Comrade-Z
20th March 2006, 18:18
In my own personal life I have observed on several occasions a strong tendency concerning the aggressiveness of religious groups. There are also numerous examples historically.
The tendency is this: the more popular influence (authority) a religious group has, the more aggressive and oppressive the group is.
Thus, a religious group or strain of thought with very little popular influence or authority will appear to be very gentle, egalitarian, tip-toe-ish around enemy ideologies, etc.
But once a religious group obtains some capability to issue orders to a large indoctrinated membership and have those orders be reliably obeyed, then "the gloves come off." The religious group doesn't have to worry about "scaring people off." Armed with an obedient membership, they can finally get down to the gritty work of killing off the heathens.
Actually, one could argue that this is the case in any hierarchical organization. One example would be how Leninist parties initiate new recruits by having them read Lenin's State and Revolution, which is a very democratic document, but completely non-representative of Leninism as a whole.
Then there's Nazis, who at this point in the U.S. often pepper their language with a lot of "socialist" rhetoric, fear to fess up to their real views, and don't dare show their faces in public. But once they come to power, they will ditch whatever "socialism" was a part of their "National socialism" package and feel no compulsion about killing blacks and jews on the street.
As far as historical examples concerning religion, there are the early Christians who, arguably, adopted some measures of pacifism and egalitarianism for tactical reasons--it would gain them support in their early and vulnerable years.
Then there's liberation theology. In places like El Salvador and Nicaragua the Church, at first, was loathe to criticize the ruling class, as was usually the case with the Church in Latin America (and elsewhere). However, when people saw that the Church was doing absolutely nothing to try to confront the military dictatorships and death squads in those countries, people began to see the Church as useless or even as an obstacle to progress.
Thus, the Church, in order to try to demonstrate that it wasn't useless and that it really did have something to offer, was forced to start confronting the military regimes and death squads (although at no point did the Church back down from hierarchicalism in general or embrace the materialist views of the marxist guerrillas. They gave them political support, but in the meantime criticized them as "misguided extremists who were not embracing the death squads with brotherly love as they should do yadda yadda yadda."
In my own personal life, there are several examples. My english teacher has views that one could sort of describe as liberation theology, although he doesn't come right out and label it that. His vision of "egalitarianism" is a 13th century monastery where "co-habitation" is outlawed and the head priest rules as some sort of Patriarch a la Russian Orthodoxy.
Nevertheless, you have to be very clever to draw these sorts of views out of him and get him to fess up to them. His rhetoric in general is very "open-minded" and self-critical sounding. But once he starts to guage that he is winning the rhetorical battles and gaining some intellectual influence among the class, he starts to pull out the bigger guns, talking about how "one can't discount the possibility that there is some ultimate judgment awaiting you" etc.
A while back we had a unit dealing with Russian literature relating to religion and nihilism. When I tried to argue some points in defense of Russian nihilism, he was very stunned. "But you see, nihilism always ends in despair and destruction! Meaninglessness and the quest for absolute autonomy always lead to ruin. You must have an objective source of moral truth to live by." Likewise when I militantly argue the case for materialism and atheism. Then I am faced with accusations that Marx's "inhuman, impersonal, coldly scientific materialism led directly to Stalin's Great Terror and the Gulags."
Another example: recently we've been hosting an event at our local infoshop entitled, "Socrates Cafe." It has basically been a discussion group about various topics, ranging from suburbia, stereotypes, what is art? etc. The guy who hosts and facilitates the discussions also brings in free food and gives us a $50 donation for letting us host each meeting. All of us at the infoshop thought, "Wow, you can't get a better deal than this!"
One of our members, though, was remarkably prescient when she said, "Hmmm, a young, clean-cut, optimistic young guy who just offers his resources and efforts for seemingly nothing in return? I bet he is religious." We all laughed it off then.
Turns out she was right on the mark. It turns out he is a member of a fundamentalist home-congregationalist Christian movement! We found this out, of all ways, through a google search. And, in fact, last week this guy brought me a book to read entitled "Blue Like Jazz." A quick glance revealed that the book was hardcore Christian. Needless to say, I do not intend to waste my time on it.
