The Gospel of Self by Terry Heaton

Author:Terry Heaton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781949017052
Publisher: OR Books
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

The essential problem that the culture has with this today is that the people who are presenting a “Christian” view in their politics simply do not have the intellectual capacity of a man like the Pat Robertson I knew. And it’s not even close. Whether it’s right-wing superstar commentators like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly, or activists and candidates for the GOP, those who attempt to insert an evangelical perspective into their political views, they all simply come up short in both their understanding and their ability to articulate a “Biblical perspective.” Pat says some remarkably insensitive and indefensible things today on The 700 Club, and I’m not here to defend the program today. Suffice it to say that his current followers have likely become even more narrow and insensitive as a result.

Consequently, these people tend to come off as clumsy, radical, and dangerous, and their actions often defy even an ounce of reason. I have been a professional observer of life in the US for forty-five years, and the degree to which fundamentalist Christianity dominates people of lesser intelligence and education is one of the most underreported cultural shifts of modern times. The faith seems able to override sense as poor Southerners vote with the Republican Party, which has little or no regard for their status whatsoever. Religion, as a result, can influence people to vote against their own best interests in the name of social issues that aren’t really under the authority of the church in the first place. Or perhaps it’s more the fear that God will punish them if they don’t that drives their actions. Regardless, such contrarian decision-making is found in those who can’t or don’t really take the time to study or learn to think for themselves, and it’s truly as breathtaking as it is heartbreaking.

This is the real weakness and danger of Pat’s shadow government, and the evidence is in real world examples. No elected official since this process began better illustrates the issue than Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and vice presidential running mate of Senator John McCain in 2008. The details are well known, but readers need to understand that before Sarah Palin ran for anything, she was an outspoken charismatic, Evangelical Christian who believed in the “gifts of the Spirit” as practiced by many other fundamentalist believers. She spoke the language and knew how to communicate on the edge between faith and politics. Her faith is undeniable and her charisma unmistakable.

Palin was a beauty queen and studied communications in college. Her dream was to be on television, which began in the news business. In my many years in local TV news, I met hundreds of Sarah Palins and never hired any of them. The “be on TV” motivation has ruined the industry, because such people will work for peanuts and produce a product that is a mile wide and an inch deep. In most communications schools across the country today, young people are learning about things

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