The Authoritarians by Dr. Robert Altemeyer

[Anise]

I don't know if anyone else here has read this, so I thought I would post a recommendation.

It is very appropriate on the topic of fundies.

Some great quotes: ("high RWAs" stands for people who get high scores on a questionnaire testing for high submission to authorities)

'Why are high RWAs extra-punitive against law-breakers? For one thing, they think the crimes involved are more serious than most people do, and they believe more in the beneficial effects of punishment. But they also find “common criminals†highly repulsive and disgusting, and they admit it feels personally good, it makes them glad, to be able to punish a perpetrator. They get off smiting the sinner; they relish being “the arm of the Lord.†'

"So authoritarian followers, when growing up, probably lived in a scarier world than most kids do, with a lot more boogeymen hiding in dark places, and they’re still scared as adults. For them, gay marriage is not just unthinkable on religious grounds, and unnerving because it means making the “abnormal†acceptable. It’s yet one more sign that perversion is corrupting society from the inside-out, leading to total chaos."

"How good, how moral are you, compared to other people? (You get to say what is “good†and “moral.â€) As I mentioned in chapter 1, if you’re an average human being, you’ll think you’re a better than average human being. Almost everybody thinks she’s more moral than most. But high RWAs typically think they’re way, way better. They are the Holy Ones. They are the Chosen. They are the Righteous."

"I have discovered in my investigations that, by and large, high RWA students had simply missed many of the experiences that might have lowered their authoritarianism. Take that first item on page 59 about fathers being the head of the family. Authoritarian followers often said they didn’t know any other kind of families. And they hadn’t known any unpatriotic people, nor had they broken many rules. They simply had not met many different kinds of people or done their share of wild and crazy things. Instead they had grown up in an enclosed, rather homogeneous environment--with their friends, their schools, their readings, their amusements all controlled to keep them out of harm’s way and Satan’s evil clutches. They had contentedly traveled around on short leashes in relatively small, tight, safe circles all their lives."

"Interestingly, virtually everyone said she had questioned the existence of God at some time in her life. What did the authoritarian students do when this question arose? Most of all, they prayed for enlightenment. Secondly, they talked to their friends who believed in God. Or they talked with their parents. Or they read scriptures. In other words, they seldom made a two-sided search of the issue. Basically they seem to have been seeking reassurance about the Divinity, not pro- and con- arguments about its existence-- probably because they were terrified of the implications if there is no God."

The author made the book free on the internet here: http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/dr ... arians.pdf

[lemonhead]

This is how I grew up. I am so glad I escaped. I wonder if anyone has researched the circumstances and characteristics of people who leave this ideology as adults.

[silvia]

Great book -- aside from Kathryn Joyce, Altemeyer provides some of the best insight yet on the ins and outs of the fundamentalist mind. I started a thread on this book a while back in case anyone's interested in reading some older commentary: http://www.freejinger.org/forums/viewto ... f=8&t=7372

[RosyDaisy]

Geeze, I taught that "using the arm of the Lord" referred to doing the same things Jesus did...like helping the poor, sick, and suffering, not punishing people.

[Pam]

Geeze, I taught that "using the arm of the Lord" referred to doing the same things Jesus did...like helping the poor, sick, and suffering, not punishing people.

That's my understanding of what being a follower of Jesus is/does, also.........and I've been called a heretic by Christian Fundies. Go figure.

For all their talk of following Jesus, what they're really salivating for is to make Old Testament Law the law of the land.