The Gutless Religious Right Hates Freedom

Right Wing Authoritarianism has three component attitudes and behaviors.  They are submission, authoritarian aggression, and conventionalism.  We've certainly seen them go heavy on the aggression.

1. Authoritarian submission — a high degree of submissiveness to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives.
2. Authoritarian aggression — a general aggressiveness directed against deviants, outgroups, and other people that are perceived to be targets according to established authorities.
3. Conventionalism — a high degree of adherence to the traditions and social norms that are perceived to be endorsed by society and its established authorities, and a belief that others in one's society should also be required to adhere to these norms.^[3]

We have recently seen a glaring example of Right Wing Authoritarianism in hate mongering North Carolina Baptist pastor Sean Harris in the following audio clip where he argues for both the most harsh and injurious violence against children over their innate sexuality, and for the strictest possible conformity, even when it is a denial of fact:

 And then we have another of the non-apology apologies (like Rush Limbaugh's apology where he asserts he did nothing wrong, and clearly isn't sorry).

But this IS really what these people promote: hitting, homophobia, and intimidation.  They preach the most abusive tyranny of children who do not conform; what they are not preaching is love.  What they are not preaching is dignity and safety for everyone.  What they are not preaching is FREEDOM.
The extremes to which the authoritarian aggression extends includes spanking infants with flexible metal plumbing pipe. The intent is not merely firm and moderate negative reinforcement; the discipline is intended to completely and utterly break a child's will, to completely and totally dominate their personality and character, to stomp them into terrified compliance without a will of their own.
CNN has covered this kind of religious abuse, so has ABC.  Some kids have died, and their parents have gone to prison.  Many other kids report both physical injuries and sever psychological trauma as a result of this kind of authoritarian aggression.  The Southern Medical Journal in July 2008 published this :

Southern Medical Journal:

July 2008 - Volume 101 - Issue 7 - pp 707-710

doi: 10.1097/SMJ.0b013e3181794793

Original Article

Is Religiosity Associated with Corporal Punishment or Child Abuse?

Socolar, Rebecca MD, MPH; Cabinum-Foeller, Elaine MD; Sinal, Sara H. MD

Abstract

There is limited empiric literature available regarding religion and corporal punishment and physical child abuse. The available empiric literature deals primarily with Christian denominations. Conservative Protestants, particularly those who believe in Biblical literalism or inerrancy, spank and/or physically abuse their children more than other Christian denominations. However, church attendance and religiosity do appear to protect against family violence.

Key Points

* Empiric literature suggests that conservative Protestants spank and physically abuse their children more than other Christian groups.

* There is little empiric literature on corporal punishment/physical abuse for non-Christian religious groups.

* Adults who report experiencing religious authority abuse as children often experience depression and consider suicide as adults.

* Empiric studies suggest that religiosity and church attendance are protective against family violence.

