History professor's new book investigates how America became a "Christian nation."

Courtesy of NPR:  

Kruse's book investigates how the idea of America as a Christian nation was promoted in the 1930s and '40s when industrialists and business lobbies, chafing against the government regulations of the New Deal, recruited and funded conservative clergy to preach faith, freedom and free enterprise. He says this conflation of Christianity and capitalism moved to center stage in the '50s under Eisenhower's watch. 

"According to the conventional narrative, the Soviet Union discovered the bomb and the United States rediscovered God," Kruse says. "In order to push back against the atheistic communism of the Soviet Union, Americans re-embraced a religious identity. That plays a small role here, but ... there's actually a longer arc. That Cold War consensus actually helps to paper over a couple decades of internal political struggles in the United States. If you look at the architects of this language ... the state power that they're worried most about is not the Soviet regime in Moscow, but rather the New Deal and Fair Deal administrations in Washington, D.C." 

The New Deal had passed a large number of measures that were regulating business in some ways for the first time, and it [had] empowered labor unions and given them a voice in the affairs of business. Corporate leaders resented both of these moves and so they launched a massive campaign of public relations designed to sell the values of free enterprise. The problem was that their naked appeals to the merits of capitalism were largely dismissed by the public.

The business leaders quickly realized that their pro-capitalist message was going to sound self serving, and not terribly palatable so they needed to find the most trusted people in the country to deliver it for them.

Ministers.   

They use these ministers to make the case that Christianity and capitalism were soul mates. This case had been made before, but in the context of the New Deal it takes on a sharp new political meaning. Essentially they argue that Christianity and capitalism are both systems in which individuals rise and fall according to their own merits. So in Christianity, if you're good you go to heaven, if you're bad you go to hell. In capitalism if you're good you make a profit and you succeed, if you're bad you fail. 

The New Deal, they argue, violates this natural order. In fact, they argue that the New Deal and the regulatory state violate the Ten Commandments. It makes a false idol of the federal government and encourages Americans to worship it rather than the Almighty. It encourages Americans to covet what the wealthy have; it encourages them to steal from the wealthy in the forms of taxation; and, most importantly, it bears false witness against the wealthy by telling lies about them. So they argue that the New Deal is not a manifestation of God's will, but rather, a form of pagan stateism and is inherently sinful.

The book goes on to explain how we "In God We Trust" found its way onto our money, and how "One Nation Under God" found its way into our Pledge of Allegiance.

So ultimately the idea of America being a Christian nation is not the intention of the Founding Fathers, but rather part of a cynical advertising scheme to marry capitalism and Christianity together in order to protect big businesses and their profit margin.

Keep that in mind the next time you see a Republican attacking labor unions while in the same breath espousing Christian family values. 

Alabama ministry puts up billboard using pro-indoctrination quote from Adolph Hitler.

Courtesy of the Ledger-Enquirer:  

A billboard at the Village Mall in Auburn, Ala., features five smiling kids beneath a quote from Adolf Hitler: "He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future." 

According to Lamar Advertising's Montgomery office, the billboard was rented out by Life Savers Ministries, based in Opelika, Ala. 

Hitler's quote traces back to his speeches of the '30s, and has historically been tied to the Nazi youth programs. 

The billboard went up Friday and will be taken down Tuesday, per LSM's request. 

"We are pulling the billboard and certainly never intended to cause confusion. ... Herbert Hoover would have been a far better one to quote when he said, 'Children are our most valuable resource,'" founder James Anderegg told the Ledger-Enquirer. "We are a children’s organization and had honorable intentions and nothing less." 

"We are a children’s organization and had honorable intentions and nothing less." I'm pretty sure Hitler said something along those lines as well.

You know there must be a handbook somewhere that instructs these organizations NOT to state what their purpose is, and to avoid using horrible historical figures as their inspiration, but apparently Life Savers Ministry lost their copy.

And of course this provides the opportunity to once again put that old wives tale about Hitler being an Atheist to rest. Hitler was raised in the Catholic church, learned his antisemitism there, and even  borrowed the swastika from the coat of arms that was displayed on the stone arch at the monastery where he attended school.

In fact Hitler would probably be very pleased with the methodology utilized by fundamentalists and Christian home school programs in this country, and their reliance on the camouflage of religion to provide cover for their agenda.

Which reminds me of another quote attributed to Adolph Hitler:

“Who says I am not under the special protection of God?”

Who indeed?

Who would Jesus rape? Leading Quiverfull advocate used his influence to groom teenage girl into his "personal sex object."

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

A leading advocate of the patriarchal Quiverfull movement groomed a teenage girl as his “personal sex object” and then used the purity culture to shame her into silence, according to a lawsuit filed by his victim. 

Douglas Phillips resigned last year from Vision Forum and Vision Forum Ministries over what he described at the time as an extramarital affair. 

But the lawsuit, reported by Right Wing Watch, revealed more details about this relationship and the ways that women are treated in the Quiverfull movement – which has been popularized by the prolific Duggar family and their TLC reality show, 19 Kids and Counting. 

Attorneys claim Phillips, a close friend to the Duggar family and an associate of actor Kirk Cameron, “methodically groomed” Lourdes Torres since she was 15 years old and led her to believe they would be married. 

Phillips told the girl this was possible because his wife, Beall Phillips, “was going to die soon.”

Philips manipulated her into sexual situations with him, while at the same time telling her that her submission to his desires made her "damaged goods."  

The suit claims Phillips repeatedly groped and touched Torres inappropriately and masturbated on her, “against her wishes and over her objections,” over a period of years. 

“While Ms. Torres would have felt compelled to submit to Douglas Phillips, the purity culture would have meant at the same time, her submission made her ‘damaged goods’ in her eyes, the eyes of her family, and her community — raising the cost for her to come forward to call him to account,” the suit claims. “She was, in fact, in a ‘no-win’ situation.” 

He also assured her that he had done nothing wrong, and their sexual encounters were not wrong, the suit claims, but he also said that if their relationship was indeed wrong, “it was completely her fault.”

This guy is a sick POS who garnered control over this young girl, and probably others, by using religion and the fact that the Quiverfull movement demands that women remain submissive to men.

This is why these assholes do not want their children in public schools, where school nurses might pick up signs of abuse, and where they will learn to question authority and think for themselves.