pistonhips

The short time that I have been visiting and occasionally posting on this forum has been very informative and entertaining. While I was always vaguely aware that there were a large number of fundamentalist christians in the US, I had no idea to what lengths they go to insinuate themselves in every aspect of life and try to control things. The hospital thread and the mega-church thread among others have been very interesting.

What I would be interested in knowing is, have fundamentalist christians used the events of 9/11 in an attempt to scare and cajole others to join their warped cult and/or started invoking end-of-the-world themes at a greater frequency? Have you noticed an overall increase in the number of these wackos since 9/11?

I'm guessing the answer is "yes" as it fits nicely with the motivating factors behind why most people get involved in the first place; fear and ignorance. Huge opportunities to exploit both of those factors regarding the state of the world at the moment. Anecdotes and insight would be appreciated.

Apologies if this topic has been covered before.

BrianTerrel

I don't think there are more of them, I just think they've gotten a bit louder and the average person is a bit more inclined to listen. The whole "Islam is the enemy" mentality does seem to have a bit more presense that before, but i don't find that im running into fundies more often on the streets or anything like that.

AspenMama

This sounds more like a GRD discussion.
--AspenMama, SL & PD Moderator

AspenMama

I'm not sure what the stats are, but I do know that those who already believe in a "rapture" have become even more fanatical about their beliefs and many are praying for the end to come faster.

Phineas Flapdoodle

Hello Pistonhips,

You'll find some insights and answers here:

http://pewforum.org/religion-9-11/
The PEW Forum on Religion and Public Life, Issues:
September 11, 2001

I've visited this source many times to see what they've done, and have always found their information (such as the poll data) to be particularly helpful.

Just based on my own subjective observations, I'll agree with Aspenmama (edited to add: and I agree with Brian* too, for the most part). Also, for a year or more, after 9-11, I avoided almost all of the 'christian and religious' based forums, just because I knew that post 9-11, the rhetoric would be outrageous, and I tried to just avoid that religious rhetoric as best I could. I really did give up arguing religion with fundies, many (decades actually) years ago. Who the hell likes to talk to a wall? Not this guy - there has always been better things to do with my time!

HTH,
Stephen

(edited to correct name of web site)

Postcard73

Immediately following the events of Sept. 11, two of Amrica's most visible and ridiculous fundamentalists - Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson - caused a controversy when they blamed the attacks on the secularization and liberalization of America. They said that because of those trends, God had lifted his protection of the country. So yes, they definitely used this event in an attempt to incite fear into the populace...

Ennazus

I've thought for a while that fundamentalism increased after the death of Carl Sagan.

MysteryProf

Well, I haven't researched surges in fundamentalism or anything, but based on my surroundings I'd say there's been a definite increase in fundamentalism's intensity, if not the actual amount of adherents.

My grandparents have been acting more and more bizarre lately. Militance is on the rise. They've been forcing me into more and more prayer-type activities (they don't know I'm not Christian) and one of them is currently reading "The Bible Code," which is somewhat unnerving.

Also, other students at my school have shown an increase in religious fervor. Praying around the flagpole has become much more frequent, there are more people sporting crosses and quotes from the Bible, and one of my teachers even took heat from parents for mentioning the Gnostic gospels in passing while teaching a World History class. At least I'll be out of there for good after this semester!

~MysteryProf