An article in September 2010 in Science Daily documented precisely the kind of harm that results, up to and including suicide in later life.  This kind of abuse physically changes brain development according to the article.  I have written before about the differences between the deformed and distorted amygdalas associated with conservative political leanings in comparison to moderates and liberals.  This is further documentation about what constitutes fear response, and how that differs based on the amygdala.  By disorder, we are not talking minor anxiousness, but rather something far more debilitating.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 22, 2010) — Grabbing a child firmly by the arm, yelling and repeatedly punishing him or her may not be without long-terms risks, according to researchers from the Université de Montréal. They are studying how this harsh parenting can impair the emotional development of a child, possibly leading to anxiety disorders such as social phobia, separation anxiety and panic attacks.
"Several studies have shown that coercive parenting practices are linked to anxiety," says Françoise Maheu a professor at the Université de Montréal's Department of Psychiatry and lead investigator of the study. "We know that common practices such as spanking or excessive punishment do not instill a strong discipline. Quite the opposite, they have a lasting psychological impact on children."
Showing the physiological effect
Maheu and her team are investigating specifically how the anatomy or physiology of the brain is affected by this parenting. They are in the process of recruiting 120 youths aged 12 to 17 years. These youths will be split into four groups according to two variables: their current anxiety symptoms and their parent's current harsh parenting practices. While doing behavioural tests, the children will be subjected to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), where their brain activity (cerebral activity) will be measured. Maheu will then be able to correlate brain activity with fear and anxiety.
"My hypothesis is that two specialized structures, the amygdala and the anterior congulate cortex, which form the neural fear circuit, play a role in mediating the anxiety associated with harsh parenting. We are investigating these structures because they are strongly associated with the processing of threat cues" says Maheu.
"Investigating the links among harsh parenting, fear circuitry and anxiety in youths will provide key insights on the developmental neurobiology of harsh parenting and anxiety," adds Maheu. "Understanding this while individuals are young is crucial as it could lead to early interventions that would effectively interrupt a development trajectory early in its course, before anxiety becomes chronic."
More about anxiety disorders
According to research findings, anxiety disorders may result from a combination of biochemical imbalances, genetic factors and stress. School, moving, illness, poverty, and peer pressures can all contribute to the development of an anxiety disorder. If symptoms are not recognized and treated these disorders may lead to alcoholism, difficulties maintaining relationships, depression and in certain cases, suicide.
This study is being funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec.

An anxiety DISORDER, referenced above, is very different from normal levels of anxiety or nervousness.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, reported from repeated military deployments is an example of an anxiety disorder.  Inflicting this kind of aggression on a child is abusive when it does this kind of psychological damage.

Anxiety disorders are exaggerations of our normal and adaptive reaction to fearful or stressful events. There are many types of anxiety disorders including panic disorder, agoraphobia, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) , posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). 

I would direct our readers for a good overview / summary to the wikipedia entry on sexual orientation change efforts.   While I could provide an extensive list of authoritive academic research that shows what the harm is, and how it occurs, in essence, the mental health field has taken the position that non-violent sexual orientation denial is damaging; when it includes physical violence, it is far more drastically damaging.  This is outlined below:
Sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) are methods that aim to eliminate a same-sex sexual orientation.^[1] They may include behavioral techniques, cognitive behavioral techniques (such as reparative therapy), psychoanalytic techniques, medical approaches, and religious and spiritual approaches.^[2] In some parts of the world efforts to change a person's sexual orientation may include acts of sexual violence (corrective rape) in which the purported motivation is to force the victim to change their orientation.
The longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences and the health and mental health professions is that homosexuality per se is a normal and positive variation of human sexual orientation.^[1] The research consistently failed to provide any empirical or scientific basis for regarding homosexuality as a disorder or abnormality.^[3][4] There is a population that undergoes sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) and tends to have strongly conservative religious views that lead them to seek to change their sexual orientation.^[2] There are no studies of adequate scientific rigor to conclude that recent sexual orientation change efforts have been effective.
... no major mental health professional organization has sanctioned efforts to change sexual orientation and virtually all of them have adopted policy statements cautioning the profession and the public about treatments that purport to change sexual orientation.^[5][6][7] The Royal College of Psychiatrists shares the concern of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association that positions espoused by bodies like the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) in the United States are not supported by science and that so-called treatments of homosexuality as recommended by NARTH create a setting in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.^[6][8]
SOCE has been controversial due to tensions between the values held by some faith-based organizations, on the one hand, and those held by lesbian, gay and bisexual rights organizations and professional and scientific organizations, on the other. Some individuals and groups have promoted the idea of homosexuality as symptomatic of developmental defects or spiritual and moral failings and have argued that SOCE, including psychotherapy and religious efforts, could alter homosexual feelings and behaviors.^[1] Such efforts have serious potential to harm people because they present the view that the sexual orientation of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth is a mental illness or disorder, and they often frame the inability to change one’s sexual orientation as a personal and moral failure.^[9] Many of these individuals and groups appeared to be embedded within the larger context of conservative religious political movements that have supported the stigmatization of homosexuality on political or religious grounds.^[1] Co-founder and other former Exodus International leaders issued a public and formal apology for their work as ex-gay leaders and the harm they caused to those they tried to help.^[10]
I think perhaps it is time to add a fourth characteristic to the definition of right wing authoritarianism - dishonest denial when confronted with their hateful authoritarian aggression.
We have this video of Pastor Harris when he received attention for his preaching.  He tried to pretend that the way in which he was speaking was humor -- you know, like Ruch Limbaugh claimed his attack on Ms.  Fluke were humor instead of admitting they were a very real attack.  These men appear to mean what they say; it is not humor.  They are advocating and approving, encouraging and endorsing the conduct of those who are violent to same-sex oriented human beings.

