Christian delusions are driving the GOP insane<\/a><\/h2>\nWhy aren\u2019t Republicans more afraid? The entire premise of both the government shutdown and the threats to force the government into debt default is that Democrats care more about the consequences of these actions than the Republicans do. Republicans may go\u00a0on TV and shed crocodile tears about national monuments being shut down, but the act\u00a0isn\u2019t really fooling the voters<\/a>: The only way to understand these fights is to understand that the GOP is threatening to destroy the government and the world economy in order to get rid of Obamacare (as well as a panoply of other right wing demands). Just as terrorists use the fact that you care more about the lives of the hostages than they do to get leverage, Republican threats rely on believing they don\u2019t care about the consequences, while Democrats do.<\/p>\nSo why aren\u2019t they more afraid?\u00a0Businessweek, hardly a liberal news organization, said\u00a0the price of default would be<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca financial apocalypse\u201d that would cause a worldwide economic depression.\u00a0 This is the sort of thing that affects everyone. Having a right wing ideology doesn\u2019t magically protect your investments from crashing alongside the rest of the stock market.<\/p>\nThe willingness of Republicans to take the debt ceiling and the federal budget hostage in order to try to extract concessions from Democrats is probably the most lasting gift that the Tea Party has granted the country. More reasonable Republican politicians\u00a0fear being primaried by Tea Party candidates<\/a>. A\u00a0handful of wide-eyed fanatics in Congress have hijacked the party<\/a>. The Tea Party base and the hard right politicians driving this entire thing seem oblivious to the consequences. It\u2019s no wonder, since so many of them\u2014particularly those in leadership\u2014are fundamentalist Christians whose religions have distorted their worldview until they cannot actually see what they\u2019re doing and what kind of damage it would cause.<\/p>\nThe press often talks about the Tea Party like they\u2019re secularist movement that is interested mainly in promoting \u201cfiscal conservatism\u201d, a vague notion that never actually seems to make good on the promise to save taxpayer money. The reality is much different: The Tea Party is actually driven primarily by fundamentalist Christians whose penchant for magical thinking and belief that they\u2019re being guided by divine forces makes it tough for them to see the real world as it is.<\/div>\n\nIt\u2019s not just that\u00a0the rogue\u2019s gallery of congress people<\/a>\u00a0who are pushing the hardest for hostage-taking as a negotiation tactic also happens to be a bench full of Bible thumpers.\u00a0Pew Research shows that people who align with the Tea Party<\/a>\u00a0are more likely to not only agree with the views of religious conservatives, but are likely to cite religious belief as their prime motivation for their political views.\u00a0 White evangelicals are the religious group most likely to approve of the Tea Party. Looking over the data, it becomes evident that the \u201cTea Party\u201d is just a new name for the same old white fundamentalists who would rather burn this country to the ground than share it with everyone else, and this latest power play from the Republicans is, in essence, a move from that demographic to assert their \u201cright\u201d to control the country, even if their politicians aren\u2019t in power.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s no surprise, under the circumstances, that a movement controlled by fundamentalist Christians would be oblivious to the very real dangers that their actions present. Fundamentalist religion is extremely good at convincing its followers to be more afraid of imaginary threats than real ones, and to engage in downright magical thinking about the possibility that their own choices could work out very badly. When you believe that forcing the government into default in an attempt to derail Obamacare is the Lord\u2019s work, it\u2019s very difficult for you to see that it could have very real, negative effects.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard for the Christian fundamentalists who run the Republican Party now to worry about the serious economic danger they\u2019re putting the world in, because they are swept up in worrying that President Obama is an agent of the devil and that the world is on the verge of mayhem and apocalypse if they don\u2019t \u201cstop\u201d him somehow, presumably be derailing the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0Christian conservatives such as Ellis Washington<\/a>\u00a0are running around telling each other that the ACA\u00a0 will lead to \u201cthe systematic genocide of the weak, minorities, enfeebled, the elderly and political enemies of the God-state.\u201d\u00a0Twenty percent of Republicans believe Obama is the Antichrist<\/a>.Washington Times\u00a0columnist Jeffrey Kuhner<\/a>\u00a0argued that Obama is using his signature health care legislation to promote \u201cthe destruction of the family, Christian culture\u201d, and demanded that Christians \u201cneed to engage in peaceful civil disobedience against President Obama\u2019s signature health care law\u201d.<\/p>\nThe United States Conference of Catholic Bishops joined in,\u00a0demanding that the Republicans shut down the government<\/a>\u00a0rather than let Obamacare go into effect. The excuse was their objection to the requirement that insurance make contraception available without a copayment, saying ending this requirement matters more than \u201cserving their own employees or the neediest Americans.