Proving God by Consensus: My Problem with the Religious Right

[RobertLevin]

A few decades ago I was awakened at seven o’clock one Sunday morning by the persistent droning of my downstairs door buzzer. I was living then in a back apartment on the top floor of an East Village walk-up that was without an intercom or the capacity to buzz visitors inside. This circumstance made it necessary for me to descend five flights of stairs to personally open the frosted-glass front door and to see who it was.

In this instance it was two Jehovah’s Witnesses.

At the time I bore no animus toward people who presented themselves as fervently religious. Though I deemed them delusional, I respected both their right to their delusion and their need of it. The proselytizers I encountered were more likely to draw pity from me than to provoke my ire.

So if I had good reason to be put out by the inconvenience they’d caused me, an inconvenience compounded by the ungodly hour they’d picked to pay a call, my reaction to the elderly and finely attired black couple with soft Georgia accents who greeted me—he with a bible in one hand and a straw hat in the other; she wearing a hat bedecked with white and yellow flowers—wasn’t in the least bit hostile. In fact, while I made it clear that I had no use for the message they were delivering, I was as courteous as I could be. I didn’t want to tamper with their fantasy or hurt their feelings and when I closed the door on them it was very gently.

But that was a while back, before religion assumed the weight and influence that it has in our cultural and political affairs and before I understood just where the so-called “True Believers” are coming from.

We tend to allow that, unhinged as we may judge them to be, evangelicals, in their efforts to make converts or to bring “more religion” into the culture, are doing the work of a God they feel with genuine confidence to be real. Some of us might even imagine that they care about our salvation. But this isn’t what’s happening. Dealing with their fear of death, a fear exacerbated by 9/11 and the destruction of the myth of American invincibility, and wanting desperately for a God and the potential for eternal life implicit in the concept of God to exist, the real mission of these people isn’t to share a revelation but to validate beliefs they’re not sure of by securing the agreement of others. To prove the existence of God to themselves by achieving a universal consensus on the matter (the only way to achieve something like certainty about anything) is the true aspiration of the religious right.

And I mightily resent the manifold ways in which their ambition to, for starters, make a formal theocracy of America—a more than adequate means of certifying their beliefs—is already poisoning the lives of the rest of us.

I’m speaking, of course, of their interference with a woman’s freedom to end a pregnancy and of homosexuals ability to marry one another. I’m also talking about the brakes they managed to apply to government sponsored stem-cell research and the role they played in obliging us to endure a George W. Bush for a second term (let alone what his presidency has left in its wake) because he professed to share their faith in Jesus Christ. And I’m referring as well to what turned out to be a politically pivotal quantity of Tea Party candidates that they were instrumental in electing to Congress.

And, again, none of this has been, at bottom, to the purpose of spreading a vision (which could maybe have claimed some level of legitimacy), but rather to, in their own minds, ratify by numbers, law or custom, the presence of a deity.

Since there remains a sufficient population of heathens to challenge their beliefs and to keep their uncertainty alive, reaching their unspoken goal will only become more urgent for the evangelicals. They will get louder and more insistent. And their successes will be more pernicious. Is a President Rick Perry completely out of the question?

I should say that having a few issues of my own with the prospect of death, and quite capable myself of twisting and distorting reality in order to live in the world with a semblance of equilibrium, I can, even under the present conditions, experience some empathy for the Christian right’s agenda. (And I can also appreciate the necessity and durability of religion itself. I’m always taken aback when people whose minds I admire predict that human beings will one day “outgrow” the need for religion, as if it were merely a stage in our evolution. Like the biologists who are looking for a religion gene, they miss the point. For as long as death is a precondition of life, a need for some kind of invented deity, with a plan for mankind—and a collection of rules and practices which, if scrupulously followed, offer the promise of an afterlife—is going to prevail for a large percentage of humanity.)

But while I’m not insensitive to the evangelicals’ cause that doesn’t make its increasing encroachment on the lives of the secular any more acceptable to me. I repeat: Is a President Rick Perry out of the question? No. If there was once a time when we could indulge the folks of the Christian right at no substantial cost to ourselves, that’s not the case any longer. Their quest to conscript us into their immortality project has gotten too much out of hand and leaves no room for such generosity. At this point there’s little choice but to do battle with them; to fight their actions at every turn. The consequences for those of us who live for this life rather than the next one have become too dire to let them slide.

[classicman]

Is a President Rick Perry completely out of the question?

Yes.

[ZenGum]

Awesome de-lurking, RL. Second coming for you, is it?

My problem with the religious right - or the religious anything - is when they try to force the rest of us to take their make-believe game as seriously as they do, whether through physical violence or more subtle means.

[DanaC]

Excellent post! Really good read.

[Griff]

Very interesting read. One data point you may miss is the people like myself who leave religion because of the culture war. I was just complacently trundling along enjoying the community until our local Catholic bishop started insisting on the culture war, hating on gays and women, while insisting the Church was above the law on child abuse. All it takes is a little step back to break the illusion. The war will, however, get louder as their position weakens. It is still depressing to see a President of my generation forced to play the religion game.

[Undertoad]

This is poor work by you.

If you're going to write for communication, you should put down your word-a-day calendar and be more concise.

If you're annoyed because JWs are at your door and you have to walk down five flights just to find out who it is, notice that they didn't put you in that position... YOU put you in that position by picking a shitty place to live. (I find it hard to believe in the first place, because most legitimate callers would leave your step well before you made it downstairs.)

The turning point of the essay is that evangelicals are not earnest and are merely trying to fool themselves through consensus-building. The proof of this is left as an exercise for the reader -- which means, if you question that point, you can stop reading right there.

