The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (published in 1985) foretold the United States being taken over by right-wing Christian fundamentalist totalitarians -- from women's point of view.

Lest you think this book is simply feminist propaganda, Atwood is too complex a thinker to make this too simplistic. The novel shows how such religious totalitarian systems are run for the benefit of a few elite men on the backs of women, but also projects some tendencies of feminism in the 1980s and shows them co-opted into the Christian fundamentalist regime, namely the anti-pornography crusaders where the right-wing fundies teamed up with that strain of feminism. It sort of asks feminists to consider where their path is taking them.

The Handmaid's Tale describes a regime in which the bodies of executed "gender traitors" are strung up to hang on the wall of the closed university library as a warning to the rest. That's you and me, folks.

Speaking of parallels between fiction and reality-- Atwood wrote it in the middle of the Reagan administration, and this novel was prescient of where Dominionism is headed right now. They have openly announced their intention to put gays to death, and you know they include us ->-bleeped-<-s in that category.

Some Christians are trying to make it one, by rewritting history, distorting facts, and even assembling a massive Jesus voting army.

They are just scared because the united states is the last stronghold for Christian fundamentalism. However, the religious power of even Christianity is falling like a stone, and even the Bible belt isn't immune.


My home town is fanatically religious, even to the point where the principle made jews take off their star of david shirts, confusing it for Satanism(which in itself is a protected belief), then a day later made them take off their shirts again because they were "distracting." That principle is just lucky I left the school before that event because I'm a huge Atheist and I don't back down anymore. I'd take it to court before I took off my "God is just pretend" Shirt.

I love the way they claim 'original intent'.  How easy is it to put words into the mouths of dead people?

The architects of the document which lays out how our form of government is CONSTITUTED (made up,) wanted to make sure there would be no tyranny based on an officially recognized religion against those who have different beliefs or no beliefs.

Quote from: Amendment ICongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

How do we get "America is a Christian Nation" out of that?

The First Amendment tells me that the Government of the United States of America is supposed to be blind to all religions.  The Government is supposed to make its decisions without consulting religion, but on the rational merits of the case at hand.  And the Government is supposed to distribute its service and support FAIRLY to all it's citizens, without favouring some because they are the 'right' religion, or dis-favouring others because they're not, or because they refuse to accept any religion because they choose to have no religion.

The Handmaid's Tale, indeed!

Those who believe in progress in rights, those who believe in 'we're all in this together' rather than 'you're on your own' had BETTER start standing up and doing whatever they can to beat back those who would steal the rights we all have won for ALL over the last 70 or so years.

A Majority of Christians do not agree that we are a Christian nation.  It's only a minority -- a well organized, very active minority -- who have been the driving force towards pushing for asserting the USA as a Christian Nation. 

If you don't want that to be, you need to be actively doing something to resist it.

Karen

In the U.K we are a very mixed race community and so we are not all Christians. I personally don't get involved in religion, Christian or otherwise but still have my own beliefs which are non religion based.

I asked my parents this same question once. The answer I got was "The first people came over here so they could practice Christianity and the founding fathers were Christian, so we are a Christian nation." I never really bought that.

The Myth of a Christian Nation by Gregory A. Boyd

Quote
Arguing from Scripture and history, Dr. Boyd makes a compelling case that whenever the church gets too close to any political or national ideology, it is disastrous for the church and harmful to society. Dr. Boyd contends that the American Evangelical Church has allowed itself to be co-opted by the political right (and some by the political left) and exposes how this is harming the church's unique calling to build the kingdom of God. In the course of his argument, Dr. Boyd challenges some of the most deeply held convictions of evangelical Christians in America – for example, that America is, or ever was, "a Christian nation" or that Christians ought to be trying to "take America back for God."

Certainly not. The 'right wing' religious types didn't even exist in the same way 200 years ago. The argument back then was states rights vs Federalists. Nevertheless, most of the state republics had religious laws so you could argue that some of the states were theocracies. Massachutsetts was one of the theocratic countries back in the late 1700s and that surprised me a bit.

Quote from: Aeyra on July 17, 2007, 10:04:24 PM
Massachutsetts was one of the theocratic countries back in the late 1700s and that surprised me a bit.

Yes, and the dissidents left to form Rhode Island.

The United States was founded using Christian ideals. The founders fathers believed in a Supreme Being and acknowledged such. Many people came here because they wanted to be able to practice their religion without interference from the Church in Rome and the government. In Europe, both entities were in choots with each, controlling people's lives to the extent that they practically could not do anything without the church's consent. There were many other faiths but the Catholic church in Rome had so much control over national powers.

One reason that we have the separation of church and state is because of what our founding fathers and other experienced and saw first hand. That's why America has no state sanctioned religion. Religion/spirituality has always been a part of the humankind, no matter the culture. Of course, there have been many things done in the name of religion that are dead wrong (Holy Inquisition, The Crusades). That can be said about science, education, and economics. Anything that keeps a group of people down is to be avoided.

I have no problem with religious symbols and sayings on public buildings. It is not pushing religion or any values on anybody. It's just an expression of what the founding fathers saw as divine intervention. Remember that what America was doing at the time was quite radical. It had never been done before.

What happening now is that you have forces that want to do away anything connected with religion and spirituality. Remember, spirituality was a part of the lives of African slaves and entrenched in Native-American society.

Gennee

What forces do you refer to, Gennee, that want to supress spirituality etc? The resistance to monuments to particular religious tradition I think is a reaction TO (a climate of) suppression by those forces that use religion as a means to another end, namely control.

N