The religious right and lying.

In response to this, Terry Wright wrote: "Great to see God's children lying out their arse." Which sent me thinking: what makes the fundies lie? It's one of the 10 Commandments-you'd think theocrats who want the 10C in front of every public building would make sure to obey them.

And on a related note: what is it with fundies and blatant hypocrisy? Jesus was clear he didn't approve of that:

1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

If that isn't a total condemnation of all hypocrisy, then nothing is.

Certainly, the greatest example of a fundie hypocrite is Randall Terry. The story is this: Terry is a real 'pro-family' kinda guy. Wife, 3 kids etc. Very outspoken of his conservative family values, going as far as to write in The Judgement of God that "Families...are destroyed as a father vents his mid life crisis by abandoning his wife for a 'younger, prettier model." So what does he do? Divorces his wife and marries his secretary, almost 20 years younger then him*. You couldn't imagine hypocrisy that brilliant.

So, after several minutes of thought and googling, I've come up with two thought processes that fundies use to justify lying and hypocrisy. They are: the Messiah Complex and the Persecution Complex.

Common to just about every fundie, the Persecution Complex is the belief that you are being persecuted for who you are (in most fundies' cases, it's because of their Christian faith). Pat Robertson pretty much summed it up with this comedy gold:

Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history.

Couldn't've put it better myself. Despite every President being a Christian, every Congressman (except for the Hindu and the Muslim) being Christian and about 4/5ths of the entire population being Christian...Pat, his cronies and fundies in general are under the belief that they are being persecuted by the media and the gays.

The Messiah Complex is a person's delusion that they are a 'saviour' for a community of people, and have a special destiny to save said people. Although fundies usually don't have this trait to a tremendous degree, it would in part create the arrogance and "I'm, right, you're wrong, end of story" thought process that is seen in fundies.

So what happens when these two Complexes come together in unHoly Matrimony? It's simple: the belief that you are totally right in every possible way, because you believe in the Almighty God. Because you believe in this God, you are being persecuted. It doesn't take a great leap in logic to then think "these people (who are pure, absolute evil, BTW) are denying the absolute inherency of the Bible. They are denying the Truth of Jesus and God, etc." From there, fundies believe that in order to create their perfect country (free of feminism, gays, atheism and science) God will permit them to lie and be general hypocrites, because the ends (fundie utopia) will justify the means. Certainly, Terry has taken this thought process to its logical conclusion:

"Let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good.... If a Christian voted for Clinton, he sinned against God. It's that simple.... Our goal is a Christian Nation... we have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want Pluralism. We want theocracy. Theocracy means God rules. I've got a hot flash. God rules."

Clearly when Jesus said to love your neighbour, even love you enemies, that was clearly a secret coding for mindless hatred instead.

Ok, that's my idea anyway: that a combination of extreme arrogance in their monopoly over the truth, along with their belief that they are being persecuted, has led Christian American fundies to believe that lying and hypocrisy is fine if it suits their theocratic agenda. Any other ideas?


*For the record, for the most part I'm opposed to a person's private life being used as a political football. The whole "OMG KEVIN RUDD WENT TO A STRIP CLUB HE HATES FAMILIES WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!1!!1!!!!!" was very annoying. However, if somebody's personal life and values are contradicted by their public life and values (such as with Terry), then there's a genuine point to be made. If you can't uphold yourself to certain morals, then don't espouse those morals to the public.