Here we go again. It happens at least every week, sometimes every other day.
A social conservative says something that we on the left find obnoxiously bigoted and/or ignorant (usually both) and we stop for a moment like people driving by an overturned clown car, pointing and staring and mocking.
In this particular instance some career-building publicity-seeking actor who has a persona of being a regular-guy redneck gave a videotaped sermon in a church somewhere, and in said sermon he told the audience what they came to hear, to wit: the Bible is right and that's all that matters.
He said it via the kind of applause line speechwriters are hired to concoct: "Biblically-correct sex is safe. "
People don't usually applaud in church but you could probably feel the murmur of approval that thrilled the audience when he said that.
We, on the other hand, simply assume Phil Robertson and all the people in that church who loved that line simply have an IQ lower than wood, laugh, and move on.
That's what this dairy is about.
Read on with me, if you dare to understand what's really happening here.
Why care what's happening here?
That's a good question. We see these self-described "church-going God-fearing regular Americans" at best as roadblocks to fixing all the things that are desperately wrong with our country in order to move us into the future. More likely we see them as dumb, ignorant bigots defending their white middle-class religious privilege regardless of truth, justice, or decency.
There's surely validity to that view. After all they are a remarkably stubborn and self-righteous bunch, not given to introspection; and they are equally convinced that all of us are at best misguided but more likely simply evil people working with Satan to destroy God's (and their) America, the last best hope on earth.
I realize I'm going against the grain here on Kos to try and comprehend what motivates the foot soldiers used by the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement to destroy us. The usual procedure to reassure ourselves we're in the right and then to ride roughshod over them, exactly as they are determined to ride roughshod over us.
In war subtle shades of grey are set aside in favor of the power that's generated when a group of people band together in an "us against them" battle against evil. With us being the pure good and them being the pure evil, of course.
Regardless if you think we're in that war now (and I suspect many of you do) I still believe that "know thine enemy" is a valid and useful maxim.
So, is all that's happening here that one dumb publicity-seeking bigot is confirming the ignorant bigotry of his in-group by saying something that is sure to drive us batty with its simple-minded inaccuracy?
Let's look deeper.
We hear Phil's sentence and rage: How dumb can you get? What does "Biblically correct sex" even mean? Monogamous sex with one partner for life with them being monogamous only with you too? That's the only truly "safe-from-STD-sex" and that applies equally to same-sex unions too! He can't mean that can he? And any sex that is not strictly monogamous can result in an STD! Isn't that obvious? Christians divorce and re-marry. Many have sinned. He's blathering nonsense.
The audience eats it up and nods in agreement. They'd stand up and applaud if that weren't considered disrespectful in God's house. Dumb as wood.
No, they are not. Well some of them are, but that's true of any group of humans.
The people in that church, like in thousands of others around this country, almost certainly conform to the usual bell curve of intelligence. Some are quite clever, many are around average, and some fall below. Many of them run successful businesses. It's not stupidity we're looking at here.
How do I know this? Because I have sat in churches with these people, gone to their covered dish dinners, into their bible study classes. Not just once or twice but for years. In different churches. I didn't do this to oppose them, or argue with them, or to convert to their belief; I did it to understand them. Because my wife at the time, to whom I was married for 17 years, was one of them, and I needed to comprehend. Also, I am a born observer with enough self-assurance to mingle among those I disagree without feeling threatened.
The people in the conservative churches see themselves as decent, moral people. They do not believe they are bigoted. They see themselves as caring profoundly about others. They are usually modest and will denigrate their intelligence in favor of following the Lord via His authorities they trust here on earth.
They are not generally stupid. What makes them different from you is that they have a fundamentally different way of perceiving truth.
You, probably, like me, read a statement like "Biblically correct sex is safe" and parse it attempting to logically analyze it based on your knowledge of the actual, objective Bible, and what we know as facts about actual, objective sex. You are doing what you do: determining objective truth using logical reasoning based on objectively known facts. You are, in my shorthand, a head person. You determine truth through reasoning.
The people in that church listening to Phil are not head people. They have a working intelligence but they don't use it to determine what's true about the world. They use it to navigate the practical procedures life requires, and to rationalize what their heart tells them is true. They are, in my shorthand, heart people.
If the camera panned back and showed Phil's audience, it would be 99 percent white, 90 percent older, and at least 80 percent consisting of these older white people at a middle-class or above position on the economic ladder. Count on it. Despite his looks, he is one of them and he is speaking their language. The language of the heart, not the head.
If you were freeze a frame of the audience reaction shot and look closer, you'd notice that they all are neatly and cleanly dressed in the same style. Most all of the women have hair that's so firmly sprayed in place it wouldn't move in a hurricane. They are a bunch that believes in conformity. Look even closer, and under that conformity you'll see the last big attribute that defines them as a group: fear.
There are frightened people. They keep their fears at bay by trusting in an absolute but benevolent authority to keep them safe. That authority is God. His word is their Bible. He keeps them safe.
Around them, the America they know and love is crumbling. The social order is almost gone. The TV, the radio, their Pastor, their friends tell them that every night.
They are terrified.
When Phil Robertson, or anyone in authority enough to address the congregation says the words "Biblically correct sex is safe" they are not saying literally that. They are saying:
There is a God, He cares about you, and if you follow his rules, you will stay safe.
That's why they want to stand up an applaud. Of course, it's also satisfying to them that while they are safe, the Godless are dying from STDs right and left, which is further proof to their hearts they are right, that God is in control, and they they are safe.
So, again, why do we care? Whats the point of all this?
What do conservatives do? Well, many things, but they all have the same objective: defending the status quo. Even if that status quo is objectively hurting them, as long as they perceive in their hearts that they are safe if they maintain it, they will fight desperately to do so.
These people are the foot soldiers of the plutocracy. Without them, all the money and power of the corporate barons would have no one to buy.
I have hope that once we on this side of the political divide start to realize that the masses of our enemies aren't an army of ignorant bigots but instead of scared people manipulated into desperately defending the status quo, we can peel enough of them away from the Republican base to make them a minority party.
We could start by not so carelessly disparaging the religion they cling to for safety. We are never going to convert these scared heart people into confident reasoning head people. It's who they are.
We don't have "convert" all of them. Just realize their fears and start talking instead of shouting to them.
I believe this is the logical, authentic, head-person analyzed road to defusing the culture wars to our advantage.
Will it ever happen? Who knows?
What do you think? Am I just being too nice, or naive here, and riding roughshod is the only way?