Understanding Republicans, If You Must!: Part II – Religion

Alright, we are going to jump right into it. We will start off the the issue that polarizes politics more than any other issue, but seems to be the basis of many Republican ideals…religion.

When looking at religion we understand why some Republicans hold the views that they do. The first issue is obvious, and that is abortion. While while liberals disagree with this issues, I feel that the conservatives on abortion have an extremely valid point. So, in our talk about religion, we are going to leave out abortion.

In fact, we really aren’t going to be talk about many issues at all. As was mentioned in “Part I” of this series, many liberals agree that if Jesus was alive today, he would be a Democrat. Helping the sick…Democrat. Helping the poor…Democrat. Almost everything Jesus preaches can be found in Democratic platforms throughout the country.  And when Republicans don’t like to look at the real Jesus, they make their own up, which includes being rich as a “good thing” and not an impossibility for getting into the Kingdom of Heaven.

So yes, you heard it right, the actual “issues” regarding religion aren’t part of this article. Instead it is the thought process that we will be examining.

First, let us look at how a church “runs”…the actual business of a Protestant church. As I mentioned in the first part of this article, I have an uncle who is a Baptist preacher. A number of years ago, he told me that the way he makes more money is by getting more people to attend his church. Therefore, just like Wal Mart, the church is a business.

So, the church has its salesman, which is the preacher. His job is to get as many people through the door as possible. In addition, he needs to make those people repeat customers, so he continues to make more money. In addition to the money he makes from the church, he also makes money by using his preacher position as a business connection.

On the other hand, there is the customer. This is the person that is seeking spiritual guidance…aka, the parishioner. Unlike the Catholic or LDS Church, where there is one hierarchy, one has the freedom to choose which individual church that they can go to in most Protestant denominations, especially those that cater to evangelical Christians. They search and search for the right church until they finally find the perfect fit. The parishioner listens to the preacher and agrees with everything that person says. The salesman’s job is done, he has his customer.

As many of you might know, religion isn’t something that is question often by those that are highly involved with it. If someone goes to church once or twice a week, they pretty much agree with everything that the preacher is saying. In addition, one cannot question what is being taught in the church, because that would be going “against God”. Therefore, the salesman not only has the customer in the church, but has him in a position in which the customer can’t say “no”. In more cases than less, the customer is already a loyal buyer of the product, so there is really no fear of him/her saying “no” to the salesman anyway. So the customer listens to every word the salesman says as fact, and believes it to be the undeniable truth.

Now that the church has a loyal customer, and believes everything the salesman says, the talk starts to turn to politics. Remember, the salesman is a businessman, and is trying to drum up business both at the church and in his private live. Therefore, since he is a businessman, the salesman convinces the customer that the Republican Party shares the values of God. To confirm this, the salesman goes through The Bible and points out things that both agree with their thinking, as well confirm conservative values, such as not killing and all that stuff. Yeah, the “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” quote usually doesn’t make it into the conversation.

Now, with all that said and done, the salesman has totally converted the customer to loyally supporting blind faith. When using the term “blind faith”, I don’t mean it in a derogatory fashion, but in a factual way. The person believes something that cannot be proven. Therefore, they have “blind faith” in something.

In addition to blind faith, the salesman has also sold the customer on the Republican Party. Going against God, as well as the Party, is a sin. The customer happily complies.

So, we now have the customer at home. He or she is sitting on the couch watching Fox News. They hear a story on Fox that says that Obama was born in Kenya. What happens?

First, let’s look at the rational person. This person would look at the facts, do their own research, notice that Obama’s birth announcement was in the Honolulu newspaper days after his birth, and come the the conclusion that this is a bunch of nonsense. Rational thinking brought the person to the correct conclusion and they only did a few minutes worth of research.

Now let’s look at our customer. He or she is a believer of blind faith. He or she already listens to the salesperson regarding spiritual guidance without questioning that person. The salesperson also told them to faithfully follow the Republican Party. Therefore, whatever the Republicans say must be accepted as fact and not questioned. There is no reason to look further into the subject, as the process has already been laid out. They take what the Republican say as “blind faith”, just as they take what the preacher says as “blind faith.”

And that is how a religious Republican morphs into what we see today…a person that doesn’t do their own research, but blindly follows the people that they are told to follow without questioning them whatsoever. The salesman’s job is complete.

So now we can also see why Republican don’t follow the teachings of Christ. The whole idea of the church, as was outlined at the start, is to get people in for the preacher to make more money. Therefore, it is a business from the get-go. The rest just falls in line.

But if we look at other demonations of Christianity, while structured differently, it is quite the same. With Catholics, the purse strings aren’t what keeps the parishioners in line, but any penalty for breaking the rules. Most Catholics are born into the religion, and if they come from a staunch Catholic family, they have had those rules infused into them since they were a child.

For Mormons, while the preacher positions aren’t paid, they try to do what they can to move higher up in the church. If you want to be a bishop of a stake president, one must follow the same business plan.

So, in conclusion, while issues play a part, it is just one of the tools used in converting people seeking religion into overly-stimulated Republican voters. In order for them to vote Republican, a commitment to blind faith needs to be in place. Also, using any thought process in understanding the political issues doesn’t happen. This is why people listen to Glenn Beck and just take his word as fact without any type of research whatsoever.

These are people the Democrats will never win, and we shouldn’t even try.