December 28, 2004
Sacred heart
As we know faith-based fundamentalisms have a very Manichean view of the world.
The Christian version of good and bad is based on the Bible that is read literally. It gives us the Sunday School God that blesses our nation above all others and the small-town, Bible Belt moral agenda.
I interpret the head of Christ inside the television set as the new American-style fundamentalist Christianity, which repudiates the Enlightenment and transforms religion into a right wing extremism of blind patriotism based on mythology about war.
That extermism constructs our enemy (described as Islamofascism, Islamist extremism, global jihad) is seen to have no rational agenda beyond the desire to destroy the United States Britain and Australia out of remorseless, theologically-inspired hatred and pathological loathing for their values. The enemy is the underground monster threatening the survival of Western civilization.
This kind of religion provides the cliches that undewrites the patriotic script handed to us by the mythmakers.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at December 28, 2004 04:38 PM | TrackBack