But when religion is thrown into the mix, all that is lost. Religion here doesn’t mean theology but a distinct belief system which, in totality, provides basic answers regarding how to live one’s life, how society should function, how to deal with social and political issues, what is right and wrong, who should lead us, and who should not. It does so in ways that fulfill deep-seated emotional needs that, at their profoundest level, are devotional. Given the confusions of a secular world being rapidly transformed by technology, demography, and globalization, this movement has assumed a spiritual aspect whose adepts have undergone a religious experience which, if not in name, then in virtually every other aspect, can be considered a faith.
Seen in this light, the behavior of Tea Party adherents makes sense. Their zeal is not the mercurial enthusiasm of a traditional Republican or Democrat that waxes and wanes with the party’s fortunes, much less the average voter who may not exercise the franchise at every election. These people are true believers who turn out faithfully at the primaries, giving them political clout in great excess to their actual numbers. Collectively, this can make it appear as if they are preponderant, enabling their tribunes to declare that they represent the will of the American people.
Now here is what struck me, in light of this article posted previously, which discusses the mix of Randian economic ideologies with a social platform built on so-called on “Christian” values. (Keep this factoid in mind as you digest this. Rand railed against big government programs, calling for personal responsibility but yet was collecting social security when she died.)
While a traditional political party may have a line that it won’t cross,the Tea Party has a stone-engraved set of principles, all of which are sacrosanct. This is not a political platform to be negotiated but a catechism with only a single answer. It is now a commonplace for Tea Party candidates to vow they won’t sacrifice an iota of their principles. In this light, shutting down the Government rather than bending on legislation becomes a moral imperative. While critics may decry such a tactic as “rule or ruin,” Tea Party brethren celebrate it, rather, as the act of a defiant Samson pulling down the pillars of the temple. For them, this is not demolition but reclamation, cleansing the sanctuary that has been profaned by liberals. They see themselves engaged in nothing less than a project of national salvation. The refusal to compromise is a watchword of their candidates who wear it as a badge of pride. This would seem disastrous in the give-and-take of politics but it is in keeping with sectarian religious doctrine. One doesn’t compromise on an article of faith.So let's take a look at what Matt Obsorne of Breitbart Unmasked has to say.
This explains why the Tea Party faithful often appear to be so bellicose. You and I can have a reasonable disagreement about fiscal policy or foreign policy but if I attack your religious beliefs you will become understandably outraged. And if I challenge the credibility of your doctrine you will respond with righteous indignation. To question the validity of Moses parting the Red Sea or the Virgin Birth or Mohammed ascending to heaven on a flying horse is to confront the basis of a believer’s deepest values.
Consequently, on the issues of government, economics, race, and sex, the Tea Party promulgates a doctrine to which the faithful must subscribe. Democrats and independents who oppose their dogma are infidels. Republicans who don’t obey all the tenants are heretics, who are primaried rather than burned at the stake.
What I find intriguing in citing a 2011 PewResearch poll, "[t]he analysis shows that most people who agree with the religious right also support the Tea Party. But support for the Tea Party is not synonymous with support for the religious right."
While tea parties are a conservative brand born of the religious right, their fundamentalism is not identifiable by leaders, denominational identities, or even an explicit sectarianism. Instead, tea parties must be understood as a discrete, but related, phenomenon,,,A point that also highlights the Dominionist Movement in some aspects, "Not all Christians are Dominionists, but all Dominonists claim Christianity." As there are those in the Realm that deny its existence or influence.
Rather than wait for a top-down counterrevolution against modernity, tea parties have turned our state governments into laboratories for tax cuts, climate change denial, “Agenda 21″ lunacy, anti-sharia laws, and most tellingly, another wave of creative new abortion restrictions. The last one is significant, because tea party activists sometimes go to great lengths to deny the meaningfulness of their ideological overlap with the evangelical right, but in practice tea parties invariably default to the kind of patriarchal authoritarianism represented by the Hobby Lobby decision.
You might think this would create tensions with Christians, who are called upon to oppose the dehumanizing idolatry of mammon. Unlike their Jesus, the god of tea parties doesn’t care about social justice, or healing the sick, or caring for the poor. But so far, those dissonances have not disturbed the conservative culture war coalition in any appreciable way, nor am I holding my breath waiting to see it happen; their united, existential war against a godless 21st Century is simply far too important to them.(Oh look, there's Ayn Rand again!)
Tea Parties As A Fundamentalist Religious Movement | Breitbart Unmasked
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