{"id":383,"date":"2009-09-28T13:05:34","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T13:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/frank-schaeffer-on-fundamentalism-and-village-idiots.html"},"modified":"2009-09-28T13:05:34","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T13:05:34","slug":"frank-schaeffer-on-fundamentalism-and-village-idiots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/frank-schaeffer-on-fundamentalism-and-village-idiots.html","title":{"rendered":"Frank Schaeffer on Fundamentalism and Village Idiots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since Cheryl brought Rachel Maddow’s interview of Frank Schaeffer <\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>to
\nmy attention, I’ve dithered and agonized over whether to post it.  <\/span>Frank Schaeffer is a former leading
\nmember of the religious right who was deeply involved in Republican Party
\npolitics, saw at least part of the light, and now has written Crazy for God:
\nHow I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived
\nto Take All (or Almost All) of It Back<\/i>.<\/a> <\/span> <\/p>\n

I
\nplan to read that book.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n


\nI am not
\nsure that simply ignoring them as Schaeffer recommends is a good idea, because
\nthis is such a big population of village idiots and by capturing the Republican
\nParty have effectively given control of our country to the corporations because
\nthe alternative is worse.  <\/span>Also, on a religious site I wondered whether posting a guy who says these folks are beyond reason was appropriate.  On the
\nother hand, in almost every
\ncase I have personally encountered <\/span>they are utterly impervious to reason or evidence<\/span>.       <\/span><\/p>\n

I have personally decided the
\nonly “cure” for the problem Schaeffer describes is to tell them their ‘god’
\nis a good example of a demon, that he is not worthy of worship, the world
\nalready is hell if he is truly its creator, and if he were human, his character
\nwould be that of a psychopathic sadist. There are good people who worship him,
\nbut only because they are paralyzed by fear and don’t know of a viable alternative.
\nHe is a failure as a god and a demonic snare to the trusting. These people are still fellow human beings, and as such must still have a core of awareness that the deity they follow is ghastly, and the world he promises them one of eternal subordination to a arbitrary tyrant deeply alien to love, mercy, or fairness.    <\/span><\/p>\n

I hope I have been
\nclear.      <\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nmaybe Schaeffer is right, and these people really are beyond hope of redemption
\nin this life.  <\/span>His interview is
\nwell worth listening to.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since Cheryl brought Rachel Maddow’s interview of Frank Schaeffer  to my attention, I’ve dithered and agonized over whether to post it.  Frank Schaeffer is a former leading member of the religious right who was deeply involved in Republican Party politics, saw at least part of the light, and now has written Crazy for God:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nFrank Schaeffer on Fundamentalism and Village Idiots - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/09\/frank-schaeffer-on-fundamentalism-and-village-idiots.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Frank Schaeffer on Fundamentalism and Village Idiots - 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