{"id":1914,"date":"2015-08-17T12:47:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T16:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=1914"},"modified":"2015-08-17T12:47:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T16:47:02","slug":"theology-related-quote-for-the-day-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=1914","title":{"rendered":"Theology-related quote for the day"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p> After my failed attempt at \u201creal\u201d Christianity, the religious right bothered me much more than when I was ignorant of the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>The political version of Christianity is first and foremost a media construct, like so much of our lives these days. It\u2019s championed by Fox News, the 700 Club and a parade of has-beens and never weres, selling the \u201cprosperity gospel\u201d like so much snake oil. It\u2019s a powerful and toxic stew that is as relevant to Jesus as professional wrestling or a discarded Playboy. <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">Conservative Christianity in America is less a religion and more of a secret handshake, a group signifier of exclusion and moral superiority<\/span>.   [<i>e.g.<\/i>, a shibboleth; y&#8217;all have seen <i>that<\/i> word used a lot around here]<\/p>\n<p>The people most injured by the Fox News version of Christianity are those authentic, compassionate people of faith. There are many churches with a sense of sacrifice and love. I\u2019ve seen them. They are Lutheran or Catholic, Buddhist and even Mormon. They are filled with nice people doing wonderful things from a sense community, but these groups are in grave danger. They are now being sold <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">a bag of lies about threats to \u201creligious liberty.\u201d<\/span> They\u2019re <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">being made into political puppets, manipulated<\/span> into violating the precepts of their own faith in the voting booth and in their own, incendiary, hate-filled rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2015\/08\/17\/i_was_betrayed_by_republican_religion_what_my_years_as_a_christian_fundamentalist_taught_be_about_right_wing_faith\/\" target=\"_blank\">Edwin Lyngar<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I can s-o-o-o relate.  As I&#8217;ve been saying for years, the evangelical right have been turned into the political shock troops for the very people who are screwing the country into the ground &#8212; and the poor fools have no idea that they&#8217;re being laughed at by their noisy heroes even as they are (mis)used and their pockets are picked.  As H.L. Mencken so presciently said, &#8220;The job before democracy is to get rid of such <i>canaille<\/i>; if it fails, they will devour it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After my failed attempt at \u201creal\u201d Christianity, the religious right bothered me much more than when I was ignorant of the Bible. The political version of Christianity is first and foremost a media construct, like so much of our lives &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=1914\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1914"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1917,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions\/1917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}