'm supposed to take with me.

I've heard manna is pretty good toasted too. Might be tough getting olive oil, though. The Muslim terrorists will all want the "extra virgin" to add to the other seventy-two.

What kind of thinking is it that allows for somebody wishing "Happy Holidays" instead of Merry Christimas" or two men in love with each other to be sure signs of the end of days when God gave a pass to things like the black plagues, the 1919 flu epidemic and a few world wars?

"testing your unwaivering faith" ring a bell?

Jabra you're the best. I really enjoy a hot toddy every once in awhile.