We have Pastor Harris claiming he didn't really mean actually hitting kids or intimidating them, that this was humor. We have Bradlee Dean claiming he doesn't hate gays or condone violence when he praises the execution of gays in more primitive Muslim fundamentalist societies, and advocates for criminalizing same sex relationships, including imprisoning people, or holding up in an approving way the statements of people advocating castration for homosexuality. Bradlee Dean has gone through many forms of denials not unlike the video of Harris above where he has tried to deny his hateful admonitions. He tries to fost hatred by disseminating as often as possible lies about the life, and health of same-sex oriented people, including asserting the base accusation they are all pedophiles in order to incite fear and hatred of them. We have the denials of possibly gay Marcus Bachmann and his wife Congresswoman Michele Bachmann that their clinic does not offer Christian psychological counseling to 'pray away the gay', despite so far two incidents of undercover recordings of such therapy by their therapists in their clinic --- and Marcus Bachmann PERSONALLY trying to collect on a fee for one such therapy session. Congresswoman Bachmann wants to allow bullying in schools for sexual orientation, because she believes it is part of religious freedom to do so --- but denies adamantly she is anti-gay.  Although to be fair, she has such a reputation for dishonesty and inaccuracy, for her that's just normal same old same old, on pretty much every topic.
Consistently, when confronted with the hatefulness and harmfullness of their words and their beliefs, these so-called principled conservatives who profess a religious based morality resort to LYING.
They lie about what they said and meant, when clearly to anyone who sees the video or hears their recorded words they meant every word, when clearly they have professed hatred and advocated harmful physical and psychological aggression on adults and children. These people are monsters, and they are moral cowards who lack the courage of their convictions. More to the point, it is these terrible right wing extremists who should BE convicted for the damage that they do to others in denying them or attempting to deny them one of the most fundamental of freedoms, under the cover of religious freedom -- the freedom of identity and integrity. These right wing fanatics would happily deny you and I and everyone else the freedom to think independently, the freedom of individual will and conscience, the freedom to be and act as who we really are.  They would only allow us to follow their hateful, harmful, ignorant conformity through parental coercion, societal coercion, and government coercion -- if we let them.  Don't let them.

Bradlee Dean Street Teams Solicited Funds Under False Pretenses from My Friend

There have been recent stories of the Bradlee Dean so-called ministry's 'Street Teams' being kicked out of parking lots at Walmart and other locations, and claims that they operated under false pretenses, using a false name.  It appears to be a major source of their money, money which pays for Dean and his family to be living a life of luxury in a $400,000 home in Annandale and which has subsidized Dean courting religious right politicians like Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty, and Tom Emmer.  Dean has appeared with his colleagues at the 2011 convention, apparently with a table / booth for free, at the invitation of Tony Sutton, chair of the MN GOP.

I'm sorry to say that another friend and blogging mentor, Mitch Berg, right wing radio personality and right wing blogger, has been another staunch supporter of Dean, regardless of how hateful the statements Dean made were.

