Written by Ron Robinson   

Political theology is no stranger to me. I'm a Jesuit trained progressive who's not ashamed to claim either the best of my spiritual heritage or the part of my identity and brain that was wired by it when I was young. That's why I've spoken out against the apostasy, anti-Jesus, and anti-democratic abuses of right-wing religious fundamentalism for near two decades now - the same type of right-wing fundamentalism that the mass-murdering Norway Shooter, Anders Breivik, looked to for his inspiration. But I realize that I must also speak to the effects that the Left's secular fundamentalism continues to have in enabling right-wing religious and political zealots, Southerners, secessionists, white-supremacists, and their Tea Party Cult/GOP.

The paranoid political theology of this amalgam dominates the political playing field and holds the country hostage - most recently during the "debt ceiling crisis." The Cult/GOP Crusaders deliberately manufactured this "crisis" to seal their joint dominance over our society and political economy with their crusade to "starve the beast," "shrink the government" and privatize the public sphere. However, both their supporters and leaders have been at it from before day one of Obama's presidency, which they have aggressively attempted to de-legitimize and undermine like has been done to no other President since Lincoln.

Additionally, the Left has essentially sat back, expecting Democratic elected officials to by themselves take on the religious, political, and economic extremists and their corporate backers. And when the Democrats prove unable to withstand this assault, the Left throws stones and accuses them of having "no backbone." Tell that to even the moderate Gabby Giffords, who before she got shot complained of the Tea Party extremists who had essentially closed down the block where her office was located. Where was the Left when that was happening? Why weren't they out protecting Democratic Town Halls and offices like Giffords AND stacking the GOP Town Halls and showing up at their offices?

And now we have Crusader Christians and secessionists like GOP Gov. Rick Perry holding a state sanctioned "religious revival" to bring together some of the most bigoted, Obama-hating, gay-bashing, women dominating, fanatics in the country to "pray together" as part of "God's plan" to help defeat Obama and make Perry President. Back in April, Perry set aside three days for Texans to pray for rain to end the drought. Well, Texas has now had 34 straight days of 100 plus degree record setting heat. If a Democrat was Texas Governor right now, you can bet that Perry and his fellow Crusaders would be claiming that God was punishing Texas and visiting hell upon its citizens for voting for a "God-less baby killer."

For these and related reasons, such as the 1500 plus religious right leaning radio stations, the pervasive religiosity of Americans (e.g. 90% of Americans say that God exists; 78% identify as Christian; 65% of Whites, 78% of Hispanics, and 86% of Blacks say they are moderately to very religious, etc.) I concluded the following, some time ago: the Left must immediately revisit its abstract, strictly secular, "Liberal Enlightenment" based political theories that guide its analysis of society and political behavior. These non-empirically based theories are willfully blind to the "dimension of the sacred," which has infused the politics and transcendent ideals of ALL sovereign nations from time immemorial, including ours. In his review of the book, Sacred Violence: Torture, Terror, and Sovereignty by Paul Kahn, Richard Koenigsberg says the following, which to my mind is key to understanding the intransigence of The Cult/GOP and their willingness to sacrifice the country in pursuit of their "sacred ideal" of shrinking/destroying Government and corporately privatizing the public sphere:

"According to Kahn, however, this dynamic linking sovereignty and sacrifice constitutes the essence of the political domain. Nations become what they are when citizens are willing to sacrifice for a sacred ideal. Those truths a community holds to be self-evident become real to the extent that people are willing to die and kill for them.

We deceive ourselves, Kahn says, if we think Western political practices operate in a secular world 'untouched by faith and the experience of the sacred.' A political idea for which one will not sacrifice, according to Kahn, is an idea that 'has no place in the world.' Such an idea 'belongs to no state'; is 'purely fictional...'

'We hold these truths to be self-evident....' However, the truth that is held to be self-evident by one political or religious community is usually not 'self-evident' to another. Self-evident truths are not scientifically verifiable. Rather, a transcendent value becomes true to the extent that a people are willing to sacrifice for it. One gives up the finite self for a sacred ideal. Giving up the self in the political domain, Kahn says, takes the form of a 'willingness to kill and be killed...' In short, the proof of the pudding is in the dying and the killing. No ideology - no transcendent ideal - is true in and of itself. Willingness to die and kill for a political idea is what confers reality upon it. Only by virtue of sacrificial death - the willingness to die and kill - does a political ideal reveal itself as 'self-evident.'"