Now our infoshop is in somewhat of a fix, because as long as the discussions stay away from any inklings of religion (as they have so far, curiously enough), and as long as they stay in an open format where we can challenge any religious stuff he tries to bring up, we are tempted to continue with the discussions. After all, we simply cannot afford to miss that $100 a month. That's a huge chunk of our rent payment for the infoshop space!
Edit: Just to update this story...it turns out that this guy has, in fact, ended up making a definite, open, unabashed turn towards religious themes in these discussions. He is also setting up this offshoot organization called "The Core," where members are invited to come and discuss "spiritual issues." Sounds like a religious form of "entryism" to me...
Another example: the Power Team. I'll just paste here an essay I once wrote on the subject:
When I was eleven years old I had an experience at a church which fundamentally impacted my approach to life. One night a friend of mine invited me to join him and his family for an evening event at the Second Baptist Church in Springfield. That evening the church was hosting a presentation by the "Power Team," a group of evangelical body-builders. I expected the event would feature telephone books being ripped in half, chairs being broken, and other feats of strength being performed, as had been advertised. As I look back on it now, I am perplexed as to why I ever found the event intriguing in the first place. Nevertheless, I did not expected to be proselytized and emotionally, socially, and intellectually manipulated, although I should have known better, judging from where the event would be held.
The event commenced with various physical feats. The body-builders worked in their evangelizing slowly and cunningly. They began to remark on how their physical feats were truly made possible by the "power and love of the almighty lord," (rather than muscle conditioning and Creatine). It may seem preposterous in this context, but, as an eleven year-old listening to 400-pound gorillas among an enthusiastic and supportive crowd, it was more difficult to disagree, even internally. The body-builders then told this horrific story about a group of ancient non-believers in a particular village who were all struck dead during the night by the wrath of god for being non-believers. The preaching was intense and superbly convincing. By the time they had arrived at a sermon describing the eternal torments of hell for those who would not embrace the love of Jesus and the almighty lord, I was seriously perturbed. Near the end of the show the performers asked those in the crowd who wanted to accept Jesus Christ to raise their hands. I raised my hand. The performers then proclaimed that we were now all "saved," except we still had to undergo a formal conversion and baptism, or else we would be "cheating god."
I was seriously contemplating it when I suddenly stopped and thought, "What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Is this what I truly want to do?" I reevaluated things for a moment and quickly realized that it was not. Breaking down into sobs and tears, I quickly exited the church with my friend and his family, who were very helpful and understanding. As I thought things over more thoroughly that night I recognized the coercion, the misleading promotions of the event, and the social manipulation to which I had been subjected, and I reflected on how those things had altered my feelings, thoughts, and actions in negative ways. The lesson to be learned from the experience was that dogmatic acceptance of information and the inability to resist manipulation could lead to terrible consequences. I gradually became aware that I would confront coercion and manipulation in many other aspects of life in the future, and, ultimately, it would be up to me to maintain my individual autonomy. In an effort to improve my resistance to coercion and exploitation, I began to establish a firm sense of skepticism, rational inquiry, and assertiveness. This incident led me to seek greater self-empowerment, and it sparked a greater questioning of authority and a reevaluation of unchallenged personal beliefs. Over time this would help me discover answers to essential life questions, obtain motivation and direction in my life, and greatly improve my life as a whole. Another example: I met this girl at the public library. She quickly revealed that she was Baptist and was "afraid for my soul." She started out very nice and un-threatening in her arguments, saying things like, "Well, just suppose there is a god. I'm not saying there is, but just suppose." And I would reply, "No." And she would reply, "But just suppose..." Well, by the end of the discussion, she was threatening me with eternal hellfire and damnation and inviting me to a "youth retreat" (a.k.a. indoctrination camp) during the summer (I said no thanks). Here, I'll just post this entry from my xanga account:
Also, apparently I am "already enmeshed in Satan's chains" according to [name deleted to protect guilty]. Apparently she is hardcore Baptist. Apparently she thinks I am going straight to hell.
