The Godly Call of Right Wing Righteousness and Retribution

Former President Donald Trump has become the embodiment of a movement to roll back progress in seven areas: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government.

It’s way too easy to just paint a target on the doddering billionaire; I’m certainly guilty of it, and do so in this article. An underlying assumption–that I don’t share– is all too often that removing Trump from his perch would put a halt to the rabid assaults on modern living underway in the aforementioned areas.

So hang on folks, you’re about to get a short sermon here that’s vital to understanding what’s really going on when you are exposed to news stories capturing the actions of right wing extremist politicos. And, this is not a denunciation of anybody’s belief systems beyond my adherence to the concept of separation of church and state.

The former President is symbolic of a quest among Charismatic and Pentecostal churches. They are among the few Christian congregations growing, adding an average of 35,000 followers a day. Although there are many denominational names, the fast growing variants are those offering "the prosperity gospel," the belief that living a certain kind of Christian life will not only bring spiritual blessings, but monetary reward.

Locally we can look at the Awaken Church, a rebranded offshoot of the scandal-ridden C3 church in Australia, as the most active organization with a belief system aligning with the national movement. Its two observable principles are condemnation of secular governance, and a thinly veiled effort to build “warriors” to make their vision possible.   

An influential theological manifestation in this wing of Protestantism adherents is Seven Mountains Dominionism, which asserts control of society through seven "mountains" is a must for establishing a global Christian theocracy and preparing the world for Jesus' return. These (same as those listed in the first paragraph) are the guideposts for today’s right wing activists.

These seven sectors of society are thought to mold the way everyone thinks and behaves. These seven “mountains” must be transformed to tackle societal change. The mountains are also referred to as “pillars,” “shapers,” “molders,” and “spheres.” Those who follow the seven mountain mandate speak of “occupying” the mountains, “invading” the culture, and “transforming” or “taking back” society. 

Note how often you see these words used in justifying attempts at making policy that will change existing institutions. And see how often violent imagery is utilized in achieving their objectives.  

Stepping back to coverage of the CPAC convention over the past weekend, two moments are worth highlighting in this context.

From the Washington Post:

• “In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Donald Trump said Saturday night at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”

• The line validates long-held suspicions that Trump’s 2024 campaign amounts to something of a “revenge tour.” Trump has disputed that his goal is to stick it to his enemies; now he’s admitting that it is a revenge tour of sorts — if not for him personally, then for his supporters.

• But as much as anything, it reflects just how much the Republican Party, despite its apparent interest in turning the page in 2024, has enabled Trump to rise again. There is no “revenge tour” or “retribution” without the GOP playing into speculative and often-fanciful ideas about the wrongs supposedly visited on its base — and which accordingly demand such vengeance. And there is no 2024 hopeful better situated to capitalize on that sense of persecution and injustice. 

From the Guardian:

• But the speech that LGBTQ advocates found the most chilling came from Michael Knowles, a rightwing political commentator for the Daily Wire, who declared that “for the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely”. A range of voices, including public officials, experts and observers of rightwing rhetoric, condemned the remarks as inflammatory and dangerous, with some calling them “genocidal”. (Knowles insisted on Twitter that he was not referring to trans people, but “transgenderism” which he has described as a “false” ideology.)

• Yet the intense focus on transgender rights at CPAC this year – nearly every speaker raised it – suggests it is likely to be an animating issue in the coming presidential election.

This self-victimization among CPAC types is a universal rhetorical trick designed to obscure the moral weakness of their proposals, i.e., including elements of Black history in teaching, according to them, is racist.

“Gender ideology” is a term used by the right to imply that the existence of transgender people is a political statement that can be debated. The use of this term is based on two misguided assumptions guiding the movements against women’s and LGBTQ+ people’s rights. 

1. Reforms benefiting LGBTQ+ people encourage homosexuality, threaten the traditional concept of the family, and pose a threat to Christian values. 

2. Men and women should abide by antiquated gender roles and that women’s engagement outside of the family should be limited.

Claiming that rejection of these assumptions as an attack on Christianity itself, politicians use gender ideology to gain the support of conservative Evangelical Christians.

Transgender acceptance as an ideology (the ‘ism”) sends the appropriate message to those seeking retribution. Ideological identity is the tribal otherness of modern times. And what did tribes do in the Old Testament for retribution? They killed people who they believed would kill them.

The new evangel/dominion-ists rely upon the Book of Esther for their spiritual justification. 

Talia Leven, writing about the Purim holiday in Jewish culture, explains the meaning of that scripture:

• Here’s the not-so-secret message of Purim, right there in the Book of Esther: if someone tries to kill you and those you love—if people with power are plotting to massacre you—it is your sacred obligation to fight back, and to take vengeance unto death. 

Backing away from this nasty stuff about ways and means, control is the key element in this assault on contemporary institutions. 

It’s no secret that one of the first thing Nazis in Germany did after gaining power was to brutally oppress the acceptance of sexual diversity. The entire library of Berlin’s Institute for Sexual Research, curated by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld through treating (and sometimes providing a safe space for) thousands of people was the first public book seizure/burning, and the one often pictured in descriptions of that era.

The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic in Scientific American provides detail and refutes the right’s talking point about sexual fluidity being a new phenomena.

There is research dating back to the rise of Nazi Germany purporting a connection between controlling authoritarian personalities and guilt over sexuality. This maybe sorta should explain the regular news accounts of GOP officials and religious leaders being arrested for sex crimes. And it definitely explains the tidal wave of repressive laws on women’s health and transsexuals.

The “others” in society are being blamed for an apocalypse bound to occur unless today’s authoritarian-types can climb and control the seven mountains: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government.

Understanding this motivation can provide a good lens with which to view the sometimes insane statements from the far right and its apologists in the media.

Henry A. Giroux of Salon says that the idea of apocalypse now has gone from science fiction and fantasy to everyday life.  (via Daily Kos)

• In an age of apocalyptic violence, memory is erased, historical consciousness is banished from schools and critical ideas are labeled as unpatriotic. Fear, manufactured ignorance, engineered panics and a paranoid racist politics draped in the language of white nationalism and bigotry are now imposed on schools in the name of "patriotic education." 

• This is the violence of a formative culture that embraces racial cleansing, a white nationalist notion of citizenship and the undermining of the public and civic imagination. Its endpoint is a rebranded fascism.

I know fascism is an overused and often abused word. But simply projecting the total of what’s being tossed around as “common sense” proposals for governance sure fits the bill, in my opinion.

In the coming weeks I’ll be looking at various parts of the right’s agenda through its religious underpinnings. I choose transgenderism for today because it has become a major focus in politics.

You can follow me at:

Twitter (for now)---> @DougPorter506

Post —→DougPorter@wordsdeedsblogger

Tribel ——> DougP Porter@dougporter506

Mastodon ——> DougPorter506@mastodon.social

NEW! –Spoutible —>@dougporter506

Facebook —----> https://www.facebook.com/WordsAndDeedsBlog

Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com