Can it any longer be doubted that The Cult/GOP lives by a willingness to symbolically "kill or be killed" and literally sacrifice the "full faith and credit" of America to establish their complete sovereignty over the country? That's why it is absolutely imperative that we get "all hands on deck" and get back on the playing field of realpolitik. That also means dealing with the abuse of religion by the right-wing to accrue moral authority to hoodwink a critical mass if not majority of Americans as it pursues full spectrum dominance and corporate privatization of the political economy, i.e., fascism, through the Tea Party Cult/Republican Party.

This agenda includes gaining greater control over other people's bodies, sexual organs, reproductive and partnership choices, and even bodily fluids (e.g., "The Pill Kills" movement, which seeks to outlaw birth control; Florida's Republican Governor, Rick Scott's plan to compel unemployment and welfare recipients and Government workers to turn over their bodily fluids for drug testing by a firm that's also one of his biggest political supporters, etc.).

For the Left and secular progressives to pretend that the right-wing political movement and its goals have not merged and essentially become synonymous with right-wing Christian fundamentalism represents a fatal flaw, both in its analysis and resulting political behavior (or lack thereof). This has led the Left to largely dismiss the danger and underestimate the power of the right wing, especially the Tea Party Cult, which embodies the synthesis of stone-age based religious authoritarianism and right-wing political extremism.

To use a sports analogy, for the past few decades, the Left has essentially forfeited every game and every season to inferior teams because it didn't want to get its pretty uniforms dirty (e.g., rolling its eyes at ANY religious discourse, including Martin Luther King's; refusing to philosophically engage the internal contradictions of right-wing abuse of religious beliefs to mask its political agenda; refusing to directly and politically confront the fanatics who've hijacked religion for right-wing political goals; dogmatically keeping political strategizing and theorizing "strictly secular" and marginalizing and/or disparaging progressives who deploy religious or spiritual jargon, etc.).

As an ex-football, basketball, and baseball player, I find the idea of forfeiting abhorrent, especially when you've got all your players, but refuse to take the field or the court and run your plays. And the Left, in this analogy, has had the superior team, but has chosen to not get down and dirty and frontally confront the Right. Instead, it's fought its own best players in its own locker room, leaving them injured and unable to play at full strength or at all. So they forfeited as a result of self-inflicted wounds.

But rather than quit the team in disgust, I'd like to share some reflections from my experience playing and coaching in this "game of politics and religion" including studying the other team's political theology.

So, with this "work in progress," I hope to further the discussion on these matters and provide some insights, as a scientist, political social-psychologist, progressive, and Jesuit (i.e., Society of Jesus - SJ) trained Catholic.
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INTROIT TO IRONY

Right-wing "Crusader Christians" and their Tea Party cult have now become followers of Ayn Rand, an atheist and self-proclaimed Jesus hater. So now, they not only proclaim, "I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior," but also pledge allegiance to the motto of Ayn Rand's hero and psychological inspiration - the child murdering serial killer and sociopath, William Edward Hickman:

"WHAT'S GOOD FOR ME IS RIGHT!"

I both open and close this article with the above statement since it sheds light on what I have publicly argued and written about previously. Namely, that the right-wing fanatics and Tea Party Cult that have hijacked Christianity treat Jesus as an "inconvenient truth" (please see my OS article "WHY RIGHT-WING CHRISTIANS CLAIM OBAMA AS THE ANTICHRIST"). But why do these so called Christians treat Jesus as an "inconvenient truth?" Because they are steeped in the Old Testament (OT), i.e., Old Covenant, which, despite it's many inspirational passages and historically useful context, promotes an authoritarian, vengeful, and stone age portrayal of God and human beings.

This includes the OT's many violent, inhumane, and anti-social proscriptions for supposedly moral and religious behavior. In other words, Crusader Christians and the Tea Party Cult subscribe to the exact opposite of what Jesus both preached and exemplified in order to justify their authoritarian and sociopathic political agenda and tactics. This includes their whitewashing of the Nation's history of slavery and segregation of Blacks and genocide against and massive land theft of Native Americans.