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Christian right media has been hammering home the message that Christians should oppose the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0Pat Necerato of the Christian News Network accused<\/a>\u00a0the supporters of the law of committing idolatry and accused people who want health care of being covetous. The Christian Post\u00a0approvingly reported various Christian leaders<\/a>, including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, saying things like the health care law is \u201ca profound attack on our liberties\u201d and lamented \u201cToday is the day I will tell my grandchildren about when they ask me what happened to freedom in America.\u201d<\/p>\nSome in the Christian right straight up believe Obamacare portends the end times. Rick Phillips,\u00a0writing for Christianity.com<\/a>, hinted that Obamacare might be predicted in Revelations, though he held back from saying that was certain. Others are less cautious. On the right wing fundamentalist email underground, a conspiracy theory has arisen claiming that\u00a0Obamacare will require all citizens to have a microchip implanted<\/a>. While it\u2019s completely untrue, many Christians believe that this means the \u201cmark of the beast\u201d predicted in Revelations that portends the return of Christ and the end of the world.<\/p>\nIn other words, the Christian right has worked itself into a frenzy of believing that if this health care law is implemented fully, then we are, in fact, facing down either the end of American Christianity itself or quite possibly the end times themselves. In comparison, it\u2019s hard to be too scared by the worldwide financial collapse that they\u2019re promising to unleash if the Democrats don\u2019t just give up their power and let Republicans do what they want. Sure, crashing stock markets, soaring unemployment, and worldwide economic depression sounds bad, but for the Christian right, the alternative is fire and brimstone and God unleashing all sorts of hell on the world.<\/p>\n
This is a problem that extends beyond just the immediate manufactured crisis. The Christian right has become the primary vehicle in American politics for minimizing the problems of the real world while inventing imaginary problems as distractions. Witness, for instance, the way\u00a0that fundamentalist Christianity has been harnessed<\/a>\u00a0to promote the notion that climate change isn\u2019t a real problem. Average global temperatures are creeping up, but the majority of Christian conservatives are too worried about the supposed existential threats of abortion and gay rights to care.<\/p>\nUnder the circumstances, it\u2019s no surprise that it\u2019s easy for Christian conservatives to worry more about imaginary threats from Obamacare than it is for them to worry about the very real threat to worldwide economic stability if the go along with their harebrained scheme of forcing the government into default. To make it worse, many have convinced themselves that it\u2019s their opponents who are deluded.\u00a0Take right wing Christian Senator Tom Coburn<\/a>, who celebrated the possibility of default back in January by saying it would be a \u201cwonderful experiment\u201d. Being able to blow past all the advice of experts just to make stuff up you want to believe isn\u2019t a quality that is unique to fundamentalists, but as these budget negotiations are making clear, they do have a uniquely strong ability to lie to themselves about what is and isn\u2019t a real danger to themselves and to the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nAmanda Marcotte is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and journalist. She’s published two books and blogs regularly at Pandagon, RH Reality Check and Slate’s Double X.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Daily Kos<\/a>:<\/p>\nSen. Ted Cruz, God and the government shutdown<\/a><\/h2>\n
So why aren\u2019t they more afraid?\u00a0Businessweek, hardly a liberal news organization, said\u00a0the price of default would be<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca financial apocalypse\u201d that would cause a worldwide economic depression.\u00a0 This is the sort of thing that affects everyone. Having a right wing ideology doesn\u2019t magically protect your investments from crashing alongside the rest of the stock market.<\/p>\n The willingness of Republicans to take the debt ceiling and the federal budget hostage in order to try to extract concessions from Democrats is probably the most lasting gift that the Tea Party has granted the country. More reasonable Republican politicians\u00a0fear being primaried by Tea Party candidates<\/a>. A\u00a0handful of wide-eyed fanatics in Congress have hijacked the party<\/a>. The Tea Party base and the hard right politicians driving this entire thing seem oblivious to the consequences. It\u2019s no wonder, since so many of them\u2014particularly those in leadership\u2014are fundamentalist Christians whose religions have distorted their worldview until they cannot actually see what they\u2019re doing and what kind of damage it would cause.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just that\u00a0the rogue\u2019s gallery of congress people<\/a>\u00a0who are pushing the hardest for hostage-taking as a negotiation tactic also happens to be a bench full of Bible thumpers.\u00a0Pew Research shows that people who align with the Tea Party<\/a>\u00a0are more likely to not only agree with the views of religious conservatives, but are likely to cite religious belief as their prime motivation for their political views.\u00a0 White evangelicals are the religious group most likely to approve of the Tea Party. Looking over the data, it becomes evident that the \u201cTea Party\u201d is just a new name for the same old white fundamentalists who would rather burn this country to the ground than share it with everyone else, and this latest power play from the Republicans is, in essence, a move from that demographic to assert their \u201cright\u201d to control the country, even if their politicians aren\u2019t in power.