This might be a good day …
... to listen to
Christian Piccolini:
or Megan Phelps-Roper
or it might be a good day to listen to Jonathan Martin's "The Day After an Attempted Coup"
http://jonathanmartinwords.com/the-zeitcast
And if you're having a crisis of faith, this might be helpful too:
https://read.macmillan.com/lp/faith-after-doubt/
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Trying to Make Sense of the Attempted Coup and Storming of the Capitol?
I've been getting lots of emails and texts since January 6 saying, "You've been telling us something like this would happen." That's because I've been taking seriously authoritarianism, doubt, and religious extremism.
Many are sharing helpful insights for which I'm grateful and from which I'm learning every day. Here's what I have to offer to the conversation:
The Second Pandemic: Authoritarianism and Your Future - This extended essay/short ebook summarizes my research on authoritarianism as a psychological, sociological, political, and religious reality. It's available here.
Why Don't They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others and Yourself - One of the tricks that authoritarian leaders, movements, and regimes use is telling people what they want to hear by playing into their biases. To protect yourself and others you love, it really helps to understand common biases. It's available here.
Faith After Doubt: My newest book presents doubt, not as a rejection of faith, but as a rejection of authoritarianism. It's available here.
The Five Electorates - You'll find two versions of this information that explains how conservatives and traditionalists have been won over as authoritarian followers. If you're asking, "How could Evangelicals or Catholics or conservatives follow a corrupt authoritarian?", you'll find helpful answers here.
Also this - The Rise of the Authoritarian Voter
My Thoughts on the Storming of the US Capitol - A British publication asked for my reactions, especially connecting religion and the coup attempt. Available here.
This short piece might also be of interest: What We Overheard
0 Comments2 Minutes
In Praise of Political Correctness (a poem I posted 5 years ago)
I don’t know if they know what they mean
When they mock it, but
I sure know what I mean
When I praise it.
It’s like gun safety, people. You don’t point a loaded sentence
At someone. You never walk through a crowd without clicking
The safety on your mouth. Certain words are like triggers.
One careless political speech or misfired paragraph
And bullets fly, children die, and mothers cry.
Print it on a billboard and read it every day: Speech kills.
It’s like hiring a licensed electrician, people. Some bozo fake
Handyman comes to install a ceiling fan and next thing you know
The whole house burns down.
You want an electrician who’s got basic electrical correctness.
And the same goes for politicians.
Why would I elect a feckless, willfully ignorant
Clown to wire up high-voltage words where I live?
The Bible nails it: a rogue tongue, like a random spark,
Can reduce your whole religion or nation or civilization
To smoke and ashes.
So whether you’re my brain surgeon or my urologist,
If you take out a scalpel in my presence,
I’d like you to be surgically correct.
And if you want to run something I’m part of,
I’d appreciate you caring enough to be politically correct.
Sure, I’m all for telling unpopular and inconvenient truths.
I’m for straight talk and rocking all boats that need rocking.
But I’m not for sinking them
If there are breathing human beings aboard.
Words have consequences, political consequences,
So consider the consequences when you detonate your words.
Don’t be stupid. Don’t spread bigotry or
Undermine decency in the way you talk.
Don’t lie. Don’t scapegoat. Don’t bully or blow whistles
That get racists salivating.
Don’t incite, divide, or wound with careless rhetoric,
Even if it wins you a standing ovation or a huge election.
And while you’re at it, don’t be a demagogue either.
The political world is one place where correctness
Matters.
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My Thoughts on the Storming of the US Capitol
By teaching their members to submit to strong-men leaders like Trump, even associating God’s favor and sovereignty with their dominating tendencies, these Christian leaders have whitewashed Trump’s authoritarianism with moral legitimacy. By teaching uncritical obedience (often by quoting Romans 13:1-4 and ignoring Romans 12:1-2), by prophesying divine favor, by shaming and demonizing opponents and by pardoning or minimizing Trump’s offenses, these Christian leaders have domesticated and groomed adherents so they can be deployed as loyal and adoring subjects in Trump’s service.
That’s why in video footage from this week’s insurrection attempt at the US Capitol (which was coordinated with similar displays at some state capitols), you’ll see zealous Trump-Christians carrying ‘Jesus Saves’ signs, and raising crosses and sporting T-shirts with Bibles on the front of them. Tragically, too many American churches have become aggregators for Trumpist organisers, rendering sincere but gullible believers tools in Trump's delusional power-grab....
You can read the whole post here:
One element of the "treatment" for white Christian nationalism is doubt, as I explain in my new book, Faith After Doubt.
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A Conversation with One of my Heroes
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