Christian Fundamentalism in the U.S. Military - An Interview With Michael ("Mikey") Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Subversify Radio and Subversify Magazine offer a rare glimpse this week into the fight for the Constitution.

Michael (’Mikey’) Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, granted us a forthright and dynamic interview this week, discussing his efforts to protect America’s servicemen and women from evangelism by extremist Christian elements within the U.S. military; the nomination of his foundation for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, and the all-too-real dangers of a military coup in America.

Some of you might be familiar with the recent negative press regarding Trijicon Corporation and the embedding of Biblical references in the serial numbers of their night-vision scopes - it was Mr. Weinstein’s foundation which broke the story, leading to Trijicon’s ‘correction’ of their manufacturing process.

Ahead of the curve, Subversify Radio and Subversify Magazine this week brings you the first interview with Mr. Weinstein since that story.

Join us for a glimpse into an Evangelical ‘Heart of Darkness’!

The Super Bowl, the Tebow Ad, and the Unvarnished Truth

While most of us were interested in either the game or the halftime performance of what’s left of The Who, the presence of a Focus On The Family-sponsored advertisement against abortion featuring Heisman Trophy-winner Tim Tebow didn’t escape my attention.

As with much from the Religious Right, the ad was full of half-truths and a whole lot of dogma.  What matters isn’t what was said – but what they didn’t say.

The moral statement of the Tebow ad was “Tim Tebow exists because his mother had the courage not to take a physician’s recommendation, and instead relied on prayer and the ‘power of God’, and said ‘yes’ to life and ‘no’ to abortion.” (They don't address a nagging bit of fact - that abortion is illegal in the Philippines; as such, it's doutful a local physician would have recommended the procedure).

Pam Tebow and her husband Bob were missionaries in the Philippines (where they run a religious compound and orphanage in a largely Muslim part of the country) when she contracted amoebic dysentery and was prescribed some serious medication.   In the process, her fetus was damaged; the doctors diagnosed something called ‘placental abruption’ – where the placenta is actually detached.   When this happens, the fetus dies.  They recommended abortion as the best course – because continuing the pregnancy would, in most similar cases, have ended with Pam’s death as well.

Now, placental abruption is a rarity – in fact, it happens in only 1% of all pregnancies, and almost always results in stillbirth.   If left untreated by abortion, it almost always results in the death of the mother.

In the Tebow’s case, the diagnosing physician was wrong.
   

Of course, the Tebow’s gave all the credit to ‘god’, stating that prayer ‘healed’ the condition.  

The truth of the matter is that the Tebow’s situation was blind dumb luck – and nothing more than that.   Placental abruption is rare – and misdiagnosis of same is even more rare, placing Pam Tebow in a position, some 23 years later, to make an advertisement sponsored by one of the wealthiest religious organizations on the planet, telling everyone that if they ignore their physicians and call on ‘god’, everything will work out fine.

There are no statistics on the number of women who’ve done just that in similar circumstances and wound up stone-cold-dead – but the death statistics regarding women who’ve endured placental abruption with no medical care indicate that most of them don’t have the ‘miracle’ which Pam Tebow experienced.

Spending nearly $3 million dollars to tell the world that ignoring a physician’s diagnosis is a ‘miracle’ is charlatanism on a grand scale, and the entire Tebow clan (Bob included) are accomplices grande.   

Bob Tebow's wife and son view life the same way. It's not surprising they did the ad. After all - every preacher needs an audience, and a look at Bob Tebow’s website will convince you that he’s a Fundie on a serious mission.

The ad?

It was an end – and a means – and a cautionary tale, at least for those of us who paid attention.

The Puppet Masters

Extremist Christianity and Republicanism Are Now The Same

This week, the online political magazine DailyKos released the results of an independent poll of some 2,000 self-identified Republicans. The results were shocking in the extreme to everyone but me.

In prior articles here, I've pointed out the dangers of the both the Republican party and its bedfellow, extremist Christianity - not the party I remember from the days when my parents were both members, and the concepts of Eisenhower conservatism still held sway - not even the party of Richard Nixon, which, while Nixon himself was corrupt, also gave us the EPA and the first glimmers of the concept of national health care.

I'm speaking of the Republican party which has been co-opted by the extreme religious right - a party which is controlled not by reasonable people, but by religious puppet-masters, accountable only to their notion of 'god'.  (Below, there's some additional reading if you'd like to do your own research on the matter).

The Kos poll underscores this issue well. Some of the results are here:

What should leap out at you from these partial results is the overt racism and homophobia of the respondents - plus the 23% who believe their state should secede from the Federal union outright.

It gets worse.

Fully 67% believe that the 'only way to "heaven" is through Jesus'. 77% believe that the Christian/creationist view of the beginning of the universe as explained in the book of Genesis is the only view which should be taught in public schools. 

Brought up this way in homeschools and church-run Christian schools, then educated in Fundamentalist 'universities', the Tea Party Republicans believe in a very different America - one that was founded by the Christian 'god', by 'godly' people, and which should, by right, lead (read: 'rule') the world. This worldview is reinforced at every turn, and has lead to an insular society - one which the member need only leave in order to combat the Other America (the one which believes the earth is older than 6,000 years, that there are many explanations for the universe, and that the Ten Commandments, while influential, are not the basis of American law).

Put another way - while it's possible to be a conservative Christian without being a Republican, it's impossible now to be a Republican without being a conservative Christian - and being an extremist Fundamentalist/Dominionist is even better.

Not Your Backyard Tea Party

This week, the Tea Party Convention (a creation of Republican party lobbyist organizations and right-wing media) is meeting in Nashville to blueprint the future of their movement. While Sarah Palin, the keynote, will be taking center-stage in the minds of the media and the nation, a little research will provide some chilling insight into the nature of this movement and its advocacy.

