An insider explains how rural Christian white America has a dark and terrifying underbelly

[GaryM]

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/insider-explains-rural-christian-white-america-dark-terrifying-underbelly/

OMG

[Hoyt]

1. The KKK grew out of that junk.

[Binkie The Clown]

2. If they don't want to be called slack-jawed, drooling morons, then...

they need to stop acting like slack-jawed, drooling morons.

(Sorry. My own anti-ignorance prejudice is showing.)

[Atticus]

3. READ THIS!!! / / /. Lengthy, but well worth your time. nt

[BigmanPigman]

17. I just emailed it to my sister and said the same thing.

I also added that the author knows what our family has always known, which is that trying to discuss anything with this type of person with this life long mindset using reasoning and facts is a lesson in frustration and futility. Not worth our time and energy.

[bobbieinok]

4. 'Blacks are condemned to be 2nd class because of the Curse of Cain'

In the late 50s, the girls in my conservative student religious group met bi weekly in the dorm for Bible study and discussion. We were trying to come to terms with our realization that segregation was wrong and not truly Christian. (That was possible for us then.)

One girl admired the youth leader of our companion group at a nearby black college and was devastated when she finally accepted that no matter how great a Christian he was he would never be welcomed by her parents or by her home church.

And then one night a Freshman girl broke down and started crying. You're right, she said. It's wrong and it's horrible. But GOD made it that way.

And then she told us about Cain's Curse.* God cursed Cain and made Cain and his descendants slave to his brothers and their descendants. And blacks were the heirs of this curse.

It's wrong. BUT God made it that way. She knew this was true because her preacher at home told her and the rest of tbe congregation so.

* The story of God's curse is in the Old Testament; I forget where. It's a major jump to decide that the curse now applies to blacks. That night was the first time I had ever heard of the curse. I think that was true of the rest of the girls in the group.

[malaise]

5. MUST READ

Rec

[GusBob]

6. Every DUer that says "we need to reach out to these voters"

Should read this article, and stop jumping down people's throats when they criticize these worthless fuckers

You don't need to be an insider to understand the problem

[GaryM]

16. We have to fix the country without their help

No point wasting our time trying to convince them they are misguided. Not sure we should waste our time criticizing them.

They cannot be relied on to be decent human beings. We must take back the government without them. We’ll need to figure out how to do that.

[tazkcmo]

27. I agree

And have been saying it for some time except I base my reasoning on Simple Math. There are more of us that don't just use our brain to keep our skulls from caving in than those that do. All we have to do is get them to vote.

[oxbow]

7. This is why talking doesnt work with the stubborn

Especially if they have social, emotional or financial reasons to not change their views. They need reprogramming, either through professional assistance or via something personal happening that shocks them out of their distorted reality. There are many similarities to dealing with addiction, in my experience.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

9. "There are many similarities to dealing with addiction, in my experience."

Exactly. It's all there... Fear, delusion, denial, rationalization, etc.

[oxbow]

20. Especially in these kinds of religions.

There is a real spiritual numbing at the heart of the practices in these groups that functions in the same way as a drug. It serves as a false coping tool to help a lot of people deal with inner issues that no one ever taught them how to resolve.

[NBachers]

8. Great and perceptive article. READ IT! My solution, while reading this: Bring back the draft.

I came of age during the Vietnam era, and was as militantly against the draft as anyone. But pulling these people out of their bubble, exposing them to other places & cultures, and beating new behavior patterns into them, may crack their rigid fundamentalist mind-set.

Thanks for posting, GaryM.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

10. What you're suggesting is basically rehab.

Love it!

[backtoblue]

11. Kick and recommend nt

[Scurrilous]

12. K&R

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

13. Great read!

That story describes my former in laws to a tee. Nice enough folks, but stubborn, dumb as a bag of hammers, and racist as all get out without realizing. They think they're being polite and politically correct if they whisper the "N" word.

[uponit7771]

14. +1, "they are very susceptible to propaganda" Article is VERY HARD HITTING & spot on! Stop excusing

Last edited Mon Feb 12, 2018, 11:07 PM - Edit history (1)

... people who think like that and place the blame on the religious leaders who push that bull crap to them.

From the Civil War to now the only way people get that died in the wool about something is connected to religion ... not just right wing radio.

take away the radio and the pastors in those areas pick up the slack.

This is religious level stupid

[dalton99a]

15. Kick

[byronius]

18. Very, very powerful article.

[2naSalit]

19. Perty much...nt

[voteearlyvoteoften]

21. Knr

[ProfessorGAC]

22. That Was Really Good

Well worth the read, even though it's kind of long.

[MrScorpio]

23. I read this article a week ago and asked the other commenters to share it

Cool, it finally made its way to DU!

[disillusioned73]

24. That's good..

as a minority livin in Pennsyltucky.. yup, most of this is spot on..

[Freedomofspeech]

26. Hello, Fellow Pennsyltuckian....

People have no idea until they have lived it.

[disillusioned73]

29. Hello & Yes.. it is depressing

to come to adulthood & realise what your parents have been shielding you from your whole life.. I applaud them for sacrificing so much - to come up from Puerto Rico with nothing and to put up with lord knows what in the 50's & 60's.. I really don't know how they were able to stay here @ that time..

[colsohlibgal]

25. True And So Sad

The result of the Civil War, Johnson’s Civil Right’s Bill.....none of it changed the minds of millions of non Urban type people....and it has gotten worse since Fox News.

You will never change the vast majority of them. I have donated enough to get intelligent reports from the SPLC and it shows Drumpf has the alt right racists/anti semites emboldened, it is chilling.

Decent people with a sufficient supply of things like perspective, fareness, and empathy but just misguided we can reach and those are the people steadily turning away from that abomination in the White House and his political partners.

[Mr. Ected]

28. They have always comprised a significant percentage of our population

But only through deceit, trickery and treachery do they ever seize control of our government.