If Quiverfullers intend to take over the USA, then how...?

[Swamptribe]

Remember, back in the 'good ole days' the Lords and the King were considered to have been 'appointed by god'. The head of the household, is considered to have been appointed by god, such households. His headship gives him the power to control the lives of those under him; spouse, children, children's spouses, grandchildren, even other relatives.

[Rosa]

Yeah, that's the missing step 2, which mystifies outsiders.

#1: withdraw from society, evangelize without ever leaving the house or engaging with nonbelievers, beat children and limit their possibilities

#2: ????

#3: God's Kingdom on Earth

If you think the actors here are human beings with human motivations, #2 is "breed voters" or "swamp New Zealand's democratic system" or "gain access to politicians" or whatever. If you think the likes of Gabe Anast or Geoff Botkin can discern God's will better than everyone else, ????? = God is pleased and does what you tell him.

[MamaJunebug]

I'm not worried that the dominionists are going to outbreed everyone else and take over the country.

I am worried about how they and all of their bedfellows on their religious right are working so fervently to deprive this country's citizens of the rights we already have through their political muscle. And they have had [limited] success at that, and they are willing to stop at nothing to accomplish their goals.

...

This, and also Gen Cedarchip (I think) who pointed out that the ones we don't see blogging are the ones who are getting elected or otherwise worming their ways into circles of power.

[dawn9476]

Bush did appoint a lot of Liberty U's law school grads to important positions in the Justice dept.

A lot of students from Patrick Henry College, which is a college that caters to home schoolers, were interns in his White House. A lot of their graduates apparently go on to work at conservative think tanks in DC.

[thoughtful]

I'm not worried that the dominionists are going to outbreed everyone else and take over the country.

I am worried about how they and all of their bedfellows on their religious right are working so fervently to deprive this country's citizens of the rights we already have through their political muscle. And they have had [limited] success at that, and they are willing to stop at nothing to accomplish their goals.

Yep.

I think the combination of the under-educated Dominionists voting (or even getting into office, if things go far enough) and the Family/C Street behind-the-scenes types pulling the strings, can be dangerous.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

There's a little more to it.....they "ingratiate" themselves in the community by doing things like volunteering on the fire department, cleaning up yards/gutters/basements for the elderly, shoveling snow, running for office at a very local level first. People see that they do what they say they will do. Then they move up a notch, say, to county government....then to State government where they begin to show their true colors. Contrary to common belief there is no education requirement to serve in most offices. While many recent presidents went to law school, it is not required.

"Militant Fecundity" is the term that describes out breeding the opposition. Will they succeed? Probably not. But what WILL help them is the underwhelming turn out of voters at any election in this country. Even Hitler and Stalin had to take a little time to consolidate power. If we who are NOT "like-minded" do not start getting out the vote as rigorously as they do, we are in for it with no one to thank but over lazy non-voting selves. End of editorial!!! :clap:

[AnnieC 305]

1) Collude with religious leaders by promising them wealth and power.

2) Give them money to assist them in in hijacking other churches. That is inserting members into that particular church who actually believe in the Dominionist agenda, having them work on getting elected to the church board, then having them vote off the standing preacher and bring in a Dominionist one. There's a term for this, we've discussed it here.

3) Get them to convince a vast majority of Americans to raise their children to be utterly ignorant of the world around them and blindly accept authority.

4) Get the results of that system elected to the numerous small, local political posts in the country. Ever actually read the voter education pamphlets that come in the mail? Ever notice how things like the county commissioner for weights and measures or the seats on the school board, those smaller seats, never have any opposition?

- Come up with any excuse to run a petition through that calls for a special election

- Run someone opposed to that seat

- Get your pastors to tell the congregation, who have been trained to follow you blindly, to vote for the new people

5) Now that you have your people installed as small-time local elected officials, they can take over the local branch of the National Party, and have a say in nominating people for larger offices. Odds are once they're in they won't be out of office for a while, (See point #4)

6) Continue until you've taken over whatever the tipping point number of counties is required to take control of that party. (I don't know what it is but odds are it's less that 50%)

7) At this point you can now run national candidates. Offer them money, power and assistance (a la The Family) in exchange for voting your way.Make certain they tackle whatever subject the preachers are covering in the pews to keep the troops in line, and you can promise them those votes. (Today it's anti-gay, yesterday it was anti-communist, before that it was anti-black, who knows what it will be tomorrow).

8) While they do that to keep the troops happy have them vote out any regulation that keeps you from fleecing this country blind.

For example, move jobs overseas for a time to save on costs. Have your people in Congress not only ignore the problem but support it (military equipment made exclusively in China, for example.) while strengthing intellectual-piracy laws. Have your preachers ignore the parts of the bible that suggest that people ought to work to help each other and have him preach that God will reward you if you just ask for it, nicely, if not now then in heaven. Once the people truly believe that then you can bring the jobs back here and not have to worry about union support, just in time for the well-educated masses in China, who are not so "Christian" to be agitating for union rights and striking. If the union issue raises it's head here have the preachers come down against the pro-union candidates (those gay-marriage supporting, pro-choice, liberal monsters are going to brainwash your children) and then run a Michelle Bachman or a Sarah Palin as a puppet. Now you can pay comparatively less to your people by offering minimum wage, (which your elected followers will try to lower/eliminate) not having to pay health care costs (Universal health care is a sin!) and enjoy the fruits of all those intellectual-piracy laws while enjoying a workforce trained to your specifications by your followers on the school board. Or, better still, slave labor in the prisons thanks to the war on drugs.