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise, under the circumstances, that a movement controlled by fundamentalist Christians would be oblivious to the very real dangers that their actions present. Fundamentalist religion is extremely good at convincing its followers to be more afraid of imaginary threats than real ones, and to engage in downright magical thinking about the possibility that their own choices could work out very badly. When you believe that forcing the government into default in an attempt to derail Obamacare is the Lord\u2019s work, it\u2019s very difficult for you to see that it could have very real, negative effects.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard for the Christian fundamentalists who run the Republican Party now to worry about the serious economic danger they\u2019re putting the world in, because they are swept up in worrying that President Obama is an agent of the devil and that the world is on the verge of mayhem and apocalypse if they don\u2019t \u201cstop\u201d him somehow, presumably be derailing the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0Christian conservatives such as Ellis Washington<\/a>\u00a0are running around telling each other that the ACA\u00a0 will lead to \u201cthe systematic genocide of the weak, minorities, enfeebled, the elderly and political enemies of the God-state.\u201d\u00a0Twenty percent of Republicans believe Obama is the Antichrist<\/a>.Washington Times\u00a0columnist Jeffrey Kuhner<\/a>\u00a0argued that Obama is using his signature health care legislation to promote \u201cthe destruction of the family, Christian culture\u201d, and demanded that Christians \u201cneed to engage in peaceful civil disobedience against President Obama\u2019s signature health care law\u201d.<\/p>\n The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops joined in,\u00a0demanding that the Republicans shut down the government<\/a>\u00a0rather than let Obamacare go into effect. The excuse was their objection to the requirement that insurance make contraception available without a copayment, saying ending this requirement matters more than \u201cserving their own employees or the neediest Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n The Christian right media has been hammering home the message that Christians should oppose the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0Pat Necerato of the Christian News Network accused<\/a>\u00a0the supporters of the law of committing idolatry and accused people who want health care of being covetous. The Christian Post\u00a0approvingly reported various Christian leaders<\/a>, including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, saying things like the health care law is \u201ca profound attack on our liberties\u201d and lamented \u201cToday is the day I will tell my grandchildren about when they ask me what happened to freedom in America.\u201d<\/p>\n Some in the Christian right straight up believe Obamacare portends the end times. Rick Phillips,\u00a0writing for Christianity.com<\/a>, hinted that Obamacare might be predicted in Revelations, though he held back from saying that was certain. Others are less cautious. On the right wing fundamentalist email underground, a conspiracy theory has arisen claiming that\u00a0Obamacare will require all citizens to have a microchip implanted<\/a>. While it\u2019s completely untrue, many Christians believe that this means the \u201cmark of the beast\u201d predicted in Revelations that portends the return of Christ and the end of the world.<\/p>\n In other words, the Christian right has worked itself into a frenzy of believing that if this health care law is implemented fully, then we are, in fact, facing down either the end of American Christianity itself or quite possibly the end times themselves. In comparison, it\u2019s hard to be too scared by the worldwide financial collapse that they\u2019re promising to unleash if the Democrats don\u2019t just give up their power and let Republicans do what they want. Sure, crashing stock markets, soaring unemployment, and worldwide economic depression sounds bad, but for the Christian right, the alternative is fire and brimstone and God unleashing all sorts of hell on the world.<\/p>\n This is a problem that extends beyond just the immediate manufactured crisis. The Christian right has become the primary vehicle in American politics for minimizing the problems of the real world while inventing imaginary problems as distractions. Witness, for instance, the way\u00a0that fundamentalist Christianity has been harnessed<\/a>\u00a0to promote the notion that climate change isn\u2019t a real problem. Average global temperatures are creeping up, but the majority of Christian conservatives are too worried about the supposed existential threats of abortion and gay rights to care.<\/p>\n Under the circumstances, it\u2019s no surprise that it\u2019s easy for Christian conservatives to worry more about imaginary threats from Obamacare than it is for them to worry about the very real threat to worldwide economic stability if the go along with their harebrained scheme of forcing the government into default. To make it worse, many have convinced themselves that it\u2019s their opponents who are deluded.\u00a0Take right wing Christian Senator Tom Coburn<\/a>, who celebrated the possibility of default back in January by saying it would be a \u201cwonderful experiment\u201d. Being able to blow past all the advice of experts just to make stuff up you want to believe isn\u2019t a quality that is unique to fundamentalists, but as these budget negotiations are making clear, they do have a uniquely strong ability to lie to themselves about what is and isn\u2019t a real danger to themselves and to the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Amanda Marcotte is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and journalist. She’s published two books and blogs regularly at Pandagon, RH Reality Check and Slate’s Double X.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Daily Kos<\/a>:<\/p>\nSen. Ted Cruz, God and the government shutdown<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/dk-production\/images\/20515\/large\/800px-Ted_Cruz_by_Gage_Skidmore_4.jpg?1361665220\")
<\/p>\n