BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

The Radical Christian Right Is Built on Suburban Despair by Chris Hedges (this article illustrates something I learned the hard way: PREDATORS HUNT THE WOUNDED . Whether it be emotional or sexual predators who swoop in on the lonely and depressed or the Radical Christian Right who swoop in one the disenfranchised. With Super Tuesday under our belts and a Presidential election coming, its vital we keep these things in mind. This habit of the Religious Right is, in my little opinion, nothing short of Social, Emotional and Spiritual Vampirism) The engine that drives the radical Christian Right in the United States, the most dangerous mass movement in American history, is not religiosity, but despair. It is a movement built on the growing personal and economic despair of tens of millions of Americans, who watched helplessly as their communities were plunged into poverty by the flight of manufacturing jobs, their families and neighborhoods torn apart by neglect and indifference, and who...

Leaders Use Patriotism to Justify Today's 'Holy Wars' By RICHARD E. CROSS Our country is torn apart by controversy when it comes to the subject of war. Americans are at odds over the meaning of "patriotism" and "supporting our troops." In our own local paper there has been an ongoing and heated exchange on the subject. Amid these arguments, however, we can observe a dangerous and distorted concept of "patriotism" that has become a new kind of "religion" for some. The state has become an object of worship, and the age-old mantra of "holy war" has once again been involved to mislead and deceive the citizens of our homeland. Hermann Goering, Hitler's second in command, said it cynically but acutely: "The people can always be brought to do the bidding of their leaders. That is easy. All you have to is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the fatherland t...

The Dark Side of Radical Christian Morality by Stephen Lendman Hedges notes the movement's appeal is from the leadership's promise of a moral Christian nation promising renewal. But the message hides a darker side with Dominionists awaiting a fiscal, social and/or political crisis great enough to end democratic constitutional government replacing it with their vision of a Christian fascist theocratic America. In the meantime, they spent a generation working for this and now have great influence at state, local and federal levels of government. Hedges notes the movement already controls the Republican party. In addition, Christian fundamentalists hold a majority of seats in 18 of 50 states plus large minorities in the others. Also, (as of the book's publication) 45 senators and 186 House members got 80 - 100% approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups: The Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum and Family Resource Council. This represents a do...

When the Right Breaks the Barrier, How Should a Spiritual Left Respond? Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor of Tikkun Magazine At the private, progressive, Christian grammar school called Far Brook Country Day in Short Hills, New Jersey to which my parents sent me in the early 1950s, there was a beautiful Christmas play each year in which all of us students reenacted a New Testament account of the birth of Jesus. In early grades I was one of the “townspeople” who came to worship the baby Jesus, and then later a shepherd who heard the angels proclaim the imminent birth of “our savior.” As one of the very few Jewish kids in this school, I knew better than to complain, and in any event the story seemed beautiful and inoffensive. Each student was also asked to paint a religious scene on our classroom window, and my fifth-grade teacher, a progressive and tolerant Christian, suggested I do a Chanukah scene. As I was completing it, my classmate Dickie Holden came over to me and slugged me in the fa...

Exposé: The "Christian" Mafia Where Those Who Now Run the U.S. Government Came From and Where They Are Taking Us By Wayne Madsen After several months of in-depth research and, at first, seemingly unrelated conversations with former high-level intelligence officials, lawyers, politicians, religious figures, other investigative journalists, and researchers, I can now report on a criminal conspiracy so vast and monstrous it defies imagination. Using "Christian" groups as tax-exempt and cleverly camouflaged covers, wealthy right-wing businessmen and "clergy" have now assumed firm control over the biggest prize of all – the government of the United States of America. First, some housekeeping is in order. My use of the term "Christian" is merely to clearly identify the criminal conspirators who have chosen to misuse their self-avowed devotion to Jesus Christ to advance a very un-Christian agenda. The term "Christian Mafia" is what several Was...

For God’s Sake One of the reasons I blog is to vent. Yes, I will admit it - to VENT. And one of the biggest boils on the face of American culture and politics is THEOCRACY and THE RADICAL RELIGIOUS RIGHT (emphasis on RADICAL). Extremism is bad in my opinion. It precludes anyone else from having a difference of opinion. And I feel its just a hop, skip & small jump to ANY differences - different religion, different sect or division of religion, different skin color, different sexual orientation - all things that are neither our business nor our call. Hashem's garden has many many different flowers, and was made to be that way for a reason. The Radical Christian Right's infiltration via the Bush Administration is deeply troubling. They won't stop with Bush either. A spiritual leader is one thing but a leader who wants to homogenize all Americans into Bible thumping Christians - that's scary. I don't shove my beliefs down anyone's throat. In fact, ...

The Facts According to Fundamentalism (from 2005, still timely!) By Jeff Sharlet The New York Times is filled with ups-and-downs for Christian conservatives -- Ralph Reed lost his primary race for Lt. governor of Georgia, Bush vetoed stem cell research, and the Kaczynski twins, darlings of American Christian Right activists (though you wouldn't know it from the Times' coverage) are twisting Poland's crank rightward. But the Times seems most fascinated -- and confused -- by the Christian activists' imperviousness to research undertaken on its own behalf. First, there was last week's Department of Education study that revealed that private schools do no better than public schools, and that in most cases Christian conservative schools do worse. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings vigorously denounced the report, produced by her own department -- perhaps in an attempt to build a justification for vouchers -- and then boasted that she hadn't even read it, despite...