I was reading at the public library today when she came and asked if it was okay to sit down across from me. I said sure. After some preliminary introductions and pleasantries, she rather quickly launched into her "mission"--my personal salvation. She asked me what religion I was. I said I was atheist. She seemed shocked and said that I always seemed in such a good mood in the hallways and always smiling and saying hi to people. She asked if I was abused as a child. I replied that I hadn't. She seemed slightly confused. She asked how I came to be atheist. I said that it simply made the most sense to me. She asked me what I thought about evolution. I said that science looks to be "batting with the best averages" on the subject. She retorted that "creationism's batting average is really on the rise nowadays."
Then she launched into a "testimonial" detailing how she came to "find god" and be corrected from her "awful sinful paths in life." I won't go into the details of all of that, but I can assure you it was a genuinely touching story. She seemed very sweet and unthreatening all throughout this part of the conversation.
Then the gloves came off. She launched into some descriptions of Satan, hell, suffering for all of eternity, and what that was all like. She asked if I had any doubt whatsoever concerning whether god and these things existed. I replied that I considered the question settled and, sorry if I offended her, but that I felt no fear in saying, "Fuck you, god," being sure that no god indeed existed. I went on to humorously add that, if god indeed existed, then I would consider him a supreme asshole and would seek to overthrow his domination over me. She replied that that was what Satan tried to do, but to no avail. I replied that it'd be worth it anyways to go down in flames fighting the good fight against god, as I saw it. She also recounted several other biblical stories, such as one where a guy is about to sacrifice his son, but doesn't have to because he finds a ram to sacrifice. Apparently that is a parable for Jesus's sacrifice to save mankind. But then I reminded her that that still didn't give Christians a blank check as far as being able to do anything they wished, and that there were still certain restrictions on their actions. She said yes, and she added that it was better to submit to those restrictions and not have to worry about the fires of hell. I was about to reply that I didn't worry about the fires of hell, and that I still wouldn't be free from worry if I submitted to the Christian god considering that I still wouldn't be sure that I was submitting to the "correct" god and the "correct" rules. After all, I'd be an infidel and one who would burn in hell in the eyes of Muslims, etc. But at that moment my mom arrived to take me home. Considering these historical and personal experiences, I will make some educated predictions:
*If non-hierarchical paganism were to acquire significant influence, it would become hierarchical.
*Any seemingly "harmless" religion, given enough popular influence, will become harmful.
*Individual spirituality that is prohibited from being publicly displayed will be harmless (and would probably die out quickly).
The tendency is this: the more popular influence (authority) a religious group has, the more aggressive and oppressive the group is.
Thus, a religious group or strain of thought with very little popular influence or authority will appear to be very gentle, egalitarian, tip-toe-ish around enemy ideologies, etc.
But once a religious group obtains some capability to issue orders to a large indoctrinated membership and have those orders be reliably obeyed, then "the gloves come off." The religious group doesn't have to worry about "scaring people off." Armed with an obedient membership, they can finally get down to the gritty work of killing off the heathens.
Actually, one could argue that this is the case in any hierarchical organization. One example would be how Leninist parties initiate new recruits by having them read Lenin's State and Revolution, which is a very democratic document, but completely non-representative of Leninism as a whole.
Then there's Nazis, who at this point in the U.S. often pepper their language with a lot of "socialist" rhetoric, fear to fess up to their real views, and don't dare show their faces in public. But once they come to power, they will ditch whatever "socialism" was a part of their "National socialism" package and feel no compulsion about killing blacks and jews on the street.
As far as historical examples concerning religion, there are the early Christians who, arguably, adopted some measures of pacifism and egalitarianism for tactical reasons--it would gain them support in their early and vulnerable years.
Then there's liberation theology. In places like El Salvador and Nicaragua the Church, at first, was loathe to criticize the ruling class, as was usually the case with the Church in Latin America (and elsewhere). However, when people saw that the Church was doing absolutely nothing to try to confront the military dictatorships and death squads in those countries, people began to see the Church as useless or even as an obstacle to progress.
Thus, the Church, in order to try to demonstrate that it wasn't useless and that it really did have something to offer, was forced to start confronting the military regimes and death squads (although at no point did the Church back down from hierarchicalism in general or embrace the materialist views of the marxist guerrillas. They gave them political support, but in the meantime criticized them as "misguided extremists who were not embracing the death squads with brotherly love as they should do yadda yadda yadda."