Among the supporting organizations is Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly's organization, which has advocated "family friendly" actions such as rolling back Roe v. Wade; making the Ten Commandments an integral part of American law, and establishing 'border security' to prevent 'third world diseases' from entering the United States), and VisionAmerica (which seeks to politicize religion across the country through the efforts of extremist pastors nationwide).

The Tea Party movement is now viral.   With nearly 80% of Americans self-identifying as 'Christian', this is a huge power base from which to draw - and with their philosophy being based on 'god' and money, they are drawing support from some of America's wealthiest conservatives. 

Combining a religious core - with arguments impossible to counter by reason and logic - and a wealthy power base which is all too willing to contribute because that religious core is literally preaching a gospel of 'prosperity' to those who serve "god" (read:  'take the country back for Jesus and the conservatives and "god" will bless you, financially') - and you have the makings for a genuine theocracy. 

It would be easy to dismiss them as insane - they take orders from an Imaginary Friend who tells them to take over a political party, then a country, all in 'His' name - then begin disenfranchising large numbers of its citizens from their basic human and civil rights in a religious orgy of 'purification'.

We dismiss them, however, at our peril.

Reading:

"Republican Gomorrah - Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party" - (Max Blumenthal; Nation Books - 2009)

"The Family - The Secret Fundamentalism At The Heart of American Power" - (Jeff Sharlet; Harper Perennial - 2009)

"Kingdom Coming - The Rise of Christian Nationalism" - (Michelle Goldberg; W.W. Norton & Co.; 2007)

The Creation of a Revolutionary

Eaten By America - A Cautionary Tale

Ants are gathered around an old tree.

In a choir they sing, in harsh and gravelly voices,

Old Etruscan songs on tyranny. 

Toads nearby clap their small hands, and join

The fiery songs, their five long toes trembling in the soaked earth.

The cry of those being eaten by America,

Others pale and soft being stored for later eating.

The mass sinking down;

The light in children’s faces fading at six or seven.

The world will soon break up into small colonies of the saved.

--Robert Bly (“Johnson’s Cabinet Watched By Ants”, and “Those Being Eaten by America”; 1967)

Last week, Elizabeth Warren, who chairs the congressional oversight panel in charge of the banking-bailouts, made it clear regarding the middle-class in America that “…We've hacked at it and chipped at it and pulled on it for 30 years now. And now there's no more to do. Either we fix this problem going forward or the game really is over."

Today, I got a phone call from an old friend.

He’d started a business a few years ago, and wound up being one of the faceless casualties of thirty years of economic mismanagement.   While Obama dithered over the best place to put the bailout money, my friend did his best to manage the sinking of a ship he’d worked most of his life to realize.

His ‘reward’ for following the rules and believing his government was a debauched currency; an economy devoid of life thanks to a government which believed it possible to cut taxes and continue spending – ironically; the philosophy of the ‘conservative.’

The liberal/progressives did no better, with the result that we now have bankers with fat bonuses – while their banks literally bet against the America we’d like to believe in.   (Now, the administration thinks it’s a good idea to put bailout money in the hands of small banks, which have more ties to local business – a good idea indeed; at least a year too late to do much good).

My friend asked for money.   Anything I could spare.

He’d been forced to follow his small business into bankruptcy.  Now, he lives in an apartment on a combination of welfare and food stamps; hoping he can find a job.

Good luck.

Most businesses won’t hire a person who’s filed for bankruptcy – the ‘fresh start’ promised people who take this route is a pipe dream.   His state-funded relief ends in June; to add insult to injury, he now has a warrant to seize his remaining personal property in order to pay back employment-taxes; the result of the failure of his business.  Seven thousand dollars.  It might as well be seven million.

I remember him from better times.

He had a fine home; the result of good years as an employee of a fast-growing business.   Venturing on his own was a risk; but a calculated one – the economy was growing quickly, and he’d picked an extension of what he’d done before – ground he knew how to cover, and a profession in which he could make good money.

He had a retirement fund; good medical insurance; a woman in his life who shared his rise and supported him emotionally.  

All that began to change three years ago, as the economy imploded.   Now, his home is gone; one of the one-in-forty-four in the local area, making Portland 61 out of 100 top real estate markets in America in terms of foreclosures.

His business was gone before the home – having four employees look at him with vacant eyes while he told them that their livelihoods were now a matter of statistical record did nothing for his morale.

The insurance was now gone, also.  He now suffers from depression (and probably PTSD); likely severe – but there are no health services for former employers.

His is a metaphor for all of those like him in America – he’s a couple of months away from living on the street, and absent a miracle, that’s where he’s going to wind up.

Failure is an orphan.   That’s never been more true than in this case, and in the thousands upon thousands like it, all across the Formerly Greatest Country On Earth; regardless of his education, talent, and creativity, my friend is now considered Worthless.

His woman is gone.   So are most of the people he called ‘friend’; they don’t return phone calls.  Uncomfortable ‘best of luck’ statements are what he gets via email.

Then, the government came calling.

They now want his furniture; ‘back employment taxes’ are the reason.   They will not negotiate.  His bankruptcy attorney can’t help; the trustee distributed the money and ‘somehow the state employment people fell through the cracks.’

The same government which destroyed the currency through inflation; deregulated the banking system until the predatory inmates of that particular asylum had the keys, and ran it as such – the same government which failed in its trust to preserve, protect, and defend – now wants what little my friend has in life.

I gave him what I could spare.

“I now know why people become revolutionaries,” he told me.   “I now know why people blow up buildings – because they’ve nothing left to lose.”

We are living in a dangerous place.  There is no place left to hide.   Having created a nation of dispossessed, we now await the spark which will carry us to Tomorrow.