The Dean home in Annandale listed for sale by local realtors for just under $400,000, on acreage; note the pool; all money that doesn't appear to be spent on kids at risk for drugs or suicide. Well, it appears to be money spent on the Bradlee Dean and his own family kids, but not on kids at risk in schools across Minnesota or anywhere else apparently:

Here is a YouTube video of the advert for the paid street team who Dean sends out to panhandle and  apparently scam for him in the name of religion and helping kids, so he can live it up:

For those who haven't followed the story of Dean, he's also been kicked off of local radio for his incredibly offensive statements, embarrassed the GOP on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and for years has been the darling of Minnesota conservatives.  He is the Minnesota equivalent in many respects of the hateful Koran burning Terry Jones in Florida or the equally heinous Fred Phelps of Kansas, except that the Minnesota Right has embraced and supported him far more than either Jones or Phelps were recognized in their home states. Dean is like Jones and Phelps in that he is not formally trained by any recognized seminary, he has effectively no actual regular physical church, he is not part of any formally recognized denomination, and he does not appear to have been ordained so far as I can tell by any credible religious body.  Like Phelps and Jones, he promotes a version of scripture which is not accepted by any well-recognized respected religious body, views which are extreme, and he espouses equally extreme right wing political views.

My friend Sara, (who has supplied many of the ideas and news stories that have been the basis for posts here on Penigma and the other blogs for which I write - most recently, the source of the punt-the-geek game), was solicited by one of the Bradlee Dean street teams at the Murphy USA gas station in Cambridge, MN in April of 2010.  She paid by check, and has shown me her canceled check from the transaction.

I first learned of this in June of 2010, when I saw a Bradlee Dean CD on the dashboard of her van as we were on our way to a dog show together.  I asked her about it, and she told me then of how she was approached and what she was told.  She repeated the story to me again before I wrote this post.

She was told by the street team, people who are simply hired employees rather than members of any church, that the money they were raising was for kids.  When my friend asked what kind of things they did, she was told it was for after-school programs for kids, to keep them out of trouble.  The street teams did not accurately in any way represent the philosophy or the activities of Bradlee Dean or his organization in seeking donations.  In exchange for a $20 donation, she received the CD, which she still has, unopened.  She feels scammed, ripped off, lied to by the street teams Bradlee Dean pays to go out to solicit funds.

At no time did the street team accurately represent the views of the Dean organization.  Had they done so, my friend Sara, (a Religion major from a MN Lutheran College, and therefore rather better equipped than most of us to recognize a sham Christian minister and ministry which makes claims to be like Luther) is adamant that she would not only never have given them a penny, but that she would have vigorously protested their presence to the gas station on the spot.

When I told Sara about Dean's claims of homosexual pedophilia and his other false statements about homosexuality, those positions more than any of his other statements, would have ensured she did not in any way, much less financially, support Dean or his organization with a donation.  As Sara put it, assholes like Dean and his views on being gay are far more likely to result in gay teens being bullied and harrassed, and in leading them to be unnecessarily conflicted about their sexuality; Dean's views are far more likely to contribute to teen suicide than to save anyone from it.

I am encouraging my friend Sara to report her experience to the Minnesota AG Lori Swanson, to the IRS, and possibly other agencies.  Bradlee Dean not only has no place on Minnesota radio stations spouting his inaccuracies and hatred, I believe from what I have read, and from the account of her experience from my friend, that Bradlee Dean should not have a religious tax exempt status with which to scam people into making this kind of donation.

Dean is now off the radio; lets also get him out of the (in my opinion) fake religion biz.

Dean seems part of the cult of personality that exists on the political right, on large and small scale, where individuals so long as they mouth the appropriate dog-whistle themes are able to promote themselves to relative wealth.  I believe for the well being of our state, and our nation, we need to push back against these people who promote lies, who promote hate, and who live off - live very well - by doing so.

