Mike: Christian fundamentalists are much more my enemy because they are trying to force their strictures on me.
Eric: How are they doing that, Mike?
Mike: Are you kidding? Terry Schiavo. Abortion rights. Evolution. Doctor assisted suicide. Prayer in schools. Christian religious icons on public property? Anti-pornography, anti-gay marriage, even just anti-gay, pro-death penalty -- have you been sleeping the last ten years or so? "They" own the Supreme Court now. Expect more Big Brother, bro.
Eric: I have friends who believe as you do, but I suspect they watch too much TV. Schiavo-Abortion-Gays-School Prayer: I have come to believe that the only effective propaganda the religious right has anymore is to make people feel they are being oppressed by the religious right. Their only power is to make you feel oppressed.
Maybe it's because I've been in New York so long, but the only religious pressure I feel is in the fake controversies on the news. The point of these fake controversies is not the issues they claim to dispute, but rather to PUT IN YOUR MIND the notion that these are real issues.
The more TV you watch, the more it seems that Zombie Hordes of Fundamentalists are coming, that they have a pod for you too, and are going to force you to believe what they believe. But the non-TV reality is different. Just people doing what they want to do, what they think they can get away with doing.
TV, however, creates the impression that Santa is coming to town big time. Soon they will be gathered in your back yard, using your lawn for prayer meetings, stenciling "John 3:16" on your sidewalk, encircling your home with the Holy Spirit, and blasting hymns at you from large ATF/FBI trucks until you surrender, come out, and are saved.
Whereas really, their only power is to make you care about their intentions, to make you imagine Zombie Hordes of Fundamentalists. Sort of like the al-Qaeda varmints, only without the explosive, biological, and radiological weaponry.
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