American religiousness

[Seabass]

The "religious" Americans I know go to church on Easter. The really, really, really "religious" ones go to church on both Easter and Christmas.

Sure, we've got a bible belt, but I think the extent of American religiosity is exaggerated by outsiders.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The "religious" Americans I know go to church on Easter. The really, really, really "religious" ones go to church on both Easter and Christmas.

Sure, we've got a bible belt, but I think the extent of American religiosity is exaggerated by outsiders.

They have the Fox News version of America. I go weeks or months without anything religious at all intruding into my life.

[Tero]

The Simpsons type of religion is explained by
-pot luck dinners
-jello molds
-hypocricity

[DRSB]

As with other national minority groups, atheism is enjoying rapid growth. Despite the bigotry, the number of American nontheists has tripled as a proportion of the general population since the 1960s. Younger generations’ tolerance for the endless disputes of religion is waning fast. Surveys designed to overcome the understandable reluctance to admit atheism have found that as many as 60 million Americans — a fifth of the population — are not believers. Our nonreligious compatriots should be accorded the same respect as other minorities.

From Washington Post

[Tero]

And even if they are not evangelicals they are seeking, and spiritual.

My proof: Oprah, Eat Pray Love.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

http://releasingreligion.blogspot.com/2 ... heist.html

[Tero]

I win! No plan to live,or march, in any of those states.

[hiyymer]

They have the Fox News version of America. I go weeks or months without anything religious at all intruding into my life.

When I moved from the east coast to northeastern Ohio I thought it might happen more often. In Connecticut religion was definitely viewed as a personal private choice. I knew a couple of people who were evangelical but they certainly didn't flaunt it or tell anyone else what to believe. You wouldn't know they were evangelical unless you got to know them well. I've been in Ohio for almost 3 years and it hasn't intruded any more often. I've met some conservative people who I'd bet go to church on Sunday, but no one is carrying it on their sleeve like I thought might be the case. I've never lived in the real bible belt (not far from here), but my impression is that Americans are generally far less open about their religious identity than the media would have one believe.

[Robert_S]

They have the Fox News version of America. I go weeks or months without anything religious at all intruding into my life.

When I moved from the east coast to northeastern Ohio I thought it might happen more often. In Connecticut religion was definitely viewed as a personal private choice. I knew a couple of people who were evangelical but they certainly didn't flaunt it or tell anyone else what to believe. You wouldn't know they were evangelical unless you got to know them well. I've been in Ohio for almost 3 years and it hasn't intruded any more often. I've met some conservative people who I'd bet go to church on Sunday, but no one is carrying it on their sleeve like I thought might be the case. I've never lived in the real bible belt (not far from here), but my impression is that Americans are generally far less open about their religious identity than the media would have one believe.

Much depends on where you are. If the area in question has high rates of crime, teen pregnancy and poverty; then you have a better chance of experiencing some religious intolerance.

[hiyymer]

They have the Fox News version of America. I go weeks or months without anything religious at all intruding into my life.

When I moved from the east coast to northeastern Ohio I thought it might happen more often. In Connecticut religion was definitely viewed as a personal private choice. I knew a couple of people who were evangelical but they certainly didn't flaunt it or tell anyone else what to believe. You wouldn't know they were evangelical unless you got to know them well. I've been in Ohio for almost 3 years and it hasn't intruded any more often. I've met some conservative people who I'd bet go to church on Sunday, but no one is carrying it on their sleeve like I thought might be the case. I've never lived in the real bible belt (not far from here), but my impression is that Americans are generally far less open about their religious identity than the media would have one believe.

Much depends on where you are. If the area in question has high rates of crime, teen pregnancy and poverty; then you have a better chance of experiencing some religious intolerance.

I could believe that. There is definitely a different political mindset out here. Ohio has been under economic pressure for decades (Cleveland used to be the 4th largest city in the US - now it's 44th or something). When you get that, you understand the conservative viewpoint a little better.

[Tero]

I found Cincinnati extremely conservative, but it was more like "we don't talk about that stuff here." If it was assumed you were a Democrat, you would not play golf with the boss.

I do not golf.

[Tero]

Gay man I went to college with in Wisconsin lives now in Norway. His signature on a message:
I'd tell you to go to hell if I believed in it, but I don't, so just eat shit and die.

[Pappa]

Gay man I went to college with in Wisconsin lives now in Norway. His signature on a message:
I'd tell you to go to hell if I believed in it, but I don't, so just eat shit and die.

Nice.

