Religious Bigotry, Why it Will Backfire on You

The problem is that Palin is a religious enthusiast, and it is the enthusiasts who control which way the mob moves.

So the rest of the congregation is luke-warm. They don't make the decisions. It is the enthusiasts who do.

So Palin's religion is a bigger factor than is Obama's in evaluating their mental state and the impact it will have on their ability to lead in a rational manner.
 
How do you know she is more enthusiastic about religion than Obama?
 
How do you know she is more enthusiastic about religion than Obama?

What programs has Obama pushed to re-inforce religious teachings in the schools?

AO sex education and creationism are intended to use the public facilities to teach a religious view.
 
How do you know she is more enthusiastic about religion than Obama?

This is a fair point. Palin came on the scene and didn't immediately start stating the virtues of religious beliefs or anything. The attacks on her for religious reasons came at her full force before she could even consider doing so.

And yet Obama is also supposed to be religious. He was aklso a member of a church for many years.

I can't help but notice the bias in that with Obama, he gets a full pass on any of that. It doesn't even seem to cross anyones mind. Maybe the assumption is that he just pays lip service to religion but is really a secular atheist underneath it all.

But Palin, the moment she hits the scene, it's religious attack after religous attack. Both of them have a religious background, why the knee jerk attacks on her, but a total pass on Obama?

I know I said I was going to avoid this forum, I was just reading a few messages while waiting to see if anyone responds to my long post in Shemps thread, and wanted to weigh in on these things, but my most recent posts I have bent over backwards to be calm, polite, and reasonable. But I will probably be walking away from this forum for the most part after tonite.
 
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The issue is not how religious either of them is, it is how they allow religion to affect their public policies.
 
The issue is not how religious either of them is, it is how they allow religion to affect their public policies.

Ok that is fair, so I assume that the attacks on Palin mean there is good reason to think she will allow religion to affect her public policies, but Obama will not?
 
Ok that is fair, so I assume that the attacks on Palin mean there is good reason to think she will allow religion to affect her public policies, but Obama will not?

In my very humble and very British opinion, the very fact that Obama is (as far as I'm aware) not a creationist and Palin is is cause for concern.

She might well not let it affect her, but IF she does, it will mean something bloody awful.

The fact she's hugely pro-life MAY not be an issue, but IF IT IS....

The fact she's AO sex ed minded....

etc.


It's not so much that I personally fear she absolutely WILL bring these in (although I'm bloody sure she will for AO and her pro-life stances) it's what will happen IF she does.
 
What meadmaker said. Also, what Thomas Frank said. I'll post it again:

[quote about sneering at rural America]

I assure you, you will not win over any swing voters with that attitude. People in "small jerkwater towns" vote, too.

I admit to having this prejudice. After thinking about it, I found that I've associated rural America with ethnocentrism. I wonder if on average, people in small towns really do ostracize non-whites, (legal) immigrants, gays, non-Christians, and eccentric people more than big city folks do.

More to the point, Palin is a religious fundamentalist, which actually has a proven association with ethnocentrism, so even if my prejudice about rural America is incorrect, I think it's more likely to be correct for Palin in particular.
 
Hey, I came from a jerkwater town. And you know what? Everybody there called it a jerkwater town. You should have seen Bartlett IL back in the 60s. One catholic church, two bars, one general store/pharmacy, one hardware store, two gas stations, and a railroad station. Literally was a jerkwater town as it existed primarily because there the Milwaukee Road trains took on water. (That is the origin of the word.) It was not a whole lot smaller than Wasalia was when Caribou Barbie ran the place. And if you could screw up running a small town like that, you have no business being President.

And Hell, all of Alaska has a population 1/5 that of Chicago. Do you think Mayor Richard M. Daley is qualified to be President, then? Eh, Wildcat? By that measure he is five times as qualified as she is.
 
The fact she's AO sex ed minded....

The "fact" that she is AO sex ed minded is not a fact at all. She isn't.

She once answered a questionnaire in such a way that suggested she might be, but it was basically a push-poll style questionnaire. The alternative was (from memory) "explicit sex education and contraceptive clinics in schools". She supports teaching contraceptive use to teens.

My source for this is a document compiled by Tony Knowles, her Democratic opponent for governor. If you want a link, you'll have to google it yourself.
 
I have been trying to decide what "small town values" really are, and the only phrase I came up with is "pride of place". That can be good, or bad. It breeds patriotism, and bigotry. It breeds a sense of community, and a need to look after neighbors, but it also breeds nosiness, holier than thou attitudes, and self righteousness.

Someone noted that numbers make a difference and that in a small town, one in 1,000 pedophiles means only one pedophile. Not quite true. It means 0 pedophiles. He'll have to leave town once he's caught, even if he gets out of jail.
 
I admit to having this prejudice. After thinking about it, I found that I've associated rural America with ethnocentrism. I wonder if on average, people in small towns really do ostracize non-whites, (legal) immigrants, gays, non-Christians, and eccentric people more than big city folks do.

I grew up in a town in a town of about 10,000 residents, I currently live in a town of about 50,000 residents. The answer to your wondering is, no, at least not in any small town I havve lived in. People in small towns are just like everywehre else, some are idiotic ****wits, some are not.
 
I admit to having this prejudice. After thinking about it, I found that I've associated rural America with ethnocentrism. I wonder if on average, people in small towns really do ostracize non-whites, (legal) immigrants, gays, non-Christians, and eccentric people more than big city folks do.

Most southern small towns have healthy minority populations unless the small towns were created by white flight.
 
And yet Obama is also supposed to be religious. He was aklso a member of a church for many years.

I can't help but notice the bias in that with Obama, he gets a full pass on any of that.
You can say what you like about the Politics forum, it's always entertaining.
 
That Palin gets a pass from Eagle Forum is cause enough for concern. Bunch of crazy people with a Dominionist leaning. Her church is also Dominionist in its teachings. She was a convert from another religion, as I recall reading somewhere. That can be scary. Converts get carried away more often than is safe for rational society.

At least with Obama, we need not worry that he will nuke Iran just because he thinks God wanted him to.
 
leftysergeant.

Do you have a link to suggest that her church is Dominionist? Also can you provide evidence that converts are more likely to get carried away than others? Lastly, is she a convert? Do you mean that she wasn't raised Christian or that she started to attend church only later in life?

You can say what you like about the Politics forum, it's always entertaining.

What is your point?
 
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