Just open the Book of Leviticus, which essentially authorizes the committing of genocide and mass murder against nations and peoples whom you conquer, stoning your neighbors to death for committing rather minor transgressions, and justification of all kinds of other horrors. Ever notice that the right-wing fanatics seek justification for their racism, hatred of gays, the disabled, etc. from the OT, while clamoring for its 10 Commandments to be put up in public places? More importantly, have you also noticed that they NEVER demand that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes be placed in public places? You know, where Jesus challenges the rich and powerful and talks about helping the poor and vulnerable. That's why I call them, OLD COVENANT "CRUSADER CHRISTIANS." They're all about converting others to THEIR rule, while running away from the words and example of the NEW COVENANT JESUS.

And a great example of the potential outcome of their apostasy is provided by the Norway shooter, Anders Breivik. As Salon.com reported, Breivik was a Crusader Christian who was also a devotee of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and the virulent anti-Muslim propaganda spewed on the Atlas Shrugged website.

And in the U.S., the false prophets of Crusader Christianity get on TV and proclaim that Islam is a religion of terror and point to passages in the Koran. They say that the Koran's the Holy Book to which Muslims must pledge their allegiance and take literally. They then say that since the Koran contains passages that authorize various forms of violence, including killing (i.e., what these false prophets portray as "terrorism"), ipso facto, that makes ALL MUSLIMS terrorists, since their Holy Book is allegedly a book of terror.

NOT ONCE have I heard an interviewer ask these false prophets about the Book of Leviticus and apply the same standard to these Crusader Christians, as they apply to Muslims and the Koran. Doing so would mean that Crusader Christians making the "Islam equals terrorism" or "Islamofascism" arguments of necessity condemn themselves should the same standard be applied to them. Just consider the acts of the Norway Shooter in this light. I have also spoken with Jewish friends about this since the Book of Leviticus is also part of the Jewish Holy Book and the issue of why the media personalities and interviewers and journalists NEVER make this point.

The response of my friends is that many of the people who are in the media and news industries such as producers, those interviewing these Crusader Christians, covering or writing stories about them etc., are afraid to confront them because they fear blowback, such as being framed with the anti-Jewish slur, "Christ killer" and all that slur historically implies. Also, many people in these industries tend to be very strong supporters of Zionism and have an anti-Islam/anti-Arab bias. Furthermore, they are loath to confront these Crusader Christians concerning the contradiction of they're quoting the Koran's violent passages while remaining silent about those in the OT. Why? Because the same would apply to Jewish followers of the Hebrew Bible, which among other texts, also includes the Book of Leviticus. In other words, they are content for the public to make the association between Islam and Terror, while leaving Jews and Crusader Christians out of the equation.

Additionally, most of the folks in relevant decision making capacities in the media and news industries tend to be secular and feel uncomfortable initiating or responding to ANY kind of argument on religious terms (That's true as well for the Left and progressives). This is no less true for the political philosophers and scholars who have been the guiding inspiration of Liberalism and Progressivism in this country, as well as the secular leadership, political strategists, major financial donors and powerful influences within the Democratic Party. Many of them also have a very strong pro-Israel and anti-Arab bias.

But what has made these biases so problematic politically (let alone morally, philosophically, and religiously) is that the main U.S. based Israel support organizations, in which these key Democratic Party stakeholders also support and/or are members of, have formed an alliance that includes the Crusader Christians and the right-wing Israeli leadership. As some have bluntly stated, this dark alliance is committed to "keeping the Holy Lands out of the hands of the dirty Arab sand niggers." Consider, for instance the Norway Shooter. As The Daily Beast.com reports, Breivik was an avid pro-Zionist supporter of Israel who advocated that the West Bank and Gaza Strip be taken away from the Palestinians and given to Jews.

That means that an alliance has been formed with Crusader Christians, who openly pray for Armageddon and the Rapture while threatening Jewish people that when Jesus returns, they will have one last chance to either accept him as their Lord and Savior or burn in hell for eternity. In other words, common cause has been made with Crusader Christians who dismiss the very validity and fundamental premises of Judaism as a religion and/or Jews as a people. Ironically and tragically this monstrous anti-Semitic slight has been brushed off both by right-wing Israeli leaders and U.S. based Israel support organizations as just a minor disagreement between themselves and Crusader Christians, whose support they receive. Yet, mention the name of Black Muslim men like "Farrakhan" or even "Malcolm X" around them and the hatred and disgust become visceral.