Shame on Dean and his organization, and shame on those who support them and encourage them and defend them.  If nothing else, let us all make an effort to ensure they do not avoid the responsiblity of having supported Dean in the past with their glib revisionist history.  Let us all hold them accountable for their support for and alliance with Bradlee Dean.

Bradlee Dean, the Right's Jeremiah Wright-style Scandal - the Gift That Keeps On Giving?

Dean appears incapable of learning from his mistakes.  Reverend Wright, far more genuinely a man of god, continued at the prompting of the media to put his foot in his mouth.  Bradlee Dean needs no prompting; he does it all by himself.   He is now complaining about the Speaker of the House, and making even more of the exact kinds of comments that so properly antagonized the legislature and the citizens of Minnesota.

Here is another one of his pronouncements, his 'gifts':

"I feel like Martin Luther innnocenly nailing the 95 thesis on the wall and I'm not even Catholic, I'm a Christian."

Bradlee Dean, I was raised and baptized a Lutheran, from a long line of Lutheran ministers and Lutheran church founders.  Allow me to assure you, you are nothing whatsoever like the historic Martin Luther.  You dirty his name and insult his accomplishments by that reference.  I really doubt you are much of a Christian either if you are making statements like that about Catholics, or any other denomination of Christianity.

Update: Revisionist Republican History, the Whitewash of the Bradlee Dean Prayer Scandal

Revisionist history is when someone rewrites history so that it is less factually accurate, but presents instead an account of history which is a lie by either omission or commission so as to present someone in a more favorable light, or to present the events the way they wished they had happened.

How much Dean has embarrassed the Republican and the rest of the right is measured by the extent to which they have tried to make the whole incident disappear, including from any formal record.  I think this is a good measure of what kind of legs this scandal potentially has.  Perhaps the GOP leadership is unaware of the possibilities of the record of that prayer being on sites like Youtube - or here and on other media.

We have yet another instance of revisionist history in the Republican treatment of the Friday May 20th Bradlee Dean Prayer scandal according to the STrib:

GOP scrubs mention of prayer
Pastor who gave Friday's controversial invocation disappears from the record.
House DFLers are upset that a legislative journal scrubbed mention of the controversial religious leader who gave a divisive prayer before Friday's floor session.
Democrats on Saturday wanted to know why the Journal of the House, the historical record of the day's legislative work, had no mention of pastor Bradlee Dean offering the prayer. Dean had said that Jesus Christ is the "head of the denomination ... as every president up until 2008 has acknowledged."
"I am not trying to make this a difficult thing, but I think it's important to have this civic discussion," said DFL Rep. Terry Morrow, who questioned the omission of Dean's name on the House floor.
Republican Speaker Kurt Zellers, who took the unusual step of publicly apologizing to House members Friday after the prayer, said the omission wasn't out of line because no quorum was present when Dean spoke.
Dean's prayer caused such an uproar that Republicans restarted the session and had the Rev. Grady St. Dennis, the House chaplain, give a new prayer. The official House journal lists St. Dennis as offering the Friday prayer.
Zellers said the Pledge of Allegiance and the prayer are a custom on the House floor, but that they are not technically part of the session. Omitting Dean's name doesn't pollute the accuracy of state records, he said.
"It was my decision, and I stand by my decision," Zellers said.

I question Zellers explanation. 


First of all, there have been plenty of instances where the legislative journal has included accounts of events in the legislature where no quorum was present; that is not a valid or legitimate criteria for scrubbing this embarrassment to the Republicans from the official record.


Secondly, I challenge Zellers claim that a quorum was not present, as roll call was mentioned in accounts of this scandal as having taken place - twice - once before the prayer by Dean, and again before the SECOND prayer, by St. Denis.


Thirdly, if the basis for removing the Bradlee Dean reference from the journal is because it was not part of the session.......why is there a mention of St. Denis offering the prayer, and why has there been other mentions of people offering the prayer?


No, this is one thing and one thing only.  Zellers is trying to expunge a formal reference to actual historic events which he doesn't like.