Not at All Costs, the Dangers of Religious Fundamentalism/Nationalism

After spending 25 years in very conservative faith communities and the leaving for urban progressive Catholicism during COVID, I have come to a conclusion.  Many Christian and other Catholic mental health practitioners like myself plus theologians have made similar conclusions to mine.  Religious fundamentalism can indeed be dangerous to peoples’  long-term spiritual, emotional, and psychological health and even lives.

If the practice of any religious affiliation results in harm, abuse, and even death, especially lasting harm and more than one loss-of-life, we must conclude that this is not of God.  It’s not just Islamic fundamentalism but Christian fundamentalism when it crosses over into violence and/or taking control of others by force which they many times do cross over.

Here we have an article written by a Christian pastor which compares two types of religious fundamentalism.

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/parallels.htm?fbclid=IwAR0ahvMHIMPBy_typ6ZSzZAQgPNiTTLU4gRr33faRRZbWxhNpoRt2lDL7G0

I will summarize the similarities of BOTH Islamic fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism in bullet-point format from the article.

• Both divide the world between believers and unbelievers
• Both decide for themselves who is saved and who is damned
• Both think that they can play God with our lives
• Both have also declared war on the secular culture of liberal democracy, the most peaceful and prosperous means of social organization ever devised by humankind.
• Both view a violent end of the world
• Both declare that one ethnic culture is superior to all others
• Both declare war of various kinds on LGBTQ+ people and their families
• Both desire to make religious laws the laws of the land

Now we have parallels between religious fundamentalism and fascism.  Let’s take a look.

I believe that the current Texas legislative actions of one extremist side is falling in alignment with fascism. According to Encyclopedia Britannica
and The Washington Monthly, I summarized these primary traits of fascism.

• sources and capitalizes on economic woes and anxieties
• shifts political blame on to scapegoat groups like minority groups, others from a different political party,
  immigrants, and other groups while taking away blame from where it belongs, on the leadership
• propagates extreme nationalism going hand-in-hand with racism and militarism
• a melding of church and state when there should be a separation
• subjugation of women and sexism
• a disdain for human rights except those of the elite
• obsession with crime and punishment
• identification of enemies as a unifying cause for political action
• disdain for intellectualism, science, history, and the arts
• control of different types of media, including books
• rampant cronyism and government corruption
• attempt to control elections, like through voter suppression

I don’t want a repeat or similar outcome of Nazi Germany.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a repeat of Nazi Germany which was full unadulterated fascism.  If we are not there yet in the USA, I think we are close. I don’t think Jesus would have ever approved of January 6th and then denying that it actually happened, destroying the lives of the mothers in poverty who carry unborn babies, or destroying lives at the border and ripping children away from their parents.

I don’t think Jesus would have approved of withholding health care for decades from vulnerable people, withholding maternity and family medical leave, flippantly handling COVID in a way that results in a million American deaths, or spreading deadly conspiracy theories and misinformation through right-winged media.

I don’t think our Lord would approve of destroying the environment, increasing gun violence by dissolving reasonable gun restrictions, harming our education system resulting in harming children, and deliberately fighting against scientific and historical facts resulting in harm and death.

I don’t think Our God would accept withholding a living wage, elevating racism to dangerous levels,  increasing the death penalty, or destroying the lives of the disabled, LBGTQ people, and their families. Nor do I think Jesus would condone wreaking the witness of the Church via Trumpism, destroying our democracy, or demonizing anyone who is unlike most Americans and most Christians/Catholics in the country.

I don’t think Jesus would approve of these evils collectively in exchange of the woman’s right to choose, especially since the abortion rate increased under Trump and decreased under Barak Obama and Bill Clinton.

I shudder to think of the harm that religious fundamentalism/nationalism gone-violent has caused and how it has possibly upset our Lord or broke His heart.