Comments on: Brad Stine’s “GodMen”: Promise Keepers on Steroids

By: NorEaster

NorEaster — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:02:43 +0000

Like any zit that continues to grow and become ever more obvious and painful, this latest version of Christianity will one day “come to a head” and be popped, just as all other forms of social deviancy have in the past. Authoritarians have manifested in many ways over the centuries and this is just the latest manifestation for this society.

These Xtians are no more Christian than the last manifestation of authoritarianism in Germany during the 30s of last century. The fundamental essence of the movement is so completely un-Christian that it’s remarkable that it hasn’t been exposed for the charade it is by now. Then again, most people rarely pay close attention to anything that isn’t directly affecting them at that specific moment, and all the market collateral associated with the movement (family values, praising Jesus, church attendance, ongoing condemnation of just about everything tagged as progressive) has been carefully managed and aggressively promoted. Most people don’t even notice the absence of compassion and simple moral decency in the movement. I guess most Americans feel that they deserve the punitive aspects of that good old time religion, and forget that Christianity is actually about forgiveness and reaching out to your enemies with love and compassion.

Whatever. It’ll all go down in flames in the end anyway. Nothing really changes. It just revolves back around again eventually wearing a new veneer.

By: Deadbeat

Deadbeat — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 06:45:03 +0000

It is not as bizarre as you think. The rise of the Christian Zionist advances the support for Zionism its overall influence within the United States. Again the left has assisted in creating the vacuum that is being filled by the right. Many of these men are rather confused and distraught and since there are no obvious left-wing/secular organizations to address these men the Christian organizations fills that gap.

Unfortunately to everyone’s peril the left has primarily addressed this problem with contempt.

By: deang

deang — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 02:18:41 +0000

It’s bizarre that in this era of massive Christian movements in the US claiming that Jesus was a warrior who would want us to bomb other countries to smithereens in order to bring on Armageddon, when Christian parents proudly proclaim that they impose harsh corporal punishment on their kids and insist that wives be subordinate to their husbands, when Christians bomb abortion clinics, kill doctors who perform abortions, and assault homosexuals, when the air force is filled with aggressively evangelical Christians who love the idea of slaughtering masses of people from the air, when all this is going on, Christian men still feel they’re not being allowed to be aggressive enough, dominant enough, violent enough. Sick. Yes, the left needs to be aware of all this, but they need to do so while realizing that the twisted definitions of masculinity that lead to this behavior must not be emulated. Strength is called for, not delusion and sociopathy.

By: Deadbeat

Deadbeat — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:09:27 +0000

Why is there a category labeled “Right Wing Jerks” when there are a lot of “jerks” on the “left”? The reason why Mr. Berkowitz can write about these “GodMen” is primarily due to a real issue that is not addressed issue by the left. Many men, especially after divorce, feel alienated and these right wing outfits are there to capture them when they feel lost and discarded.

The left unfortunately ridicule these men, typically as “sexist” when there is no critical analysis about feminism. Feminism has manifested itself with its alignment to capitalism and rhetorically justifies extending the exploitation men under this system as a corrective to “patriarchy”.

For the exception of Sharon Smith excellent book “Women and Socialism” there has been only silence and ridicule from the left on this issue. Once again a vacuum that should be filled by the left is being filled by the right.