As stated above, although the Democratic Party's leaders, strategists, and guiding philosophical and political inspirations are primarily secular (whether Jewish or Christian), they do in hindsight hold Dr. Martin Luther King in high esteem. But he was still both Black and a Christian, and his type of theologically and philosophically grounded political and spiritual activism was always kept at arms length by the Democratic Party. And those African Americans who upheld and uphold his legacy have NEVER been integrated into the true power center of the Democratic party or the Left and Progressive movement more generally (which remains essentially White led, practically and philosophically).

Nor were King's spiritual leanings and religiously inspired political philosophy and language ever integrated into the Democratic Party, or progressive movement. So the right-wing has had a free pass to hijack Christianity and speak for ALL Christians and "people of faith" as they pursue an openly political agenda, while the Left, Liberals, Progressives and the Democratic Party have forfeited one season after another, "successfully" keeping their uniforms clean, ideologically pure, and strictly secular.

Had MLK's philosophy and his followers (including those inspired by both King and Malcolm X) been truly integrated as a dynamic and driving force within the Party and Left more generally, as well as the media, there would have been a strong counter force to right-wing, White supremacist, Old Covenant, Crusader Christianity. This strain of Christianity was historically pro-slavery, pro-segregation, and has fought social, gender, and racial progress and cultural diversity at EVERY turn in this country's history up to and including the present.

Their OT based "Christianity" has also ALWAYS served as a cloak behind which the most inhumane, terroristic, antisocial, and sociopathic acts, programs, behaviors, ideologies, and policies have been pursued. Let's not forget that not only the slave-owners, but the Klansman and police who burned down Black churches and murdered Black children, water hosed and beat Black protesters, lynched Black men, etc. ALL self identified as "Christians," went to Church on Sunday, prayer meetings during the week, and/or wore crosses around their necks, even as they terrorized and burned crosses in front of the homes of Black families. And they found plenty of justification and comfort for their inhumanity in the OT.

Yet, despite the fact that slavery has always been the "original sin" of this country, that sin has never be substantively atoned for nor reparation made. And those who continue to suffer from the legacy of this sin as well as their grievances are deemed and treated substantively inferior to the concerns, fears, anxieties, and issues of those with far more power, money, influence, privilege and prestige.

Maybe its time the media and news industries, Democrats, and the Left diversify their employment, contracting, inspirational and philosophical guidance, and leadership practices, and confront the right-wing religious hijackers. That means prioritizing bringing strong Black men and Black women into the leadership ranks of the ethnocentrically monolithic enclaves of mainstream media, news, internet, and political organizations etc. In other words, they need to truly diversify and integrate into their ranks people who have neither renounced their religious roots nor are afraid to speak truth to the false prophets and power of the Crusader Christian, Tea Party extremists and their corporate privatization/full spectrum dominance agenda. After all, Jesus said that he brought the New Covenant thereby closing the book on the Old Covenant (Old Testament), after he fulfilled its prophesies. And he was not afraid to challenge the hypocrites of his day as he drove the profiteering zealots from the Temple - what he called his "father's house."

This is KEY because notwithstanding the prophesies, according to the OT's laws, strictures and dogmas, Christ was a sinner who deserved to be put to death. But these Crusader Christians claim that Jesus was free of sin as they crucify him themselves, time and time again, perverting true Christian teachings while ransacking his "father's house." Well, you can't seek your inspiration, moral compass, and principles for guiding Christianity and Christian dogma from the OT, which judged Jesus a sinner, and then say he was free of sin. That can only be true if the book he closed remain closed, now that its prophesies have been fulfilled. And you can't just pick and choose which parts of the OT apply and which ones don't either. Either it's ALL in or NONE of it's in.

