Does The Right Believe Religion Is Bad?

I've noticed something that I want to throw on out there for a bit of review.  It's an oddity, to be certain.

Whenever a 'leftist'/Democrat/'moonbat' embraces an idea or person (or more to the point, an idealistic person) the Right will denigrate that very human response and attachment.  That, in itself, is not surprising.  They really think we're 'self-loathing', 'ignorant' and/or crazy'.  This has been happening for some time now, and though we on the leftward side of policy and issue would often like to blame Bush for this 'with us or crazy' kind of thinking, it actually was codified into appropriate public behavior by, not surprisingly, an actor.

What is somewhat surprising, perhaps only because I've never had reason to notice it quite so strongly before, is that they do it in denigrating religious terms.  For instance, those who mockingly refer to Barrack Obama as 'the Obamessiah' or "the Obamasavior'.  See, that's really rather striking.  It would be simplistic to offer the explanation that they believe 'us' to be worshiping a 'false prophet' in the light of the truth of their own savior, Jesus.  Except that many who do this come from a-religious or atheistic viewpoint.  This isn't a matter of 'dueling messiahs'  (though I'd love to hear the guitar riffs that would settle that cosmic fight.)  No, this is a manner of thought that holds that belief is itself a form of worship; and that if one believes the wrong thing, or in the wrong person, that one is worthy of spite, derision, damnation as the belief is to be ridiculed.

In essence, it's a denigration of several ideals.  Trust, faith, admiration and hope.  If one holds to value any of these things, but stands in opposition to the Right, than what must be dismissed is not only the object of these values, but the values themselves.  Trusting Obama is worshiping Obama.  Not only is the trust misplaced because Obama is bad (an uppity Negro) but trust itself is equated with what must be held to scorn: worship.

"I think Obama was very forthright and honest in his speech about racism."

"Ohhh, you just ~worship~ Obama!"

Notice, the emphasis of scorn is on the idea of "worship"; that to have faith in, to believe in, to appeal to ... anything ... is a shameful act of itself.  It is cast as 'religious' and must be mocked.  But Religion, the act and behavior of being religious, is to worship.  If worship is to be mocked than religion is worthy of mockery, as evidenced by the very behavior of those who mock worship.

So, I cast it out there for all to peruse.  Does the Right just despise religion?

Comments

[Doug]

My ego thinks that part of the reason for this post may have arisen from your calling me out over here, if not, I'll stuff it back under the bed where it belongs. I was really more taken by that last comment with the "children" part than anything else, and I just added the God reference at the last minute because it makes me laugh.

Regardless, I've made lots of references of late to the religious nature of the Obama phenomenon, and it is purely in jest. I intend no scorn nor do I intend to attach any shame to the 'worship'. Am I twisted for getting entertainment out of someone's deeply held belief? Maybe, but I don't get real knotted up when somebody comes after my own holy grail, and that has been known to happen every now and again. Besides, if any shame was felt, how could it be me that created it? In my opinion, if I am feeling 'shamed', I have either granted someone else way too much influence over my own feelings, or I've actually done something that deserved it to begin with.

As for your last question, at least in my case, I'd have to give that a definite maybe.

[Wulfgar]

Strange as it may seem, Doug, it was some of your posts that hit me with this idea, but not your writing that convinced me to take it seriously. There are those, who have no misanthropy to excuse themselves, that take your humor and make it flesh, as if we should accept it as real. Jonah Pantload, Confederate Wankey, John Buttmissile ... the list goes on of those who really find something derisive about the fact that many people actually like Barack Obama. And, like you, they put their displeasure in religious terms ... yet they haven't your sense of irony.

So, to my last question, I also have to answer: Maybe?

[dew-r-lite]

I'm not particularly "on the right". But I can "Imagine" life without it.

[Mark Tokarski]

I think there is contempt for religion on the right - it's just another aspect of our behavior that has to be harnessed to work for 'the cause'. What I see in the Obama movement is a fire that threatens to get out of control - Obama himself might be swept up in it. It is unfulfilled ambitions, idealism, angst. Such were the energies harvested by Bobby Kennedy and that have lain dormant all these many years as the old New Left evaporated or joined Wall Street - a new leader, a new generation of fools. It's raw power, unharnessed, so naturally the right fears it and assigns mystical qualities to it. It's not utilitarian, it doesn't serve the cause, it must be squelched.

[Jay Stevens]

Nice posts lately, Wulfgar! I think you're on to something here. I think there's also an element of the postmodern resistance to any serious attachment that falls outside of the Accepted Conservative Canon.

Obama's speech made it clear his candidacy does promise to bring new perceptions and beliefs to old arguments; naturally righties are shitting bricks over that possibility. The bulk of their rhetoric derives from years of nurturing the worst in people -- selfishness, hate, envy -- and when positive sentiments are suddenly ascendant, it threatens the whole structure.

As for you, Mark T, I'll take my chances with scary newness. After all, our current power structure is pretty crappy. Why cling to it, just because you're more familiar with it?

And what's with all the doomsday talk? You've been begging people for years to overturn the status quo. So...now Obama's candidacy threatens to do just that...why the sudden heebie-jeebies?

[Word Wag]

Mountain of Lies

Sitting in my room looking at the vidi
The way I feel is a doggone pity
Teardrops falling like a mountain slide
Many times I've watched it
And many times I've cried
I used to be so happy
When I used to lie
I was high on a mountain of lies

Night after night I've been sitting here alone
Trying to raise some money on the telephone
Praying that you didn’t see the vidi too
Hoping just by chance
You’ll send a buck or two
Trying hard to sell you
As I wipe my eyes
I ain’t high on a mountain of lies

A mountain of lies
A mountain of lies
I am really ashamed
I used to be a mountain of lies
But that’s no longer my game

Way down the street
There's a mob of TV people
Standing by a church with a big tall steeple
That’s my church with a pastor who’s a liar
Twenty years ago I joined reverend’s choir
And that's why I'm so lonely
Completely out of cash
I got high on a mountain of lies

A mountain of lies
A mountain of lies
I am really ashamed
I used to be a mountain of lies
But that’s no longer my game

[Wulfgar]

Word Wank, kindly allow me to do you one better:

Thick as a Brick

Really don't mind if you sit this one out. My words but a whisper -- your deafness a SHOUT. I may make you feel but I can't make you think. Your sperm's in the gutter -- your love's in the sink. So you ride yourselves over the fields and you make all your animal deals and your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick. And the sand-castle virtues are all swept away in the tidal destruction the moral melee. The elastic retreat rings the close of play as the last wave uncovers the newfangled way. But your new shoes are worn at the heels and your suntan does rapidly peel and your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick. And the love that I feel is so far away: I'm a bad dream that I just had today -- and you shake your head and say it's a shame. Spin me back down the years and the days of my youth. Draw the lace and black curtains and shut out the whole truth. Spin me down the long ages: let them sing the song. See there! A son is born -- and we pronounce him fit to fight. There are black-heads on his shoulders, and he pees himself in the night. We'll make a man of him put him to trade teach him to play Monopoly and to sing in the rain.