Regular Church Attendance as a Massive, Mature, Grassroots Organization

[NAO]

There is something that has been missed in everyone's analysis of the power of the Religious Right. It has been hinted at it the oft cited statistic that regular church attendance correlates with voting Republican and with supporting Bush.

The larger fact is that the act of regular church attendance as part of a lifelong commitment is a powerful form of organization. If churches decide to tackle a political objective, they have a truly massive, mature, entrenched grass roots organization - the local church - to mobilize for the achievement of that agenda.

You have a situation were people come together EVERY WEEK, sometimes several times a week, for their entire lives, to listen to ideological speeches (sermons). Think about that. They are receptive to sitting down every week and listening to speeches about ideas and values. There is nothing on the secular left or the secular right that even comes REMOTELY close to the grassroots organization that is regular church attendance.

There is no way a secular movement could ever achieve that kind of massive entrenched organization. People can be very motivated about a variety of progressive causes, but it will never be on the scale such that they will construct buildings in every city, meet every week, donate money every week, and tie their personal identity and their families together around it - and that is exactly what churches do.

The only way we are going to avoid permanent domination by the religious right is to break the association between Christianity and right-wing politics. And that is going to be VERY hard to do, because that association has been tightly woven into people's minds week after week for over 20 years. I don’t have a solution, but I do feel that we need to understand the nature and scope of the problem, and the underlying structure that gives such massive electoral power to the religious right.

[davepc]

1. Another person who understands the problem!

I have hope for the party, there are enough people who "get it" despite the cat calls from the rest trying to marginalize us.

"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."

We need more Howard Deans.

[Azure]

2. Agreed. Religion is behind all of this.

Fundamentalist religion is the reason we have to abandon gay marriage as an issue. In fact, fundamentalist religion is behind everything that is causing us to lose. If we fail to attack this (FALSE) association between Jesus and the GOP, things don't look good. However, that is going to take TIME. Until then, if we want to win, we are going to have to placate them. It's a very ugly truth, but a truth nonetheless.

[Zero Division]

3. Yep, that's a major part of the power of the Christian Right

That's why I believe more liberal Christians need to start proselytizing towards other Christians, explaining to them how any why being pro-choice and pro-GLBT rights fits in with being a Christian. I'm a non-Christian, but it seems the fact that liberal Christians keep their religion to themselves is actually making it easier for the Christian Right to gain power in our society. Perhaps we need to fight fire with fire. There needs to be a strong and vigorous Christian Left to counter the Christian Right.

I grew up as a social conservative. I changed completely into a social liberal eventually as a result of a change in my religious beliefs, but I'm watching the social conservatives in my very Catholic family that I never thought would change start to change, as well. Both of my parents are becoming more accepting of the idea of civil unions for gays and lesbians, and if they can do it, so can many other social conservatives in America. They just need someone like them to reach out to them. Too many social conservatives believe that you cannot be socially liberal and Christian at the same time. That has to change.

[gratefull4u]

4. I go to church every week

but I go to a Presbyterian church. There was not one person in my church for *. The fundamentalist churches grew rapidly when the main line accepted gays into the hierarchy of the church. The branch that broke from our church has grown into a massive church that caters to every aspect of the members life. They congregate in some type of group just about every day. There are 15,000 members, our church has 1,500 and this is in a very small town. Each main line church in our town has break away churches and in every case the ones that broke off are thriving while the original is dying. Those who broke away are not Christians to me, they only want to send people to hell.I do not know how to fight them we have been trying for the last 10 years.
On the other hand as far as voters go some of these same people just voted a openly gay woman to our house of Representatives. She was for a lottery and her opponent is against it. The Republicans have been blocking it you years. In this case a money issue made their hate of gays go away for a little while, probably until they get what they need.

[pk_du]

12. I NEED to know where this 15,000 member church started

versus the 1500 one you are in...looking forward to the nanme/town of both churches Freep.

