From Pine View Farm

Kevin Phillips Has Doubts . . . 3

. . . about The Emerging Republican Majority:

In its recent practice, the radical side of U.S. religion has embraced cultural antimodernism, war hawkishness, Armageddon prophecy, and in the case of conservative fundamentalists, a demand for governments by literal biblical interpretation. In the 1800s, religious historians generally minimized the sectarian thrust of religious excess, but recent years have brought more candor. The evangelical, fundamentalist, sectarian, and radical threads of American religion are being proclaimed openly and analyzed widely, even though bluntness is frequently muted by a pseudo-tolerance, the polite reluctance to criticize another’s religion. However given the wider thrust of religion’s claims on public life, this hesitance falls somewhere between unfortunate and dangerous. Charles Kimball, a North Carolina Baptist and professor of religion, speaks very much to the point: “Although many of us have been taught it is not polite to discuss religion and politics in public, we must quickly unlearn that lesson. Our collective failure to challenge presuppositions, think anew, and openly debate central religious concerns affecting society is a recipe for disaster.”

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3 comments

  1. Opie

    March 21, 2006 at 11:06 pm

    Did you mention this book before, or was it someone else? I remember hearing some details a week or so ago about his new book, which sounded downright hilarious to me. Never far from the deep end to start with, Phillips is convinced that people like me really are the end of America…

     
  2. Frank

    March 22, 2006 at 7:01 pm

    It’s the first I’ve heard of the book, so, no, you didn’t hear about it from me.

    And, frankly, I don’t think it’s people like you that frighten him. You know how to think and you can understand, if not agree with, others’ points of views.

    It’s one thing for a voter to choose his or her votes and his or her personal stand based on his or her personal convictions; it’s a different thing for a voter or a group of voters (that is, a party) to force their personal convictions on others, not because they are good public policy, but because they are those persons’ personal convictions.

    It may seem like a fine line, but it’s a real line.

     
  3. Opie

    March 22, 2006 at 9:16 pm

    OK, I’ve found it, with the help of Google Desktop. It was that website I keep confusing with yours: Salon.com, and the link is http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/03/16/phillips/index.html.

    Not having read the book, I don’t know if Phillips draws the distinction that you do about convictions. My guess is not. He was a conservative until Christians got involved in conservatism, and then he left, which of course logically makes the Christians the intolerant ones.

    Judging from the review, if he really believed half of what he’s predicting, I’d think he’d be headed out of the country. Maybe he is.