Eubulides wrote:
>
> Unlike Samuel Beckett, America was not waiting for Godot after WWII;
> contrast that with the popularity of the "Left Behind" series and
> fundies thinking recent US foreign policy would operationalize the end
> times..............
If I'm remembering correctly the thrust of a panel on the Christian Righ (with Chip Berlet) at the recent Left Forum*, these tendencies have always been embedded in the u.s. but their presence and power in the public realm waxes and wains. (All the panelists put it much better than this.) They survive and flourish at the local level (the congregations) even during their apparent 'disappearances.' (At times it can be a progressive force -- e.g. Harper's Ferry.)
So yes, over the last couple decades a sizeable proportion of the u.s. populace has been, as it were, looking for a message. But is this true of masses of the the _non_-evangelicals or even of all of the evangelicals? To what extent, looking down the road over, say, a 10+/- year period, should this enter into our political calculations, and how!
Also, we are talking about a phenomenon here. How do we explain it? What social forces drive it? Where do those forces come from?
Carrol
*I miss most of what is said at most panels. Chip's panel was a pleasure because almost every word of every speaker was clear: I could hear them!