If it's in, AND you believe it to be the inerrant word of God, as 46% of Conservatives do, then you are obliged to stone to death anyone who has committed adultery, even if a Republican. If a woman should lose her virginity and still lives under her fathers roof, you must stone that whore to death even if it's your sister and she's a Tea Party member. You must utterly destroy and make no treaty or reparation with those whom you conquer, whether Blacks, Native Americans, Palestinians, Democrats, Congress, or the United States itself. It is only the last proscription, however, that the Tea Party Cult/GOP Crusaders are content to take literally.

Notwithstanding the above, if you accept TRUE Christian precepts, then Jesus is Risen, He is the New Covenant, He is the way, and He is Alpha and Omega - CASE CLOSED. You CAN'T have it both ways and continually draw on OT doctrine and OLD COVENANT proscriptions to supersede the NEW COVENANT teachings of Jesus (although these right-wing hypocrites and false prophets do this all the time).

If you're a true follower of Jesus, either the teachings of Jesus himself are good enough for you or they're not. You either close the book on the Old Testament/Covenant, or you've turned Jesus into a sinner who deserved to be crucified. In fact, either you close the book on the Old Testament or you're NOT really a true follower of Jesus (aka Christian). Make a choice. If you love the Old Testament and the Holy Lands so much, so that in your words and deeds you use the OT to supersede and trump Jesus, then convert to Judaism, which has a much different relationship to and understanding of the OT - specifically the Torah. In fact, many Jewish people have found their inspiration for supporting social justice in some of the great Rabbinic interpretive traditions.

But I doubt you would choose to follow their inspiration. Rather, like Breivik and Glenn Beck, you'd make the same determination that they did regarding Breivik's young victims - that they were not completely innocent because they were part of a social justice-oriented group. In fact, Beck compared Breivik's victims to "Hitler youth."

But if you continue to steep yourself in the OT while calling yourself a Christian, you are also essentially telling Jewish people that they are wrong and heretics because they refuse to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Only the New Covenant establishes that through death and resurrection. What do you expect Jewish people to do? Keep reading the OT until they finally "get it?" Well, that's exactly what you're implying, your backroom dark alliance deals notwithstanding.

These contradictions need to be pointed out by people in the media and news industries and the Left too. Progressives don't have to run away from the part of their identity and brain that contains the best of religious or spiritual teachings, wherever their source, Old or New Covenant. Progressives can credibly cite many of the above "no-brainers " and contradictions inherent within the proclamations of these false prophet Crusader Christians, whether in interviews on the news, on blogs and everywhere they appear, or when we're interviewed or have opportunities to express ourselves on the subject.

If we do this, we could set into motion a progressivism that is grounded in the moral authority that undergirds what most people say they actually believe in AND that is NOT at variance with the true underpinnings of Christianity, i.e., the words, teachings, and stories attributed to Jesus (as the "Red Letter Christians" point out).

I believe that an organized religious movement that mobilizes millions of people in the name of ALL of Christianity and determines what constitutes moral/religious authority for ALL has an obligation to make clear what constitutes its organized, foundational beliefs and practices and their source. If it wishes to continue to be recognized as Christianity, that means Christ. If after 2000 years one thinks they still need the OT to justify their faith in Christ and/or beliefs and identity as Christians, then what justifies their faith in the OT? What came before the OT to justify faith in it, since obviously, if one demands the OT to serve as the source for the justification of Christ and one's faith in Christ, then the same demand for a literary, tangible source that existed prior to the OT must be made to justify faith in the OT and the validity of its prophesies and proscriptions, etc.

In other words, going down that road lead to an infinite regress - UNLESS, by an act of faith, and after 2000 years, one just simply accepts Christ as the basis of faith in Christ and Christ-centered Christianity. Simply put, if Jesus was willing to give up his life, then Christians should be willing to make the far easier choice to give up what has become a type of addiction to the OT to provide a rational basis for what is, after all, a matter of faith. Now THAT would be a true act of faith and Christian commitment to ones religion.

Demanding this level of faith and commitment is what is called for at this particular moment in history as the Christian Crusader/Tea Party Cult/GOP is poised to take our Country, indeed the whole world, to the brink of collapse as part of their crusade for full spectrum dominance and corporate privatization, i.e., fascism.

