Right-wing and religion

[sobieski010]

What I am wondering... Is there a difference between (extreme) rightwing
catholics and protestants?
For the catholics here in Poland you have your tree-loving Giertychs and other
assorted LPR idiots...
Of course good old AH was a drop-out catholic...
As for protestant extremists you have wonderful Heinrich Himmler of course and
the entire Reichskirche...
And around Poland you had father Tiso of Slovakia as well... as a fine catholic...

The problem is of course where to classify Uncle Joe... an ex seminarist but
from yet another branch... Where to put him?

And finally all these fine WASP's who are running the Iraq war, the Bush
administration and that holiday camp in Cuba? Protestant to the bone perhaps?

[usenetposts]

The differences between conservative Catholics and conservative Evangelicals
are great, but in political matters there is enough common ground for a common
political platform between the conservatives of vastly differeing theologies to
exist in such places as America.

However, there is no indication that religion was behind the problems of the
Third Reich - the nazis had grown in the spiritual vacuum which exists where
there is inadequate religious faith in a society. Most of their theorists were
nothing to do with the Church, whereas their strongest opponents did have
church links. Nazi writings are full of pagan leitmotifs, and even someone like
Rudolf Hess made his ill-fated decision to parachute into Scotland based on a
pagan horoscope. That they could use and manipulate the Church was a result of
the lack of faith in the country.

Your reference to Stalin is also unfair on religion. It is true that he also
had family ties to the Church, but he was of an atheist creed and the great
excesses of his era were done in the name of atheism, and believers were the
front line victims of it. Blaming religion for Stalin is to add insult to
injury.

Now it is probably true that fundamentalist Evangelicals in America are behind
the proactive incursion on radical Muslim areas. I know I am. But the liberals
and secularists who cannot see the need for this are misinformed if they think
that the incursions are not necessary. They do not understand the nature of
Islam. It probably takes a religious person to understand the way a Muslim
fanatic's mind works - however the key difference is that the Christian
activist wants people who are outside of his faith to come not by force and co-
ercion, but by free-will, and so we do not kill the infidel as the Muslims do.

If the liberals stop the conservatives from attacking Islam now, then Islam
will regroup and will the domination of this planet sometime in the next 300
years. If you prefer for your grandchildren living in dhimmitude to Islamist
mullahs than putting up with the irritation of zealous Christians occasionally,
then encourage the dissenters to work harder to stop our work in the East.

[sobieski010]

That's exactly what scares me, phrases such as "trying to stop our work"
which indeed sounds as Bush on a bad day. It scares me, because this kind of
thinking believes it has a god-given right to change the world. Whatever it
might take, whether that be a concentration camp in Guantanamo, spying on the
entire world and gradually taking all freedom away in the US.
There was a US politician (Forgot which one, but will track it down) who once
said: "You will have fascism but they will call it democracy"

I do not think that lack of religious faith leads to extremism. Modern European
countries are mostly secular (with the exception of Poland) and you cannot tell
that they are becoming dictatorships.
On the other hand, overtly religious countries such as Poland and the US are in
my view gliding down the slippery road to authoritarian societies, be it with a
democratic varnish.

[chris-joe]

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