In my own personal life, there are several examples. My english teacher has views that one could sort of describe as liberation theology, although he doesn't come right out and label it that. His vision of "egalitarianism" is a 13th century monastery where "co-habitation" is outlawed and the head priest rules as some sort of Patriarch a la Russian Orthodoxy.
Nevertheless, you have to be very clever to draw these sorts of views out of him and get him to fess up to them. His rhetoric in general is very "open-minded" and self-critical sounding. But once he starts to guage that he is winning the rhetorical battles and gaining some intellectual influence among the class, he starts to pull out the bigger guns, talking about how "one can't discount the possibility that there is some ultimate judgment awaiting you" etc.
A while back we had a unit dealing with Russian literature relating to religion and nihilism. When I tried to argue some points in defense of Russian nihilism, he was very stunned. "But you see, nihilism always ends in despair and destruction! Meaninglessness and the quest for absolute autonomy always lead to ruin. You must have an objective source of moral truth to live by." Likewise when I militantly argue the case for materialism and atheism. Then I am faced with accusations that Marx's "inhuman, impersonal, coldly scientific materialism led directly to Stalin's Great Terror and the Gulags."
Another example: recently we've been hosting an event at our local infoshop entitled, "Socrates Cafe." It has basically been a discussion group about various topics, ranging from suburbia, stereotypes, what is art? etc. The guy who hosts and facilitates the discussions also brings in free food and gives us a $50 donation for letting us host each meeting. All of us at the infoshop thought, "Wow, you can't get a better deal than this!"
One of our members, though, was remarkably prescient when she said, "Hmmm, a young, clean-cut, optimistic young guy who just offers his resources and efforts for seemingly nothing in return? I bet he is religious." We all laughed it off then.
Turns out she was right on the mark. It turns out he is a member of a fundamentalist home-congregationalist Christian movement! We found this out, of all ways, through a google search. And, in fact, last week this guy brought me a book to read entitled "Blue Like Jazz." A quick glance revealed that the book was hardcore Christian. Needless to say, I do not intend to waste my time on it.
Now our infoshop is in somewhat of a fix, because as long as the discussions stay away from any inklings of religion (as they have so far, curiously enough), and as long as they stay in an open format where we can challenge any religious stuff he tries to bring up, we are tempted to continue with the discussions. After all, we simply cannot afford to miss that $100 a month. That's a huge chunk of our rent payment for the infoshop space!
Edit: Just to update this story...it turns out that this guy has, in fact, ended up making a definite, open, unabashed turn towards religious themes in these discussions. He is also setting up this offshoot organization called "The Core," where members are invited to come and discuss "spiritual issues." Sounds like a religious form of "entryism" to me...
Another example: the Power Team. I'll just paste here an essay I once wrote on the subject:
When I was eleven years old I had an experience at a church which fundamentally impacted my approach to life. One night a friend of mine invited me to join him and his family for an evening event at the Second Baptist Church in Springfield. That evening the church was hosting a presentation by the "Power Team," a group of evangelical body-builders. I expected the event would feature telephone books being ripped in half, chairs being broken, and other feats of strength being performed, as had been advertised. As I look back on it now, I am perplexed as to why I ever found the event intriguing in the first place. Nevertheless, I did not expected to be proselytized and emotionally, socially, and intellectually manipulated, although I should have known better, judging from where the event would be held.
The event commenced with various physical feats. The body-builders worked in their evangelizing slowly and cunningly. They began to remark on how their physical feats were truly made possible by the "power and love of the almighty lord," (rather than muscle conditioning and Creatine). It may seem preposterous in this context, but, as an eleven year-old listening to 400-pound gorillas among an enthusiastic and supportive crowd, it was more difficult to disagree, even internally. The body-builders then told this horrific story about a group of ancient non-believers in a particular village who were all struck dead during the night by the wrath of god for being non-believers. The preaching was intense and superbly convincing. By the time they had arrived at a sermon describing the eternal torments of hell for those who would not embrace the love of Jesus and the almighty lord, I was seriously perturbed. Near the end of the show the performers asked those in the crowd who wanted to accept Jesus Christ to raise their hands. I raised my hand. The performers then proclaimed that we were now all "saved," except we still had to undergo a formal conversion and baptism, or else we would be "cheating god."
