But my main point stands. Subsuming a broad range of religious movements under the stereotypes that are now common currency in the Left of the Religious Rights causes us to miss opportunities for finding common ground, areas for dialogue, and ways of creating distance between the ideological rightwing and those who are moved by faith more than politics, but whose interests and moral framework open them to alternative political conclusions.
Michael E.
At 09:13 AM 6/2/98 -0500, William S. Lear wrote:
>On Tue, June 2, 1998 at 09:59:07 (-0500) Katha Pollitt writes:
>>>...
>> Michael, your informants are massaging history a bit. The Southern
>>Baptists came into existence precisely to support slavery -- they split
>>from the regular Baptists pre-civil War over the issue of whether the
>>bible justifies it, and have been a segregated church ever since. That's
>>why they had to "apologize" a few years ago. And not a moment too soon!
>>Later the Southern Baptists (I think I remember) opposed woman
>>suffrage, -- as did the Catholic church and many other denominations.
>>...
>
>Two questions: 1) Do you have a short list of books that I might read
>to get a decent history of religion in general, and religion in
>America in particular? 2) Any way you can get your Macintosh to not
>post the entire email message you are responding to?---tends to
>clutter up things, making visual parsing difficult (I never know quite
>when you've finished...).
>
>Thanks.
>
>
>Bill
>
>