But I notice the trained seals on Bill Maher's show clapping excitedly at every statement they can find, without thought. I figure this consensus-building is part of human gregariousness, and we almost all do it.

Furthermore, if you actually asked a JW, you would have learned that most of them have been walking their beat for years and have not converted one single person. "Needing" consensus, really? But you came to conclusions about their inner thoughts and motivations without actually asking them.

"They will get louder and more insistent." But your own answer to this is to preëmptively get louder and more insistent. We imagine you now being angry at the JWs, in the storyline you did not pick up by the end of your essay. We think it will make you feel marginally better about your shitty apartment choice, but have no impact on anyone else, including your targets.

But why take up arms now? Religion has been at the heart of much worse fascism than the W. administration. And we notice its power diminishing. The Pew organization regularly surveys people about religion in their lives and we see the same trends in Europe happening here, albeit about 20 years later.

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

[regular.joe]

It was a good read, I understand your problems. I am wondering what Proving God by Consensus has to do with the post. The religious right voted in George Bush only because the majority of the population does not vote. I guess that would make them a bit more responsible, at least in getting out to vote.

It is important to understand a few things. The minority of the religious are the ones making most of the problems in any country. The majority are quietly trying to practice what they preach, and/or are searching for something they do not have. Jesus did not teach a theology or religious doctrine he taught a way of living. Religion does not equal God. I am not an atheist, an agnostic, nor do I associate with a religious body yet I agree with your trepidation with the christian right in the U.S. I also do not want the atheistic left to be in charge of the nation, as most of them think that I am delusional wich leads to other unsavory questions and outcomes.

[Lamplighter]

I realize my post here is not PC, and I feel very uncomfortable with it. So I do apologize.
But to assume it is the religious extremes that are controlling politics may be an overstatement.

Here is a pie chart of the religions in the US:
[ATTACH][/ATTACH]


There are currently 9 sitting members of the US Supreme Court
Here are the religious affiliations of those US Justices
Catholic
Catholic
Catholic
Catholic
Catholic
Catholic
Jewish
Jewish
Jewish

Does this non-proportional representation have an effect ?
I suspect it does, but in more subtle ways.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

This is poor work by you.

If you're going to write for communication, you should put down your word-a-day calendar and be more concise.

This. Your essay-writing hasn't improved one bit since the first time you tried it here in 2004. I'm sorry your blog hasn't generated the thousands of followers you believe it deserves... but there's a reason.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

But why take up arms now? Religion has been at the heart of much worse fascism than the W. administration. And we notice its power diminishing. The Pew organization regularly surveys people about religion in their lives and we see the same trends in Europe happening here, albeit about 20 years later.

Quote:

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

I found the OP to be an interesting springboard for discussion.

While overall religious affiliations of Americans may be going down, a survey which reveals that three-in-four adults are affiliated with a particular religion does not feel like diminished power to me. As a matter of fact, the percentage of all US adults who hold fundamentalist/evangelical beliefs is rising. In other words, Americans who do continue to belong to a religious denomination are now more likely to be “born again,” "true believer" types.

For example, 41% of all Americans believe the Bible is totally accurate. 32% think they must tell their faith to others. And 27% believe Satan is real. Asking people if they consider themselves to be evangelicals produces a comparatively large number: 38% of the population accepts that label. More

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

But to assume it is the religious extremes that are controlling politics may be an overstatement.

Or it may not. I looked up the stats on religious affiliations of Tea Partiers with interesting results. A recent Pew Survey found:

White evangelical Protestants are roughly five times more likely to agree with the Tea Party movement than to disagree with it, Pew found. American Jews, meanwhile, are nearly three times as likely to disagree with the movement than agree with it.

Tea Party supporters are "much more likely than registered voters as a whole to say that their religion is the most important factor in determining their opinions on ... social issues" like abortion and same-sex marriage, according to the Pew analysis.

"They draw disproportionate support from the ranks of white evangelical Protestants," the analysis said of the Tea Party.
Tea Party supporters comprised 41% of the electorate in November, previous Pew polling found, with the overwhelming majority backing Republican candidates, contributing to the GOP's House takeover.

The Pew surveys, conducted from November 2010 through this month, found that white evangelicals are the most pro-Tea Party religious demographic in the country. Forty-four percent of white evangelicals agree with the movement, while 8 percent disagree, though roughly half have no opinion or have not heard of the movement.

Link

[classicman]

Sam, your first link is a decade old. Here
The second if from February of this year -
and the more important info WITH CHARTS (I love charts) is on the Pew site it references - here
I wonder if there is more current data to see how things have changed especially after what has transpired in the congress since then.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by classicman

Sam, your first link is a decade old. Here
The second if from February of this year -
and the more important info WITH CHARTS (I love charts) is on the Pew site it references - here
I wonder if there is more current data to see how things have changed especially after what has transpired in the congress since then.

My apologies. I should have given you a better source for the first part of my post. I just gave you the link to the Barma.org site which is huge - they do tons of research on religion/spirituality. I'm pretty sure my stats were from a 2007 study, but now I can't find it. Guess I'll have to root around in History and get back to you.

[classicman]

no prob. I googled your quote and the link I posted came up. I'm pretty sure that was it. Its all good.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by SamIam

For example, 41% of all Americans believe the Bible is totally accurate. 32% think they must tell their faith to others. And 27% believe Satan is real.

Except that really means that only 27% of all Americans really believe the Bible is totally accurate. The rest are paying lip service, the way most people do when asked about religion.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Except that really means that only 2.7% of all Americans really believe the Bible is totally accurate.

ftfy