When did the branch break exactly ???

if you're not a Freep (which i seriously doubt) , you need to be....please sign up at www.freerepublic.com

[seabeyond]

5. bush used the fear of terrorism, dems have to use the

fear of fundamentalists. religion has to be broken again. like it was in the sixties

[demwing]

6. Excellent analysis. I might add one other "grassroots" group:

Corporations.

Not just once or twice a week, but 5 days a week we come to meetin'.

We are threatened if we miss a day, or if we are even a few minutes late. Uniforms are often required, and individuality is discouraged. Instead of being encouraged to be good American citizens, we are encouraged to be good "corporate citizens, whatever the hell THAT means.

There is no daily sermon, unless you mean the constant memos regarding behavior, motivation, and performances standards. The understanding is that you are not a human, but a resource. You are like a chair, or a desk. Move you here, sit you there, whatever the corporation needs. If you have a problem, you go to the ...Human Resources department. Once there, you'll be advised how you can better fit into the whole, and how the company can't make exceptions for you. You will be reminded, subtly, that you are replaceable. No, you don't get to vote on that rule.

The goal of the corporate citizen is to move up in the corporate heirarchy, to rise from one class to another, so that you have more benefits and less responsibilty. As you rise to ever higher classes, you do less and less and get paid more and more. Ultimately, you run the corporation. At that point, you wear whatever you like, exceptions are built around your schedule, and even if you screw it all up for everyone else, there is a fat bonus and retirement plan waiting for you.

This is the antithesis of America. We pretend we are a classless society, but ask any entry level clerk working 50 hours a week if she feels like she belongs to the same class as the CEO who puts in 9 holes of golf a day. She's lucky to get $12 an hour. The CEO scoffs at less than $120,000 a month, and top earners score over $120,000 a week!

Corporations are also anti-democratic, by nature. For what company have you ever worked that asked you to vote on the next round of layoffs? How about the company's next marketing project? How about top management salaries? Your vote doesn't matter, in fact, if you were to suggest that you put any corporate decision to the vote, you would be laughed at!

No wonder people are apethetic about voting. They've had it hounded into them to sit down, shut up, work quick, or lose their paycheck.

We've all become greedy, consuming, self interested little piggies.

Is it any wonder George Bush won the election?

***
The Democratic Party is dead.

But the Phoenix rises

[AP]

7. Every DU'er should go join a church this Sunday.

[davepc]

8. if your heart isn't into Jesus

you're wasting your time.

[AP]

9. but if it is just a little bit, go to a church and talk politics.

[JCMach1]

10. not religion at all-- it's cult-like ideological brainwashing

you perfectly describe the definition of a cult in your post...

That's what's going on with these people and there's no chance of deprogramming.

[Cleita]

11. Churches have nothing to offer as a product other

than a sermon and they can be powerful. Most realize their responsibility and they don't use the pulpit to manipulate events. It is those who are grifters and carnival peddlers of religion that are taking over.

They need to be exposed and taken down.

[chimp chump]

13. .

You have a point about the strength of churches. It's necessary to recognize the extent to which churches can become a person's entire social life. Some evangelicals send their kids to daycare at church, they attend services 3-4 times a week, they might go as a couple or alone on church retreats, they often are involved in Scouting through their churches. The list is huge.

It's way more than just a religious service. For many, it is almost their entire social fabric outside their extended family relationships and those they associate with through work.

However, the monolithic stance of traditionalist orthodox Christian churches and clergy are hardly an impregnable fortress. Otherwise we'd have no social progress whatsoever. And America is, as a country, as progressive as any nation has ever been despite our being one of the most Christian countries left in the world. And it is the oldest continuous democracy as well.

So we should recognize the strength of the appeal of religious organizations. But we shouldn't overestimate them either.

"The only way we are going to avoid permanent domination by the religious right is to break the association between Christianity and right-wing politics."

Ain't gonna happen in the next fifty years. We're talking sea change over the course of a generation or two.

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. Attend church. But stand up in the middle of hate filled sermons,

remonstrate against them and walk out. Continue to do this until others join you.