User

Music-wise as well. Look at the Top 40 for evidence.

Also, T.V. is slowly getting there in the U.S. In another decade or two, the content of T.V. will be around where movies are today (unless there is some "divine" intervention....)

Radcliffe Emerson

Yes to SA, it was Holland. I knew it was in that area, couldn't recall the exact country.

Radcliffe Emerson

Heh heh, neither GWB nor Rummie are going to intervene....

McNamara

If we're lucky the current flood of fundamentalist influence will turn out to be just another fad, or at least a backlash to the 60s/70s as User said. The U.S. has been through a number of hard-core Christian revival periods, starting in the 1820s if I remember my history.

Koyaanisqatsi

Indeed. Studying history will often result in such mea culpas .

To you.

Or, more likely, an undue allegience to what others tell you? Perhaps?

Would that make any difference to whether or not christian cults have always been influential? Do you think that the "mainstream" mandates policy or effects political influence? Forgive me, but you seem to keep pointing to the "mainstream" as some sort of barometer. What has the "mainstream" ever offered beyond superficial, popcorn fluff?

Was there ever a time when the "mainstream" offered only Christianity? The answer is, "yes," by the way, but we're talking about current mainstream and why that mainstream may (or may not) be dealing with issues without a (stated) Christian bias.

Really? Where did you get this idea? Salient question, yes?

When was Islam (I'll assume you're in America) "commonplace and uncontested" between the years 1901 and 1950? Or Buddhism? Or Judaism? Or any other "ism" beside Christianity?

Remember the "communism" scare? Or, at least , have you read about the communism scare here?

I'm curious to find out. What is your perception of the communist "menace" in America in the 1950's? They were all "atheists" or all "communists" or both?

Why are you analyzing America's propaganda for the truth if you're not going to dig any deeper? Do you believe that what is written is axiomatically "true?"

Tell that to a Protestant, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc.

Well, that I'll grant you. Did you know, by the way, the reason Nuns were created? To quietly take care of Priest's bastard children.

Ask that of your teacher, but be prepared for the immediate response, "Who told you that" and/or, "Nuns were Christ's brides."

Both are creepy, don't you think?

This was a "moral" of the Church. Care to ask your teacher why Priests were/are "celibate?" He'll no doubt say because of Paul, but then ask him whether or not celibacy means God will save you?

When he hems and haws, then bring up Genesis and the commandment to go forth and multiply. See how his collar tightens.

Like the bible?

Like the bible?

Like the bible........not stating that "foul" language is prohibited by your god?

You just can't use your god's name in vain, so if that's what you're referring to, goddamnit, why not?

What are words to your god? He created them, yes? Is he that fearful of their use?

Prescious few. The question is, why didn't they? Look to the films before World War II and you'll find a very different (i.e., mature) standard.

It wasn't until after WWII, primarily, that films and "mainstream pop-culture" started taking on christian cult control propaganda. Now why do you think that would be?

Power vacuum?

Hint: research the 1920's and '30's by reading a book called "Lies My Teacher Told Me."

I'd provide a link, but I'm too tired.

Christian lies have always been forced upon the ignorant. They still are.

McNamara

This sounds entirely likely, but I'd like to know where you got that information. Just so when I tell people that, I won't have to say someone posted it on the Internet!

At least having bastard children is better than molesting children. Maybe priests should go back to the old way of relieving sexual frustration! Reminds me of that South Park episode...



I would have said it was due to the witch hunting, anti-communist (and by extension anti-freethinking) atmosphere of the times, but that's just my take on it.

Buffman

Radcliffe Emerson
StrictSeparationist
User

I believe that you can find ample historical information about your issues at this single URL:

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/co...ook/index.html

If you are interested in greater depth of insight, the rest of this post may stimulate further research.

PILGRAMS/SEPARATISTS/PURITANS/CONFORMISTS

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/co...n/history.html

http://members.aol.com/calebj/FAQ_history.html

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/co...k/chap5_1.html

http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/history/

(Extract)
The Pilgrims were English Separatists who founded (1620) Plymouth Colony in New England. In the first years of the 17th century, small numbers of English Puritans broke away from the Church of England because they felt that it had not completed the work of the Reformation. They committed themselves to a life based on the Bible. Most of these Separatists were farmers, poorly educated and without social or political standing. One of the Separatist congregations was led by William Brewster and the Rev. Richard Clifton in the village of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire. The Scrooby group emigrated to Amsterdam in 1608 to escape harassment and religious persecution. The next year they moved to Leiden, where, enjoying full religious freedom, they remained for almost 12 years. In 1617, discouraged by economic difficulties, the pervasive Dutch influence on their children, and their inability to secure civil autonomy, the congregation voted to emigrate to America. Through the Brewster family's friendship with Sir Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the London Company, the congregation secured two patents authorizing them to settle in the northern part of the company's jurisdiction. Unable to finance the costs of the emigration with their own meager resources, they negotiated a financial agreement with Thomas Weston, a prominent London iron merchant. Fewer than half of the group's members elected to leave Leiden. A small ship, the Speedwell, carried them to Southampton, England, where they were to join another group of Separatists and pick up a second ship. After some delays and disputes, the voyagers regrouped at Plymouth aboard the 180-ton Mayflower. It began its historic voyage on Sept. 16, 1620, with about 102 passengers--fewer than half of them from Leiden. After a 65-day journey, the Pilgrims sighted Cape Cod on November 19. Unable to reach the land they had contracted for, they anchored (November 21) at the site of Provincetown. Because they had no legal right to settle in the region, they drew up the Mayflower Compact, creating their own government. The settlers soon discovered Plymouth Harbor, on the western side of Cape Cod Bay and made their historic landing on December 21; the main body of settlers followed on December 26. The term Pilgrim was first used by William Bradford to describe the Leiden Separatists who were leaving Holland. The Mayflower's passengers were first described as the Pilgrim Fathers in 1799.
(End extract)

http://www.curriculumunits.com/cruci...an.history.htm

http://www.oup-usa.org/isbn/0195119983.html

(Extract)
After Independence their active diversity of faiths led Americans to the groundbreaking idea that government should abandon the use of law to support any religious group and should instead guarantee free exercise of religion for everyone.
(End extract)


COLONIAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

For those that would argue that there was minimal Christian influence in pre-Revolutionary America, I recommend that they take the time to carefully read this next URL article with an open and objective mind.

http://www.libertyhaven.com/theoreti...grepublic.html

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/co.../chap10_3.html

http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve...nfo/midcol.htm


Is you become really interested in finding more information about these issues, I recommend you read some of the books by Edwin S. Gaustad and Jon Butler as well as "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" by Bernard Bailyn.

Radcliffe Emerson

I can say one thing: William Brewster is one of my ancestors.

User

Unfortunately, all the mainstream has to offer is superficial, popcorn fluff...yet isn't modern politics by definition controlling as much of the mainstream flock as possible? The mainstream decides what is inacceptable/acceptable to most people because most people are part of the mainstream. I see it as self-explanatory.

I meant the Christian religion and the idea of being religious in general.

Propaganda made Atheism and Communism synonymous, which lead to "Under God" and "In God We Trust." As I'm sure you already know....

Because propaganda heavily influences the mainstream's perception.

I go to a Protestant fundie school which is plastered with abstinence posters.

The bible contains all of the following, yet there is a difference between reading a description of something and picturing it in your mind and seeing the same act on a silver screen.

What is this "your god"? I'm an atheist.

Only after WWII did the face of mainstream America start rapidly changing which forced an extreme conservative reaction.

That we agree on.