Monday, September 14, 2009

Reading Assignment: Beck's Army of God

I'm on deadline, so I don't have time to say anything, except go read this now:

9 comments:

steves said...

Hmm, read it. I wish I could get those 15-20 minutes back. As much as I hate Beck and as much as I am generally not a home schooling guy, I think the article was a lot of hyperbole mixed with some kernels of truth.

In my experience interacting with home-schoolers (I know a fair amount at my church), then run the gambit from a few that are as he describes. Most are not, though and home school for a variety of reasons, not because they think public schools are of Satan.

I have had plenty of discussion with Christians on topics like health care, abortion, and sex education and have yet to be told that if you support any of these, you are of Satan. The only exception may be abortion because many consider that murder. That being said, I have heard Satan mentioned.

The stuff about guns and racists is just plain silly. While there are certainly some that believe those things, there is nothing inherently "christian" about either of those positions. I have met plenty of bigots that were agnostic and know plenty of Christians that hate guns as vehemently as Dianne Feinstein.

My guess is that most of the HuffPo fanatics are just as deluded about the opposition as the right-wing nutters that harp about commies and socialists. It's too bad that there are so many that are not interested in dialog and would just rather preach to the choir.

Mr Furious said...

steves,

If that guy were generalizing about home-schoolers or Christians, you'd have a point, but he is talking anecdotally about very specific groups of people he has experience with and knowledge of.

This guy
was his father, so I think he has some credibility.

I've got no axe to grind against home-schooling—in fact next year, my daughter will probably leave her school to be home-schooled—not for fear of the great Satan, but because public school here blows, and i'm not paying for private school anymore.

My wife has advanced degrees in sociology, worked in the NYC school system and is better-qualified than any teacher—or even the director—of my daughter's current private school.

Again, that's not to say you need to be a genius to home-school either. We know several people up in Ann Arbor who home-school and the public schools there are top-notch.

Schaeffer is speaking specifically about where someof these freaks are crawling from—not saying that's what all right-wing Christian home-schoolers are.

I think most Christian home-schoolers would be equally appalled at what he references.

steves said...

Fair enough Mr. F. I still hang out a few Christian blogs and forums and there are some people there that are as he describes. There are also those of us who are trying to show that Christians are't anti-intellectual mouth breathers, but rather a relatively diverse group with a very vocal minority. Unfortunately, that minority gets a lot of press and gives the rest of us a bad name.

I think most Christian home-schoolers would be equally appalled at what he references.

Unfortunately, there are some that are like he describes. They scare me, too. I guess my biggest problem with his article is that he is all over the place and should have focused on a few points.

Bob said...

I just posted this ATK, saw you had it up, so I took mine down. You always beat me to a post.

This guy seems to do a good job of explaining who these people are and why my puny liberal mind cannot understand them. Not sure he is credible, but seems to have the life experience to back up the article.

Bob said...

"My guess is that most of the HuffPo fanatics are just as deluded about the opposition as the right-wing nutters that harp about commies and socialists.

I generally don't post links to HuffPo articles. They are nicer than the freaks at Fox, but sometimes nearly as slanted.

I will take some facts with my liberalism please.

Mr Furious said...

In general I don't read HuffPo, I just follow links that lead me there... Much like Kos, there's too much noise to cut through there.

Bob said...

The one thing missing is what will stop these people. If you ask me, these type of people are stopped when they go to far.

Think Oklahoma City.

The thing is many of these nuts talk of Government being too big, coming after them, and they wanting to be left alone. Once groups go to far, then the FBI knocks on their door and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Steve-

You said you don’t see people like this at your church. Thanks goodness. You likely have a nice church. I don’t think this article discusses all Christians or even all evangelicals. In fact, I know some pretty liberal evangelicals who support abortion rights, gun control, and “bigger government”. Jimmy Carter is an evangelical Christian.

This article discusses a certain, whacky, small but loud segment of the population. Good Muslims of the Middle East get roped in with the small number of crazies of Islam all the time. It’s the same thing.

Mr Furious said...

Bob, excellent example with Carter. And the Islam analogy is perfect for what this guy is talking about. It's not catholic schools and Baptist churches he's talking about, he means the U.S. equivalent of fundamentalist madrassas and extreme interpretations of Islam.

People who elevate whatever their holy book or text above the common laws of society or humankind are going to a problem—whether it's Topeka or Islamabad.

steves said...

When I think of these groups, I think of people like Phelps, though he isn't all that apocryphal. Maybe David Koresh or Jim Jones are better examples, though Koresh seemed to just want to be left alone in his batshit craziness.

I wouldn't say it is elevating a holy book, but rather a gross interpretation of a holy book (at least on the part of the Bible. I have never read the Koran).