IMO the real religious issue is simple. We worship the Church of $$$$$$$$$

IMO the whole "religious values" debates misses the bigger point.

I will agree with the conservative Christians on a core point. We have lost sight of values, and we have become a sinful society. Jesus would probably be appalled if he were to pay a visit to contemporary America.

However, I think the Christian Right is missing the boat by misidentifying the cause of this moral decline. The Christian Right is fixated on the symptoms, rather than on the real reason for it. They blame their pet peeves such as the crass nature of society and the erosion of families on Secular Liberalism and all that is associated with it....In that, they are fundamentally mistaken.

But the real culprit is much different. The imposition of the Church of the Bottom Line over the last 30 years has done more to undermine the moral values of America than any group of liberal atheists could ever do.

Most of what the Religious Right and more modrate religious conservatives gripe about is the inevitable consequence of Worship of the Almighty Dollar in the Church of the Holy Free Market. We break the Ten Commandments by worshiping the False Idols of Greed and Gold. We have become unspiritual and unGodly because we have made profit the prime value, surpassing humanitarianism, charity, goodness and everything else.

The reason we are innundated with smut is not because some artists or writers push the boundries for serious explorations of sexuality. It's not even because guys like to look at attractive women, and vice-versa. It's not because a small percentage of the population is attracted to people of the same gender.....It's because the Corporate Saints of the Church of Free Enterprise will do anything for a buck. They respect no boundaries of "a place for everything and everything in its' place." Instead, they will "tart up" anything they get their hands on, if it can make them some money. That includes making family entertainment pornographic and ultra-violent, if that is what will satisfy the Holy Markets.

The Corporate Sainthood also attack "traditional families" by making it impossible for many parents to be the sole breadwinners of their families. They go even farther, by making it impossible for many parents to support themselves, even if both parents work. They also add to the pressures for families to divorce because of the tensions that result from the financial pressures imposed by the Acolytes of Ruthless Business Practices.

Yes, there are areas where those who want to impose certain types of rigid morality can never agree with those with more tolerant beliefs regarding such issues as freedom of expression, the nature of families, sexual behavior, reproductive freedom and other hot-button wedge issues. Those differences have always existed and always will. But there is plenty of room for honest disagreement over these in a free society.

However, IMO, there is a common core that the Religious Right ought to acknowledge. That is, as long as they (and society in general) allow the Church of the Bottom Line to continue to dictate all aspects of our lives, then all other forms of moral values will continue to be sublimated to immoral and amoral values that harm religious conservatives, religious liberals and everyone of every faith or non-faith.

kicked and recommended

Thanks.

"Religion and sex are power plays/
manipulate the people for the money they pay.
Selling skin, Selling God/
The numbers look the same on their credit cards."

WASTELAND OF THE FREE (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1996 Songs of Iris ASCAP

Living in the wasteland of the free...

We got preachers dealing in politics and diamond mines
and their speech is growing increasingly unkind
They say they are Christ's disciples
but they don't look like Jesus to me
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We got politicians running races on corporate cash
Now don't tell me they don't turn around and kiss them peoples' ass
You may call me old-fashioned
but that don't fit my picture of a true democracy
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

We got CEO's making two hundred times the workers' pay
but they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wage
and If you don't like it, mister, they'll ship your job
to some third-world country 'cross the sea
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free

Living in the wasteland of the free
where the poor have now become the enemy
Let's blame our troubles on the weak ones
Sounds like some kind of Hitler remedy
Living in the wasteland of the free.....

(More at http://www.irisdement.com/lyrics.html)

Mindcrime is one of my favorite albums ever made.

And they love to ride their YOYO (You're On Your Own) train to their LASSEIZ FAIRYLAND every Sunday!

Golden Elephant! lol :rofl:

Pretty much applies to all of the fairy tales that we've been swallowing over the last 30 years.

"Let us cut your wages, and you'll enter a magic kingdom of wealth."

Love that line. Was just responding to another thread about employers stalking prospective employees on their college blogs and almost used that phrase.

People that normally would be outraged by some action by an individual in their personal life will completely rationalize and excuse the same type action by the Church of the Bottom Line.

Anyway, amazing post. Thanks.

While rightwingers took on "breakup of the family" (and usually managing to blame sex in some way) as a new political theme in the '80's, nobody thought to look back at how IBM and others "promoted" head-of-households by the thousands, and that brought with it a lot of families who ended up moving all around the U.S. To be sure, our population was increasing and that was one reason our sense of community was coming apart, but more importantly we didn't know people in our own towns and neighborhoods anymore because of corporations moving people around at an unprecedented rate.

Tragically, today corporations are doing far worse: they are moving their businesses overseas & outsourcing our labor. At least back in the '60's people could still live in the U.S. and keep their decent-paying jobs.

Let's face it, major U.S. corporations were the major power in our culture in our country during the last century, probably THE most powerful entity there was. As the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" reveals, they dictated foreign policy and much of the work of the CIA. Now in this century they seem to rule almost all of planetary life - so much for pure capitalism being the answer to problems around the world And where is this being protested by those who profess to follow Jesus???

