Christianity must have its scapgoats.

[mudflappus]

From the 1920s to the early 1930s, fundamentalist Christians railed against the excesses of alcohol and lascivious behavior the public at large engaged in with nary a second thought. Their greatest failing achievement was the prohibition movement which lead to the rise of the mafia in most major cities.
From the mid 1930s to 1941 they had the Depression to use as their personal Divine Judgment on all of the wicked money people of the financial sector. From 1946 to the mid 1970s they had the evil Godless heathen Communists to shake their collective finger at. They even managed to get "Under God" placed into our Pledge of Allegiance.
From the mid 1970s through the 1980s it was all about the evil Rock and Roll. I can't imagine how many turntable cartridges were ruined by numbnuts trying to play every record they could get their hands on backwards while forcing their own ill conceived Satanic messages to light. Through the 1990s it was Internet porn and abortion. Now for the last ten years or so it has been about homosexuals and marriage.
I think it's fairly obvious that Christianity can not exists without a scapegoat or at the very least, something to justify their ignorant blathering about. Islam is the new Soviet era bad guy and so the cycle continues. I just wonder what the next big tent revival villain is going to be?

[dasfuchs]

I'd say for the past ten years it's been a mix of a few things, porn, atheists, gays, video games, and 'dem brown people'.
I don't think anyone can point to any future bitch fest with them, gays are gonna be a front issue for quite some time

[Sigmaleph]

Society must have its scapegoats. Christianity, like any religion, is a useful way to get them.

[Death]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat

[JonathanE]

Apr 4, 2009 1:01:20 GMT -5 Sigmaleph said:

Society must have its scapegoats. Christianity, like any religion, is a useful way to get them.

QFT

The last 30 years have seen unscrupulous politicians divide this country along religious lines in an unprecedented fashion, for political favour. By defining the "hot button" issues of abortion and homosexuality as being political issues, rather than personal issues, and ramping up the fear of outside threats, the Republicans over the last 30 years have poisoned American politics for a generation, at least.

[JonathanE]

I have to disagree with the whole "prohibition" thingy, though. Prohibition was not just a "fundy" issue, it was also heavily supported by the same women who had been pushing for universal suffrage, ie women's voting rights. Although this seems strange, it is actually true. At the turn of the 20th century, alcoholism in the U.S. was a major social problem, and, as was true for the times, women viewed alcohol as a major drain on family finances, and backed prohibition on the depravation alcohol was believed to have caused women and families.

[Death]

True

Alcohol consumption was an enormous problem in Victorian England and the US.

Purity was a problem, gin was pretty rough in those days and there was no regulation. Methanol poisining is not nice.They drank to excess. Even children drank. Life was short and ugly, I can hardly blame them but still drink didn't improve their lot.

So in some ways temperence was seen as a rights issue for the working class.

And didn't Wilde say that work was the curse of the drinking classes

And yes on the faddism of social issues. Not just in religion but in the social and psych services.

[MaybeNever]

Apr 4, 2009 1:15:11 GMT -5 JonathanE said:

I have to disagree with the whole "prohibition" thingy, though. Prohibition was not just a "fundy" issue, it was also heavily supported by the same women who had been pushing for universal suffrage, ie women's voting rights. Although this seems strange, it is actually true.

A similar alliance emerged fifty years later, when the early feminist movement (well, early in terms of actually getting anywhere) found itself in bed with the fundamentalists in opposing pornography, albeit for fairly different reasons.

[Art Vandelay]

If the next scapegoat is lads then I'll happily support it. Hell, that'll be one of the few scapegoats that is actually a genuine problem.