[DRSB]

The Unseen Influence of the Religious Right
By Dave Niose
Created Jul 11 2011 - 8:07am

The so-called "culture wars," where religious conservatives and secular progressives lock horns over issues of church-state separation, gay rights, and various other social issues, may seem to be light years from the current budget battle that threatens to bring Washington to a standstill and create economic havoc. After all, what do fights over abortion, same-sex marriage, and the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance have to do with the economic chaos?

In truth, however, the Religious Right is a major factor in the current mess in Washington. A direct chain of causation can be drawn between politically motivated religious conservatism and the unchallenged power of the corporate interests that are threatening to bring Washington to a standstill.

To understand this connection, a bit of history is in order.

Corporate interests have had great influence in American politics for over a century, since even before the days of "trust busting" during the so-called Progressive Era in the early twentieth century. The power struggle between big business and ordinary people has been ongoing since that time, and frankly big business has been the winner in those battles more often than not.

Still, for most of the twentieth century there was a sense that the power of corporate interests was somewhat held in check by America's imperfect democracy, where ordinary people had the political ability to construct a regulatory aparatus that could try to minimize corporate wrongdoing (such as the Securities and Exchange Commission) and a social welfare system that could assure the kind of safety net that a prosperous modern society would expect (such as Social Security and Medicare). Thus, even though everyone knew money was king in America and that big business was ultimately in control, these rational political efforts suggested that we had a system that was at least somewhat responsive to ordinary people.

With the rise of the Religious Right, however, that all changed. Starting in the election of 1980 and continuing steadily since then, corporate interests have greatly increased their political power by pandering to politically motivated religious voters who care about nothing more than social issues such as abortion, gay rights, and other so-called "culture war" issues. Whereas corporate interests were once held in check by an electorate that considered the economic interests of real people a high priority, a large section of that electorate has now indicated that social issues will almost always trump everything else. Hence, corporate interests, which generally are indifferent to social issues, have discovered that they can be assured a large base of voters by simply pandering to these social conservatives, throwing red meat to them on issues of abortion, God in government, LGBT rights, etc.

The size of the "Religious Right" demographic is somewhat open to debate depending on how the term is defined, and it will vary according to geography and other factors, but a mid-range estimate would be somewhere around a quarter of the electorate. Hence, because this demographic has become such a solid voting bloc, corporate interests are virtually guaranteed a huge section of the electorate as a starting base on any given election day, so long as the candidates of those corporate interests align with socially conservative positions.

Therefore, the big winner in the rise of the Religious Right is big business, which is tremendously empowered by having a base of reliable voters who will remain loyal. Empowered as such, the political agenda of corporate interests becomes increasingly bold. Tax rates on corporations and the rich must remain at historical lows, almost negligible, even though government is broke. We must now see serious efforts to privatize Social Security, because doing so would result in huge profit opportunities for Wall Street even if it would make the foundational retirement savings of ordinary Americans dangerously unstable. We must deregulate virtually everything, even though it was unregulated corporate interests that caused the 2008 financial collapse. We must forget about universal single-payer health care, because the interests of drug companies and insurance companies are much more important than the interests of ordinary citizens. We must dismantle government, including public education, because corporate interests hate government unless it is subsidizing their cash flow. This, in turn, explains why we won't see military budget cuts, because military spending is a cash cow for corporate interests. And forget about a rational, sustained effort to preserve the environment or transition to sustainable energy, since these efforts would threaten the profits of many of America's most powerful corporate interests, including oil companies.

Strangely, public support for these corporate-driven policies is very low, usually in a minority, but from a political standpoint corporate interests get their candidates elected because they are in bed with the Religious Right, which will support any pro-corporate candidates that advance the socially conservative agenda. Psychologically, these social conservative voters feel more compelled to oppose gay rights, for example, than to support candidates who would steadfastly defend Social Security and other important economic interests. The social conservative voter would like to tax the rich, but to do so he might have to vote against the candidate who is always talking about God and Bible-based values. In this internal struggle, the religious conservative voter will more often abandon his economic interest in order to vote consistently with his perceived "Christian" outlook.

Conspiracy theorists might look at this situation and hypothesize a grand strategy by corporate America to hijack the nation's public policy. Though there certainily has been some scheming and plotting, we should realize that this corporate-religious partnership is the natural result of a system that treats corporations as real people and does not regulate them intelligently. Under our current system, corporations and industries are by nature totally self-interested, amoral, and singularly in pursuit of short-term profits. By partnering with the Religious Right, corporate interests have simply constructed a political vehicle for furthering their agenda. We shouldn't blame them for acting precisely as they are designed to act; we should blame ourselves for allowing them to do so.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The reason we treat corporations as real people is so as to maintain the maximum benefits for the real people that own the corporations. And everybody else can go to hell in the process.