Back in March of this year, Phil Donahue did an interview on Democracy Now in which he said, “ . . . I could never understand how we could put 120,000 Japanese behind a fence in World War II. I remember being bewildered, how could the United States have—I don’t have any more confusion about that. I realize what you can do when you scare the population and how media contributes to that.”
What isn’t perhaps as clear is that there is a second source of propaganda we need to deal with: religion. Or rather, it is the headwater of propaganda, the emotional undercurrent that gives a Fox News its authority—and one that is more likely to infiltrate the left.
Our obvious enemies are the pseudo-religious rightwingers plotting the overthrow of our secular constitutional government in order to replace it with a fundamentalist theocracy. The Dominionists. They can call it religion, but I call them American Nazis. They have their own ideas about the kind of purity that is fundamental to any fascist organization—as in purging.
But our second enemy is the use of religion on the left. A current example is the tension between Louis Farrakhan and black gay activists. Farrakhan and Reverend Willie Wilson reached out to queer activists, only to renege the day of the Millions More parade—not a surprise. After all, Keith Boykin, the disinvited speaker, had very recently challenged Willie Wilson on his homophobia.
Funny word, homophobia. Anti-semitic, racist, misogynistic, all these words convey anger and hatred; homophobia, uniquely, connotes fear. Homophobes are afraid, very often, because they’re secretly gay themselves—emphasis on the secretly.
Boykin suggested as much about Wilson after the Right Reverend delivered a sermon in which he described gay sexual acts. Just a little too much information, especially from a pulpit, don’t you think? Boykin and Jasmyne Cannick are profiling a series of black religious leaders who “may or may not be living behind stained-glass closets.” They are actively soliciting information from the gay community via emails in order to substantiate certain persistent rumors. Boykin says he doesn’t like doing it, but he has no choice. Nothing else has worked. “ I think this will change their [clergy] behavior, if not their opinion. A lot of them spew hate for the money.”
Let’s think about that last remark: “for the money.” Where might at least some of that money be coming from? That good old faith-based money.
The rift between evangelical African-Americans and queers is about as counter-productive as it gets. We don’t have time to fuck around with this shit. Let the outing begin. Because the fact of the matter is, the worst thing we can do is ignore this.
Even though the world is incredibly unequal and that is the harsh reality, there is nothing naďve—nor, indeed, easy—about insisting on equality within our own political coalition. In fact it’s a necessity, because there can be no true cooperation without the trust that comes from equal treatment. (I speak, of course, about behavior, not emotions.) Anything else is simply what James Baldwin called “believing the lie,” and it’s painful to watch, let alone participate in. Don’t tell me about dignity when you’re out to humiliate others.
The Reverend Al Sharpton [The Advocate, 10-11-05] is stepping up to the plate in this effort, thank god, in large part because he has a lesbian sister.
We must also confront the religious feelings surrounding the state of Israel. I bumped up against that recently, to my very great shock. It seems obvious to me that questioning the actions of radical rightwing Israeli leaders—even on the part of a Muslim—is not at all the same as anti-semitism. The opposite seemed equally obvious to a couple of progressive Jewish friends of mine, who told me so. Fireworks ensued. But fireworks are good and necessary. We have to establish ways of working out our differences that everyone can trust and believe in, or the right will continue to exploit our divisions. You don’t stay married unless you can learn to fight fair.
Beyond that, we need to realize that this kind of competition and game-playing can only distract us in the absence of a unifying vision that’s as deep and strong as the religious dogma that unites the right. It has been done. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for one, found a way to project a secular humanist worldview that was invincible in its time. It encompassed religion but included so much more. Its basic premise was a belief in joy—no a need for joy. That need is so great that it creates the willingness to fight through grief and pain and loss to win it back.
A pre-condition of joy, joy’s essence, is freedom. Freedom of the mind.
If you can’t believe in joy in this world, then you either look for it in another or give up on life altogether. Our problem is that the people who’ve given up on life altogether are in charge, with help from believers in another world.
The challenge of the left in confronting absolutists predates the Third Reich, of course. In fact, it goes back to the foundations of the organized Christian church. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was Politics.
Patricia Goldsmith is a member of Long Island Media Watch, a grassroots free media and democracy watchdog group. She can be reached at plgoldsmith@optonline.net.
One, only one major newspaper must become a constant trumpet against Bush. It has to comment on anything he does in a neagtive way. It has to tear him apart. It has to disclose everything. Appeal to Soros for money ot open such trumpet. Call it ' Trumpet for Justice" Open it with the editorial to impeach the bastard and recall the Congress.
In order to win the Struggle has to start. Career Journalism has a weakness: it is boring. Make your Trumpet funny, fiery and pointy and THEY WILL COME!
by
Mark Sashine (51 articles, 19 quicklinks, 244 diaries, 3463 comments)
on Monday, October 17, 2005 at 8:14:51 AM
1 comments
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