If we remain silent and fail to take the playing field, we will continue to enable the posers who've hijacked Christianity, made themselves the protectors of morality in the public sphere and private bedroom, including the fetuses and fluids in other people's bodies, just as the Republican Governor and State Legislature are attempting to do Florida. Just consider if secular progressives had confronted these religious hijackers a couple of decades ago. The right-wingers would never have gotten away with describing themselves as "Pro-life" (while being the most aggressive supporters of the Death Penalty and War in the country), forcing everyone else not only to accept their false self-description, but to accept their sliming of anyone who disagrees with them, whom they've successfully slurred as "anti-life," "baby killers," etc.

If we had taken the field even more recently, Kansas abortion provider, Dr. Edward Tiller, would most likely still be alive, Planned Parenthood wouldn't be under assault, Congress wouldn't be held hostage, and fetuses wouldn't be used as weapons by the right-wing in order to wage "holy war" against progressive forces in this country. This includes the right-wing's rallying weaponized fanatics to purportedly preserve the soul of the country by turning their rifle cross hairs against even moderates like Gabby Giffords, as well as progressives, whom they see as aligned with the Antichrist. They do this as a part of their plan to foist "full spectrum dominance" and privatization, i.e., fascism, on the country, all the while falsely citing the Constitution and abusing the rights and privileges it bestows.

Therefore, it is up to US progressives, whether secular, agnostic, spiritual, semi-religious, religious, atheist, recovering ex-Catholics, etc. to confront the hijackers of Christianity in this country since progressive Christian churches, the Democratic Party and the media do not have either the capability or inclination to do so.

To those who say it's not their place to discuss "religious matters" because they're secular humanists/progressives, atheists, or what have you, I say this: Once right-wing Crusader Christian LEADERS, like Falwell, Robertson, Dobson, Hagee, Huckabee, etc. decided to make their religion NOT a private matter between themselves and God, but a vehicle to pursue public and political agendas, they lost all immunity from being challenged, and should be held to account much like I have done ABOVE. That means holding them to account for their own internal theological, philosophical, and moral contradictions and hypocrisy. Anyone should be able to do so.

In other words, because they made a POLITICAL CHOICE to enter the political and socio-cultural arena, AND their followers decided to "follow the leader," right-wing Crusader Christianity and its proponents, followers and leaders have now become exponents of just another ideology in the political and public market place of ideas.

Fast forward to now. Consider the following: Right-wing Crusader Christians have been subsumed into the Tea Party Cult. This includes Ralph Reed's so called "Christian Coalition" and its various offshoots. Here's a spectacular contradiction - the producers of the right-wing propaganda movie, ATLAS SHRUGGED (based on Ayn Rand's serial killer inspired ideology) have approached the Tea Party Cult to help finance Part 2 of the movie (Part 1 came out a few months ago), which is scheduled to be released right before the 2012 election.

Let's start taking them on over this NOW, because I can guarantee you, based on their willingness to destroy the Country much as Ayn Rand urged her protagonists to do in her books (which also inspired the mass murdering Norway Shooter), and what I've been reading on their blogs, they are predicting there's going to be violence by their followers after they get ginned up on Part 2 of Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED, whose destructive storyline the Tea Party Cult/GOP intends to make reality as they attempt to bring the Country to its knees. So I say, "be not ashamed" to seek inspiration from the story of Jesus driving the Tea Party types of his day out of "his father's house" as we seek to drive their modern day fac similes from "the People's House." Let's at least start by pointing out and coming to terms with the implications of the following contradiction/storyline as we move forward and contest the Tea Party Cult/GOP on EVERY level and at EVERY turn:

Right-wing "Crusader Christians" and their Tea Party Cult/GOP have now become followers of Ayn Rand, an atheist and self-proclaimed Jesus hater. So now, they not only proclaim, "I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior," but also pledge allegiance to the motto of Ayn Rand's hero and psychological inspiration - the child murdering serial killer and sociopath, William Edward Hickman:

"WHAT'S GOOD FOR ME IS RIGHT!"

DISMISSAL

"The Mass has ended. Go in peace." "Thanks be to God." :)

to be continued...

Article by Ronald B. Robinson

In order to access the many embedded links and sources I included in this article please go to the original version here: http://open.salon.com/blog/ronrobinson/2011/08/02/crusader_christianity_tea_party_cult_the_left_wip