Toto

The BOM for April 2003 might be of interest to this forum and those who keep track of the Religious Right:

The Fundamentals of Extremism edited by Kimberly Blaker. (Blaker wrote a little less than half the book, and includes chapters by Edwin Kagan, Bobbie Kirkhart, John Suarez, Herb Silverman, and Edward Buckner.)

(Blaker was supposed to speak at the recent American Atheists convention. Was anyone there?)

The quality of the writing in the book is a little uneven - and I say this not to discourage anyone from reading it, but to encourage you to keep reading if you find an inartful paragraph that seems full of hyperbole.

The book appears to be aimed at modern Americans who know that fundamentalists are wrong on the issues of Biblical inerrancy and political issues, but who don't take them seriously as a political threat - the libertarians who vote Republican because lower taxes are their main issue, the Greens who vote for a third party candidate because Bush couldn't be that bad, the wishy washy middle who believe in tolerance and respecting other's religious beliefs however weird.

Given this, Blaker's task is to describe fundamentalism without sounding like she is getting hysterical. She does a fairly good job but does not always succeed. She does not always distinguish between fundamentalists and evangelicals, and sometimes seems to treat fundamentalism as a monolithic juggernaut, and does not pay enough attention to the extent to which fundamentalist believers are manipulated by non-religious right wing politicians to support an agenda that is hardly Christian - how much would Jesus cut taxes?

Nevertheless, the book contains a wealth of information on the interplay between religious fundamentalism and right wing politics for a variety of social issues.

You might get the best overview of the book by starting with the last chapter by Ed Buckner "Winning the 'Battle Royal' -- Parallels and Solutions to the Growing Danger." The chapter by Herb Silverman, "Inerrancy turned Political", is a fairly good summary of recent politics, and includes his account of running for office and getting a notary license in an attempt to eliminate the requirement in South Carolina for all office holders to believe in God.

Blaker herself describes the problems fundamentalism creates for women. She also advances the idea that fundamentalists, in conjuction with Scientologists, oppose the use of Ritalin for school children with ADD as a way of attacking the public schools (she claims herself to suffer from ADD) - the idea is that medicating attention-deficit kids is necessary for a public school system, and if they are deprived of this tool, they will collapse. She traces the organized opposition to Ritalin to the Mackinac Foundation, which is funded by the usual sources of right wing foundations. (I was somewhat skeptical of this idea, but she does make a case worth considering.)

You may need a very strong stomach to read "Little Ones to Him Belong" by Bobbie Kirkhart, a former social worker with abused children in LA, which describes the child abuse that fundamentalists think the Bible condones. I had to cover my eyes for the first few pages.

However, Blaker does not explain why fundamentalism is a potent political force today. She describes a movement that oppresses women and children, keeps its followers ignorant of science, that holds views at variance with most of America. Why are they a threat?

To answer this question, you need to read The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics which I reviewed here. Susan Harding details from personal observation the methods which Falwell used to bring his fundamentalist followers into the modern world, using just enough of the tools of the modern world to grab political power without allowing modern ideas to pollute their fundamentalist mindset.

Toto

*bump*

Jewel

I just ordered it. With any luck, I'll be able to start reading it in a couple of weeks.

Darwin26

sounds like holy rollers to me.

where can we get the book?

how can we stop the jauggernaut ?

Anti-Creedance Front

There's a difference between evangelicals and fundamentalists? Anyone who tries to convert aggressively is a fundy to me.

Toto

I am informed that: Kim Blaker author/editor of Fundamentals of Extremism will be interviewed at 3 PM Central time by Dave Berkman of Shepherd Express and Media talk, who is filling in for Ben Merens. The call in numbers are at the web site:

WPR

She will also be a guest Aug. 26 2:00 PM Central on a conservative Christian radio show that bashed the book. Carrying stations here: Crosstalk