LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY mizliz)

I woke up early with something on my mind, and this seems the right place to bring it.

There is an older woman that I work with, a lovely, kind, nurturing, accepting woman. She mothers me, brings me little treats, and gives me hugs when I'm having a bad day. I've known her and her family for 6 years now. She has two great adult kids and a husband who is one of the sweetest men I know.

Here's the thing: she is a fundamentalist Christian. I mean fundy hardcore. She loves Bush like nuns love the Pope, she supports the war, she's really happy about the abortion bill in South Dakota. She believes the Republican party is the party of God. She acknowledges that Bush isn't so very clever, but doesn't think it matters as long as God is working through him. Her beliefs are everything we fear and oppose.

Except when they're not. Here's the problem. Everything I said about her is true. She is one of the kindest people I've ever met. She has no racial bigotry at all, since she believes we are all God's children. She believes she is called to do justice and walk humbly, and mostly she succeeds. She is the farthest thing from cruel or vengeful imaginable. She is poor as a church mouse but I've seen her take her last dollars out of her pocket and give them to students in need. She sort of knows we're not on the same page religiously, but doesn't push or harangue me about it. She acknowledges that there are people of faith who are Democrats or progressives and who feel just as strongly about war as she does about abortion, and she doesn't think they're wrong. She's not tremendously bright or insightful, which puts her on par with most of the human race. She's a kind, decent person, which on many levels trumps it anyway.

Why am I relating all this? Because the lines we're looking at aren't anywhere near as clear as we would like to think. And we need to know that. For every bitter walking swamp of hatred like Tim LaHaye, there's a woman like this woman. And there's the problem, the challenge, and the possibility as well. Knowing her doesn't change a thing about how I feel or what I believe to be true, but it has taught me that it's not as simple as "us" and "them". And it also makes me angry, with a deep, cold fury, because Bush is using both the Tim LaHayes and the people like her. He's been able to cast an enormous, simplistic net, and by god, it's worked. He and his ilk are cynically using people's faith --- and I've known that for a long time, of course. He's turned this kindly woman into a supporter of death,mayhem, torture, and cruelties beyond imagining, and she doesn't see it or can't see it. All he had to do was link it to abortion, and she was on board, because abortion really bothers her and she's a single-issue voter. She's been duped. Her faith has been hijacked. We know that. But she doesn't. She's not intellectual enough to be swayed by argument and reason. She worries about me because she thinks I chew over things too much, which can jeopardize faith, in her mind. And of course, it does in my case, but I don't go too much into it with her. It wouldn't do any good and she would be scared and upset for me, because she loves me, and I love her.

So there it is. That's a more dimensional view of what the real challenge is - that many, many, many of these people would never hurt a fly, would never attack or abuse anyone, would never choose to torture a prisoner or add to a young girl's misfortune and pain. But they are doing it, everyday, because the powers that be have duped them and lied to them and scared them and gotten their vote on single issues and blown smoke in their eyes on everything else. There's a glimmer of hope in this, though. We'll never change the minds of the Pat Robertsons and the LaHayes and such. But folks like these, we might. If we can show them where their faith is served through progressive politics - and get them to see that war is a bigger social issue for a Christian than abortion or homosexuality, then there's a chance. But how to break the hypnosis? How to get the basically decent people -- albeit with views we oppose -- to see that?