Overlord
11-24-2005, 05:52 PM
Hi guys!
It's the limping guy! Still at it.
In western culture the tendency to frame political, social, religious, or cultural conflict as a battle between good and evil is distinctively shaped by the apocalyptic prophecies in the Bible's book of Revelation, which describes a battle between faithful Christians and deceptive Satanic agents that precedes God's penultimate victory and a millennium of peace.
Now, these kind of claims of demonic conspiracies have flourished during periods of millennial expectation or apocalyptic fervor, and are doing so again as the calendar creeps toward some type of significant year, ther is always a way tomake one.
The process of demonization is central to all forms of conspiracist thinking. For example: Author (and activist) Leonard Zeskind considers all conspiracy theories "essentially theologically constructed views of events. Conspiracy theories are renderings of a metaphysical devil which is trans-historical, omnipotent, and destructive of God's will on earth.
This is true even for conspiracy theories in which there is not an explicit religious target." As Zeskind has observed, and many others, it is impossible to analyze the contemporary right, without understanding the "all-powerful cosmology of diabolical evil." So to totally, fully comprehend the subtext of those US (and of course OZ-) movements that utilize demonization and conspiracist scapegoating, we have to briefly ..."dance with the devil".
There is a deep division (witness here on this site) with modern Christianity between those who personify evil and identify it with specific groups--gays and lesbians, feminists, liberals, Jews--and those who see evil as the will to dominate and oppress. Within mainstream denominations, independent evangelical churches, progressive Christian communities, and followers of liberation theology, are many Christians who are painfully aware of those historic periods when some Christian leaders sided with oppression and used demonization as a tool to protect and extend power and privilege.
The binary (dual-sided) model of good versus evil is not unique to Christianity, but is found in the spiritual beliefs of "all the peoples of the earth," and is considered by some (including me) "a necessary phase in the evolution of human thought."
..."NOthing is more common in history than the change of the deities of hostile nations into demons of evil," wrote Paul Carus, who noted that Beelzebub, a Phoenician god, "became another name for Satan," for the early Jews. In fact, the word Satan means "enemy."
Especially demonized in early Christian culture were Jews who refused to accept the crucified Jesus as the true Messiah, Roman civil authorities who punished Christians for refusing to carry out certain rituals seen as proving loyalty to the emperor, and those Christians who promoted unacceptable alternative theological positions.
Quite applicable, wouldn't you say?
It's the limping guy! Still at it.
In western culture the tendency to frame political, social, religious, or cultural conflict as a battle between good and evil is distinctively shaped by the apocalyptic prophecies in the Bible's book of Revelation, which describes a battle between faithful Christians and deceptive Satanic agents that precedes God's penultimate victory and a millennium of peace.
Now, these kind of claims of demonic conspiracies have flourished during periods of millennial expectation or apocalyptic fervor, and are doing so again as the calendar creeps toward some type of significant year, ther is always a way tomake one.
The process of demonization is central to all forms of conspiracist thinking. For example: Author (and activist) Leonard Zeskind considers all conspiracy theories "essentially theologically constructed views of events. Conspiracy theories are renderings of a metaphysical devil which is trans-historical, omnipotent, and destructive of God's will on earth.
This is true even for conspiracy theories in which there is not an explicit religious target." As Zeskind has observed, and many others, it is impossible to analyze the contemporary right, without understanding the "all-powerful cosmology of diabolical evil." So to totally, fully comprehend the subtext of those US (and of course OZ-) movements that utilize demonization and conspiracist scapegoating, we have to briefly ..."dance with the devil".
There is a deep division (witness here on this site) with modern Christianity between those who personify evil and identify it with specific groups--gays and lesbians, feminists, liberals, Jews--and those who see evil as the will to dominate and oppress. Within mainstream denominations, independent evangelical churches, progressive Christian communities, and followers of liberation theology, are many Christians who are painfully aware of those historic periods when some Christian leaders sided with oppression and used demonization as a tool to protect and extend power and privilege.
The binary (dual-sided) model of good versus evil is not unique to Christianity, but is found in the spiritual beliefs of "all the peoples of the earth," and is considered by some (including me) "a necessary phase in the evolution of human thought."
..."NOthing is more common in history than the change of the deities of hostile nations into demons of evil," wrote Paul Carus, who noted that Beelzebub, a Phoenician god, "became another name for Satan," for the early Jews. In fact, the word Satan means "enemy."
Especially demonized in early Christian culture were Jews who refused to accept the crucified Jesus as the true Messiah, Roman civil authorities who punished Christians for refusing to carry out certain rituals seen as proving loyalty to the emperor, and those Christians who promoted unacceptable alternative theological positions.
Quite applicable, wouldn't you say?