Time Frames and Taboo Data Blog

Back in the recent timeframe 1992 in the USA, there were money-grubbing televangelists who promoted the idea that grabbing political power was the god-approved way to reap heavenly rewards.  It was October 26, 1992 that one of God’s closest confidants, Pat Robertson, announced, “We want…as soon as possible to see a majority of the Republican Party in the hands of pro-family Christians by 1996.”  Borrowing angel Gabriel’s trumpet, Robertson tooted that there would be “physically bloody” confrontations as loving Christians battled for political power.  Robertson longed fervently for a religious war.  To make this into a self-fulfilling prophecy, the Christian Right then pumped out reams and reams of fear-inducing brochures and pamphlets in a shameful campaign of divisiveness.  It is said that history repeats itself, and in their fanaticism the Religious Right was (and still is) every bit as paranoid and emotionally selfish as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th century Christians had been.  (No, they were not the innocent little darlings as commonly portrayed.)  Shamelessly, the Religious Right pretended  to be promoting a democratic view of the world, and as they cultivated this mockery of spirit into a political force they deftly sidestepped medial scrutiny behind the nation’s shield of religious freedom. 

By 1996 the Christian Right, which had been an active participant in US politics (often illegally) for a hundred years or more, did indeed manage to wrest control of the GOP at the Republican Convention.  The takeover was accomplished not by godly favoritism but through devilish strategy that enabled a minority to win significantly in local regions and then in national elections.  Like so many of the Bible’s stars, they used deceit and posturing to accomplish their worldly desire, but this was not even commented upon by the major news networks in fear that exposing the Christian Right’s dirty tactics would be construed as an attack upon religion.  Instead, the media gushed about how well-behaved the deceitful delegates had been! 

Carefully kept out of sight by the Christian Right was their ideology and vision of “Biblical law,” which embraced such plans as:  The systematic disruption and eventual destruction of such fundamental democratic institutions as public schooling, jury trials, and the right of free speech—a right being used in this post right now, but which would be violently punished under their divine guidance.  Being spiritually guided, they advocated the lowering of taxes that supported all citizens entitlements such as public schools and public services.  Instead, they advocated that welfare had to be administered solely by private agencies (meaning their religious agencies), not by a fair-play government.  Indeed, the protective democratic government, they insisted, should be abolished and a mandatory religious belief system imposed upon all citizens!

In this recent timeframe there increased the despicable propaganda tactics of demonizing any opponents, which allowed the Right false justification for pursuing their alleged god-directed actions.  Religious fanatics of any stripe are never supporters of democratic principles, and true to form, the harmless-appearing political proposals that the right-wingers submitted always served in some manner to advance their self-serving religious agenda. 

In 1998 the Christian Right’s push for temporal power in the US was nudged in a new direction with the incorporation of a new private school to be known as Patrick Henry College.  Perhaps it was Henry’s retort to conservatives of his day that encouraged the scheming Right to name the college after a genuine patriot of democratic  principles.  Henry had introduced resolutions against the Stamp Act imposed upon the American colonies by the British Parliament in 1765, saying to those conservatives who favored English rule, “If this is treason, make the most of it.”  So it is not likely that Henry would be much flattered to have his name used in conjunction with the school’s anti-democratic motivations.  The college would not open officially until 20 September 2000.

For a student to ever be accepted in Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia they had to confirm, among other stringent demands, that they held literal belief in the teaching of the Bible.  (Never explained was which translation of the biblical myths.)  In the Admission documents that they had to sign was the reminder why student loyalty to PHC was vital: “Satan exists as a personal, malevolent being who acts as tempter and accuser.”  But the blissful students-to-be were not the only ones required to sign a statement of belief: each faculty member had to sign agreements affirming that they would adhere to and would teach in favor of creationist’s beliefs.  The pledge of literal belief in the Bible was held to be most binding upon those teaching biology and theology—specifically belief in the six-day Creation.  All of these cult-like restraints, it was insisted, was to provide a very good liberal arts education.

By April 2004, with the US being led into moral corruption by born-again George W. Bush, PHC was getting its students into strategic areas that dealt with how the US was governed.  Of approximately one hundred interns working in the White House, seven were from Patrick  Henry College; another was working  for Karl Rove, the senior adviser to GWB; and another was active for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign.  Since PHC had opened its doors in 2000, twenty-two Republican conservative members of Congress had employed one or more PHC students who had been programmed with evangelical fanaticism.  As People for the American Way dared to point out, these students “…are not exposed to the kind of diversity the country has. They (the faculty at PHC) are training people with a very limited ideological view.”

But today, a decade into the 21st century, the US is still reeling from that thrust into “biblical values,” and those “values” are still being attempted to replace the noble democratic principles of equality, liberty, justice, fair trade, and tolerance for each other.  In “biblical values” the Omnipotent being that is fantasized by them is allegedly a highly prejudicial being—a concept that runs from Genesis through Revelation.  Genuine history that surrounds similar attempts at imposing harsh religious “values” upon the masses has shown that they have never brought mankind any semblance of peace, harmony or love to the interrelated but diverse people of the world.

This entry was posted on November 27, 2010 at 4:35 pm and is filed under agnoticism, Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, Government, history, humanity, life, politics, random, religion, thoughts with tags attempts to overthrow democracy for a theocracy, danger in religious fanaticism, divine deceptions, Patrich Henry College, religious freedom, religious right in politics, takeover of the GOP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.