In other words, Armstead, I'm seconding what you have posted; you hit the nail on the head (with my take that Major Corporations = $$$). And love of money (NOT SEX ) is the root of all evil!

Challenge or correct me please, anybody, if I'm wrong!

On edit: added info

In the 50's my father was an executive in a big corporation. He had to move several times to climb up the ladder.

But at one point, he was offered the next promotion, but was told he'd have to move again. He decided to choose to raise his kids in one place, so he turned it down. He had a decent career after that, but he hd to trade further advancement for stability and roots. I'm glad he did, because it meant I didn't have to readjust to a new place as a kid every couple of years.

But IMO the real problem is that we lost the balance after around 1975. Before that, otehr values kept some restraints on the amoral behavior of corporations and business.

Also, many families were given no choice but to move or be impoverished in the 1980's and 90's, because profitable companies closed factories to "downsize" and merge and otehrwise cut costs. That ruined many communities.

Your dad made a very wise and compassionate decision, and it sounds like it more than made up for whatever advancement awards he might have gotten from doing otherwise. And you're right - it started with those physical moves, and got much worse with the closing of plants, etc. But the rest of America (including Congress, I suppose) wasn't really paying attention to this trend and it did go unchecked...

Oh wait - I forgot - the "Reagan Revolution" was the juggernaut that got the ball rolling. We know the story: that ball gave the multicorporations the kind of unchecked power they have in our society, our government, and therefore the world today. They now control our media, our lawmakers, our judicial system, and our executive branch; therefore they have stolen our democracy. And they have many compliant human "tools", many of whom have public faces (mostly GOP but even some Dems) - pundits, legislators, judges, electoral commissions, & of course Bushco - who keep giving them more power. :scared:

should be front & center during this campaign season. Progressives and Dems must take back the high road and put the pugs in the gutter where their idea of morality lies.

Also....I have always wondered what happened to one of those Ten Commandments about COVET? Hell...the free market of capitalism is built on COVET! Damn hypocrites.

Yes the current mindset is also about coveting. The Churh of the Free Market actually turned that one on its head. "You Will covet your neighbor's possessions, and try to take them away from them whenever possible."

"Thou shalt not steal" - breaking it has now become Corporate America & the GOP's favorite sport

Spilling the Blood of the Lamb on the Altar of Mammon for over a century!!!

And I fucking hate it. HATE!!! This country is so obsessed with consumerism that even churches have become big business. Only difference between churches and big business is that the churches make billions of dollars every year and pay NO TAXES.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0308/S00223.htm

""While this game serves the purposes of Chinese and US policy makers alike, Zhao believes it also creates economic and financial distortions that are both self-limiting and self-defeating. With a collapse in interest rates fuelling consumer spending, it is conceivable that the US current account deficit will increase rapidly. Zhao warns that "there is no magic number the current account deficit must reach to signal an impending crisis – but there has never been a nation that has been able to increase its reliance on foreign savings without eventually hitting a brick wall ". (Emphasis added.)""

Whichever it is

I bet those huge megachurches don't preach an austere lifestyle, alms to the poor, turn the other cheek. If they did, they wouldn't get that big. Their congregation wants to hear that you can have your SUV, McMansion, keep all your money (except what you give to the church), AND go to heaven.

Meanwhile, the church that preaches the real message of love and kindness to your fellow man, is in a little shack next door.

Supply and demand. It's all about supply and demand.

...your local shopping mall, try just walking around one of them during the "holiday season" - then shortly thereafter when they all embark on their after holidays pilgrimage for more.

money. There is a Calvinistic resurgence which is an inauthentic form of Christianity that says you have money because God wants you to be wealthy not because of the method which that money was obtained. Just take a look at all the Church going or running crooks in our country!

It's like these so called Christians, well, don't have any comprehension as to the meanings of the teachings of Jesus. They repeat the words, but, the words have no meaning to them. It's that blank stare that another poster was talking about.

The TV preachers who get me are the ones who talk about the need to "seed your faith" by sending them money. In return for sending these faith seeds to their ministry, promise the preachers, the Lord will reward you by multiplying your own wealth.

ask for wealth and Lord will provide. And, Jesus, tells us otherwise. These preachers are nothing more than snake oil sellers and those who are following don't really want to be a Christian (it requires too much personal sacrifice and effort to Love Your Neighbor as yourself), so they seek out an easier path to follow. They know how to quote the Gospels, but they fail to understand that we are actually supposed to practice those directives in our daily lives!

It is so sad, because they give Christians a bad name, because their actions don't support the teachings of Jesus! They really get me PO'ed, because it's an affront to the teachings of my faith, which is very important to me.

between the Christian right and the corporatists by repeatedly making this very point.

Its more than money, its the total eclipsing of humility by a puerile
screaming culture of "me me me me me" that drives this meme home by "mine mine mine mine"
mounted a pyramid on a plinth of self-worship. No wonder the misery, the violence
and the callous suffering of a culture totally divorced from enlightenment,
hammered in to selfish smallness by every economic act.