I was seriously contemplating it when I suddenly stopped and thought, "What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Is this what I truly want to do?" I reevaluated things for a moment and quickly realized that it was not. Breaking down into sobs and tears, I quickly exited the church with my friend and his family, who were very helpful and understanding. As I thought things over more thoroughly that night I recognized the coercion, the misleading promotions of the event, and the social manipulation to which I had been subjected, and I reflected on how those things had altered my feelings, thoughts, and actions in negative ways. The lesson to be learned from the experience was that dogmatic acceptance of information and the inability to resist manipulation could lead to terrible consequences. I gradually became aware that I would confront coercion and manipulation in many other aspects of life in the future, and, ultimately, it would be up to me to maintain my individual autonomy. In an effort to improve my resistance to coercion and exploitation, I began to establish a firm sense of skepticism, rational inquiry, and assertiveness. This incident led me to seek greater self-empowerment, and it sparked a greater questioning of authority and a reevaluation of unchallenged personal beliefs. Over time this would help me discover answers to essential life questions, obtain motivation and direction in my life, and greatly improve my life as a whole. Another example: I met this girl at the public library. She quickly revealed that she was Baptist and was "afraid for my soul." She started out very nice and un-threatening in her arguments, saying things like, "Well, just suppose there is a god. I'm not saying there is, but just suppose." And I would reply, "No." And she would reply, "But just suppose..." Well, by the end of the discussion, she was threatening me with eternal hellfire and damnation and inviting me to a "youth retreat" (a.k.a. indoctrination camp) during the summer (I said no thanks). Here, I'll just post this entry from my xanga account:
Also, apparently I am "already enmeshed in Satan's chains" according to [name deleted to protect guilty]. Apparently she is hardcore Baptist. Apparently she thinks I am going straight to hell.
I was reading at the public library today when she came and asked if it was okay to sit down across from me. I said sure. After some preliminary introductions and pleasantries, she rather quickly launched into her "mission"--my personal salvation. She asked me what religion I was. I said I was atheist. She seemed shocked and said that I always seemed in such a good mood in the hallways and always smiling and saying hi to people. She asked if I was abused as a child. I replied that I hadn't. She seemed slightly confused. She asked how I came to be atheist. I said that it simply made the most sense to me. She asked me what I thought about evolution. I said that science looks to be "batting with the best averages" on the subject. She retorted that "creationism's batting average is really on the rise nowadays."
Then she launched into a "testimonial" detailing how she came to "find god" and be corrected from her "awful sinful paths in life." I won't go into the details of all of that, but I can assure you it was a genuinely touching story. She seemed very sweet and unthreatening all throughout this part of the conversation.
Then the gloves came off. She launched into some descriptions of Satan, hell, suffering for all of eternity, and what that was all like. She asked if I had any doubt whatsoever concerning whether god and these things existed. I replied that I considered the question settled and, sorry if I offended her, but that I felt no fear in saying, "Fuck you, god," being sure that no god indeed existed. I went on to humorously add that, if god indeed existed, then I would consider him a supreme asshole and would seek to overthrow his domination over me. She replied that that was what Satan tried to do, but to no avail. I replied that it'd be worth it anyways to go down in flames fighting the good fight against god, as I saw it. She also recounted several other biblical stories, such as one where a guy is about to sacrifice his son, but doesn't have to because he finds a ram to sacrifice. Apparently that is a parable for Jesus's sacrifice to save mankind. But then I reminded her that that still didn't give Christians a blank check as far as being able to do anything they wished, and that there were still certain restrictions on their actions. She said yes, and she added that it was better to submit to those restrictions and not have to worry about the fires of hell. I was about to reply that I didn't worry about the fires of hell, and that I still wouldn't be free from worry if I submitted to the Christian god considering that I still wouldn't be sure that I was submitting to the "correct" god and the "correct" rules. After all, I'd be an infidel and one who would burn in hell in the eyes of Muslims, etc. But at that moment my mom arrived to take me home. Considering these historical and personal experiences, I will make some educated predictions:
*If non-hierarchical paganism were to acquire significant influence, it would become hierarchical.
*Any seemingly "harmless" religion, given enough popular influence, will become harmful.
*Individual spirituality that is prohibited from being publicly displayed will be harmless (and would probably die out quickly).