-----

Well, you asked. :mrgreen:

Does anyone want footnotes?

[Deleted12]

The thing that worries me the most about "our" fundies is that they've got a lot of the same ideology and romanticism that the Nazis had.

The Nazis idealized motherhood and children, and I see a lot of that in "our" fundies. A woman's highest calling is to birth the next generation of Aryan Christian warriors. Meanwhile, a man's job is to grow up and wage war on idealogical enemies. There's a lot of obsession with the family, and discipline within the family.

The whole thing is really creepy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_H ... man_Mother

[emmiedahl]

I don't think they'll become influential except as a voting block, and that could get scary. The Republican party has changed a lot in response to the Christian right, in scary ways to me. As a moderate, I used to have two whole parties I could vote for and actually see my candidate elected. Lately, like over the last decade or so, my choices seem to be vote Democrat, vote third party knowing they'll lose anyway, or abstain. To rephrase, I can vote Democrat or not.

Once those huge families are of voting age, you can bet democrats will start pandering to them as well. So then my choices will be... ?? Anyone?

[rmac3]

If you want a complete thesis on this go to:

http://godsownparty.com/blog/what-is-dominionism/

[debrand]

What will hapen in a generation if there are a large group of angry, uneducated people who feel that they are being persecuted by the rest of the world because they are Christians? They could very well be manipulated by a charismatic individual who is willing to exploit their religion and ignorance.

[camdendayton]

AnnieC, Thanks for the essay :-)

[AnnieC 305]

You're welcome. :)

Also steeplejacking, that was the term I was looking for.

[AnnieC 305]

I don't think they'll become influential except as a voting block, and that could get scary. The Republican party has changed a lot in response to the Christian right, in scary ways to me. As a moderate, I used to have two whole parties I could vote for and actually see my candidate elected. Lately, like over the last decade or so, my choices seem to be vote Democrat, vote third party knowing they'll lose anyway, or abstain. To rephrase, I can vote Democrat or not.

Once those huge families are of voting age, you can bet democrats will start pandering to them as well. So then my choices will be... ?? Anyone?

Canada.

[slickcat79]

I have to say, I've heard many criticisms leveled at Sarah Palin, but I've never heard anyone try and say she's stupid because she went to a state school. Now, I'd say she went to, like six different schools because she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer (and/or because she seems to have some major issues when it comes to finishing what she starts). Of course, she started out at Pacific University of Hawaii, which isn't a state school at all.

I work in a job where there are a fair number of Ivy Leaguers around, and I've never heard any of them insinuate that people who went to state schools (or lower-ranked private schools) are less intelligent or even got a worse education than they did. In part because a lot of us went to graduate school, anyway, so who really cares where you did your undergraduate work, and in part because there are also a lot of us who are state school grads, who also got into this line of work, which has a pretty rigorous selection process. That's not to say that the Ivy League snobbery thing never happens (I met a few guys from Dartmouth at a quizbowl tournament who were royal douchebags), but based on my experience, I think it's kind of overblown. Most of the Ivy grads I've met have been cool, smart, funny people that I like to hang out with, and I wouldn't feel that way if I thought for a second that they were basing any judgments of us on where we went to school.

And honestly, I think the George W. years were a sobering reminder that going to an Ivy doesn't make you brilliant any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car.

Of course, I also think that as far as Palin not talking down to people and/or acting as though she's all-knowing, she certainly seems to think she knows what my views, behaviors and cultural norms are based on the fact that I generally vote a Democratic ticket, and she's not at all afraid to presume that she knows what's best for my body and my womb. So who's really condescending to whom here?

I was going to say something like that, but you took the words out of my head and made them better. I think I love you, FaustianSlip

Canada.

Oh, if only. I think I could get behind the Leafs Nation :flags-canada:

[formerlyfundie]

The more you know, the more you question. Keep them sheltered with only "likeminded" people then they will never have to wonder what else is out there. This is how we operated until recently when I realized how ridiculous it was. How will these children ever know what temptation is if they are not tempted? It is all based on ignorance and "character" rather than rational thought. Don't get me wrong, there are some precious families out there, but there are also some monsters who will not even talk to you if you are wearing a tank top. I've seen both sides :|

[kb2]

OMG, I just thought of this.

A certain Baptist college in my state is trying to start a law school. The college itself is well-respected (or has been, in the past), but certain...types of Baptists have been trying more and more to make it more Bible college, less liberal arts with a Baptist affiliation. Anyhoo, they've decided that it needs to have a law school, med school, film school, and seminary associated with it, so they're trying to start all of these. Someone (sigh) actually donated a building for the law school, so they're expecting to actually open that one soon after they rip all the asbestos out. Here's the website for it:

http://law.lacollege.edu/

Most disturbingly, they have a "Board of Reference," which...I don't know what that is supposed to be, but I don't like it: http://law.lacollege.edu/national-board-reference

This is how we get ants This kinda makes me afraid for the future.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Stalin, Nazis, the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church (I don't know that they forbid birth control, but they do push big families I believe) you name it and an oppressive government has used no birth control, "women is the heart of the family" for their own uses. Repression is repression.

[Avalondaughter]

The growth/spread of anti-intellectualism sentiment in this country is truly chilling to me.

Agreed. Too many Americans think their leaders shouldn't be too smart or too well educated because it somehow makes them "better" than the rest of us.

Hell yes, I want my leaders to be smarter than I am!

Agreed, but I also think that even if they get into politics, they won't be charge. There will be well-educated "advisors" and people around them who will manipulate the dumb fundie government leaders to suit their own needs. Think of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush.