Uh oh. Christian Right leaders worried that Ayn Rand worship is messing with their theocratic plans

[ck4829]

The rise of the Tea Party and economic libertarians has inspired a revitalization of Ayn Rand’s book sales and sparked more curiosity for her ‘Objectivist’ thinking. Leading Republicans have embraced Rand, as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) called Rand the “the reason I got involved in public service” and Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) gives a copy of Atlas Shrugged to his interns. The movie Atlas Shrugged: Part I premiered at CPAC and won burgeoning interest from conservative moviegoers, until it received abysmal reviews that were so bad it convinced the producer to drop plans for parts II and III.

But Religious Right leader Chuck Colson isn’t happy with the Ayn Rand retrospective. He made a two minute video attacking Rand and her devotees, deriding Rand as an anti-Christian atheist. “Not only should you stay away from the film,” Colson says, “you ought to stay away from anybody who wants to see the film, unless their interest is ironic.” Colson warns that Rand’s “patently anti-Christian ideas seem to be gaining steam” among conservatives, cautioning that her Objectivist philosophy is the “antithesis of Christianity” and that her followers are “undermining the Gospel”

Colson also posted an article that expresses bewilderment on how Ryan or any other politician could have been inspired by Rand:

"What makes this newly-renewed regard especially troubling is that Rand’s worldview is explicitly anti-Christian. She once said she wanted to be known as “the greatest enemy of religion.” And when Rand said “religion” she meant Christianity, which she once called the “kindergarten of communism.”"

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/colson-warns-creeping-influence-ayn-rand-conservative-movement

[Trajan]

1. I am delighted ....

That chancre known as the GOP needs to be lanced ....

[no_hypocrisy]

2. What's the matter with being an anti-Christian atheist?

[pnwmom]

15. Plenty,

if you're an "objectivist" or an Ayn Rand follower.

It all depends on what kind of atheist a person is.

Just as it all depends on what kind of Christian a person is.

[qazplm]

16. nothing in a vacuum

but if one adheres to the Christian religion one will find much to disagree with in Ayn Rand's version of atheism and philosophy...granted if one adheres to any morality or logic one will find much to disagree with in Ayn Rand's philosophy.

[TheMightyFavog]

29. One of the biggest right wing bush supporters I knew in college was also one of the biggest athiests

Yep, huge Randroid.

[RebelOne]

35. Nothing. I am an atheist, but not anti-Christian.

My philosophy is to each his own. Just don't force your Christian beliefs on me.

[NutmegYankee]

36. Secular humanism is far different than what Rand taught.

Most Atheists I know care about their fellow human beings and still follow the Golden Rule. Rand taught that the highest virtue was selfishness and despised altruism, which is a major virtue of basically every faith out there, and is normally held as a virtue by atheists as well.

Rand hatred Christianity not because of the self-righteousness of some of it's followers, but because of the moral lessons that conflicted with her "screw the poor" and "me first" ideology.

[Skidmore]

3. How could they have a problem with her after they've spent the

last couple of decades teaching their flocks prosperity theology? After all, money has become god for them and getting it means stepping on all sorts of little inconsequential people.

[JuniperLea]

7. Spot the hell on!

:applause:

[geardaddy]

14. That's a bingo!

[hifiguy]

22. Blammo!

Gold star and a cookie for you. Bull's eye hit dead center.

[Arugula Latte]

4. I suggest a mass cage fight to the death!

Last one standing shall be crowned King/Queen of the Nutbags.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. YES!

Start them with sabers, lances, and spears, move on to axes, then chainsaws, and in necessary, fully automatic AK47s.

[Dreamer Tatum]

5. The irony is that Rand's atheism ruins stereotypes for the Left AND the Right

so I'm amused by it all.

[JoePhilly]

6. Not so much for the left.

The right wing ties religion and government together very tight. The left does not.

And so the fact that a atheist might also be a "fiscal conservative" is not a huge surprise. The left gets this. And the left does not VOTE for against Atheists, they vote on policy.

On the right, those 2 things go hand in hand. One needs to be both the right kind of Christian AND fiscally conservative. Drop either one, and you are DONE.

[intheflow]

Nicely said!

"One needs to be both the right kind of Christian AND fiscally conservative. Drop either one, and you are DONE."

This is exactly why no Republican front runner has come to the fore. No one fits into that constricting a requirement.

[distantearlywarning]

8. +1000

:evilgrin:

It amuses me greatly as well.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. Why? Atheists can be self-centered pricks, just like religious people can..

Beyond that, just because Rand's philosophy didn't include a giant invisible man in the sky who spends all his time obsessing over what the human inhabitants of planet Earth are doing with their genitalia, didn't mean it wasn't still goofy as fuck.

[LetTimmySmoke]

9. Colson wants them to go back to worshiping the flag, GWB, and patriotic cruise missiles.

And making sure that those dirty parts and dirty thoughts remain all tucked up.

[bluestateguy]

10. Good keep the religious right fighting, keeps the Republican Party divided

for the same reason we should encourage fighting between Mormons and Southern Baptists: it keeps the Republican Party divided.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. He must be he smartest one in the bunch.

Good to see them actually looking at the small details, which we can see as huge blemishes, illustrating major ideological differences among Republicans. It makes them all look like a bag of racists as the end of the day because it seems like it's the only thing they really have in common.

[patricia92243]

13. I kept wondering how on earth Christians could like Rand. Now I have figured it out. They have not

read her books. When one of them finally did (Colson) they came to the natural conclusion that Rand was not for them. It only goes to show that they are followers of what someone told them to follow - without actually checking it out for themselves.

Politicians have used it for financial reasons knowing most people would not find out Rand's views on religion. They were correct.

[distantearlywarning]

17. That was EXACTLY the conclusion I drew also.

They simply hadn't read what she actually wrote. Otherwise the vast majority of today's conservative movement wouldn't be interested (and certainly she wouldn't be interested in being their poster girl either, and would probably hold them in utter contempt).

[Quantess]

30. Exactly!

Dumb...de dumb dumb. DUMB!

(not you, of course) ;)

[Volaris]

24. Thats right. And it's likely the decent people left in that party will bolt the hell out of there

upon realizing that they've been had. MY question is, is there room in the ideologically more secularly-minded Democratic party for those who believe the driving force behind altruism for one's fellow Humans is Supernatural in nature, rather than just being an expression of an Enlightened Human mind? (Or is that like comparing red apples and green apples, do you think?)

I think were gonna need a bigger tent....

[xfundy]

27. "the decent people left in that party will bolt the hell out of there"

They did, long ago, when any idiot could see the logical outcome of the path they put themselves on. God has been replaced as the deity; Money and POWER, even illusory "power" for their followers who are scared of anyone/anything "different" or "wrong," with constant and sometimes contradictory updates during the 24-hour-hate. (Two minutes hate was not enough.)

[checks-n-balances]

33. Exactly. They're big on idolatry these days, and don't care...

that they're breaking the #1 Commandment of The Ten that they so fervently want posted in public places, including courthouses:

"Thou Shalt have no other gods before me."

And I can't believe I actually agree with what Chuck Colson here. Randian philosophy is as far away as you can get from the Jesus who challenged power and the establishment, including the religious establishment; advocated peace; and loved, fought & died for social justice.

I don't believe in an "anti-Christ" but as one DUer recently remarked, if there were such a thing, Rand would be it.

[Volaris]

43. Its likely that Chuck Colson finds it hard to believe that he could

agree with you, but I sense the tide turning, and I can envision a new union between economic populists and real, people-centered Christians in this country that can result in things like Universal Health Care, REAL and truly RENEWABLE energy independence, ETC.
But we have to really start hammering the idea that the Corporations and Bankers are NOT our friends, NOT protected Persons, Publicly Funded Elections are the First Key to the kingdom, so to speak......things like that...

the way to WIN is to always fight UP. Theres no bigger target than Corp. Person-hood, and the Human misery that they can cause, and that CAN be averted.

were right there. we just need someone who GETS it to LEAD.

[fascisthunter]

28. which would show how pathetically and blindly they follow others

instead of using their own minds and placing such absolute trust in crazy people around them. Heck, maybe they are crazy too.

[lolly]

42. But they do agree on 80%

If you look at the right-wing Christians, they DO agree with pretty much everything Rand says. The only sticking point is that Rand rejects G-d, Right-wing Christians put their version of G-d at the center of everything.

She uses "Objective Reason" as her justification for being selfish and mean, they use religion.

[FSogol]

18. Someone pass the popcorn. This should be more entertaining than Rand's "books."

:popcorn:

[Volaris]

19. well DUH!...

That it takes an acknowledged "Christian Leader" to figure that out for them is kinda the problem in the first place, wouldn't you say?
Most philosophically SMART Christians realized a long time ago that the only thing that ever really got the historical Jesus (if there was one) in any kind of a real snit were the money-mongers in the temple.

That having been said, get yourself stocked up on that popcorn, 'cause it IS going to be fun watching the Economic Cons. and the Christian Cons. chew on each other for control of the Party. It has been a fight thats been a good, long while in coming, I think, but unto this point in time, it has always been a fight put on hold by the cooler (or maybe just politically smarter) heads of some of the Party Elders. Since those heads are pretty much gone now, the upcoming GOP Primary season could very well look like the political equivalent of Baghdad after Rumsfeld and Bremmer fucked it up, where there IS NO "governing authority" to keep the factions from trying their damndest to kill each other. =)

(LOL did I spell damndest right? ran it through spellchecker, but I don't trust what it said on this one..English majors help me out?)

[tblue37]

31. damnedest

damned + est

[UpInArms]

20. here's Chuck Colson enjoying himself with Richard Nixon

edited to add:

On 15th November, Colson met with Richard Nixon, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman at Camp David to discuss Howard Hunt's blackmail threat. John N. Mitchell was also getting worried by Dorothy Hunt's threats and he asked John Dean to use a secret White House fund to "get the Hunt situation settled down". Eventually it was arranged for Frederick LaRue to give Hunt about $250,000 to buy his silence.

bleh

[hifiguy]

21. Circular firing squad, ten HUT!

Oh boy oh boy, this should be some entertaining internecine bloodletting fer sher! :popcorn:

[jorno67]

23. FINALLY!!!

[Initech]

25. I'm reading this just as CNN is doing a report on Newt Gingrich.

You want to talk theocracy... :yoiks:

[jwirr]

26. Okay, I give Colson credit for taking the first step toward reality. But

he and the Tbaggers have yet to understand that Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan come from the same tradition. When or if they ever do they will have nothing to hold on to.

I suspect Colson has realized that the Tbaggers and Paul Ryan have gone too far and wants them to step back from their greed a bit. Just enough to make them electable but not enough to recognize that they have been wrong since the 80s.

[Capitalocracy]

32. I find just the fact that someone would cite Rand as a reason to get into public service amusing

Ayn Rand was the reason I got into public service. She hated public service of all kinds and thought it shouldn't exist, but that's beside the point.

Actually, if I ever get into public service, I think I'll cite Ayn Rand as the reason. So the world we live in looks NOTHING like her vision of it.

[regnaD kciN]

37. Good for Colson...!

At last, a Christian conservative who isn't entirely batshit. Now, if he could only realize that the things he criticizes in Rand's devotion to pure selfishness and disregard for others aren't just traits of Objectivism, but of conservatism as a whole...

By the way, here's the video. I notice that Colson repeats the famous quip about Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged without citing the source. But what really amused me was his praising his "good friend Bill Buckley" for trying to drive the Objectivist "cult" out of the conservative movement. The reason it is so funny for me is that, as I have noted elsewhere, a former girlfriend from college was an Objectivist, and she apparently met Buckley back when she was in high school, with the express intent of persuading him to accept Rand's world-view. I can only imagine what the man Lily Tomlin used to call "William Fbuckley" must have thought at this teenage zealot basically trying to "evangelize" him on behalf of Rand. :rofl:

[RagAss]

38. Battle of the Dingleberries !

[Zoeisright]

39. Isn't Colson in prison? He should be there, if he's not.

That common criminal has no business showing his face outside of his basement.

[tex-wyo-dem]

40. oh boy...so let me get this straight...

My choices in the American RW philosophy are a.) Draconian "selfishiness" & social Darwinism, or b.) A theocracy.

Choices, choices...how can one possibly choose? :)

[lumberjack_jeff]

41. "Ayn Rand is the reason I got involved in public service"

If there was an award for oxymoron of the year, this would win.

... unless you're simply profoundly lazy, in which case this would be a good move; what better role model than someone who thinks serving the public is inherently wrong?

[bullwinkle428]

44. Right-wing FOOD FIGHT!!!!