The Secrets of the Christian rights recruiting
arr...@ameritech.net
http://www.alternet.org/story/50934
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.
April 24, 2007
A look at the cult-like recruiting tactics of the Christian right,
including
the manipulative and highly successful practice of "love bombing."
There is a false, but effective, fiction that one has to be born
again
to be
a Christian. The Christian right refuses to acknowledge the worth of
anyone's religious experience unless -- in the words of the tired and
opaque cliché
-- one has accepted "Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior."
The meltdown, often skillfully manipulated by preachers and teams of
evangelists, is one of the most pernicious tools of the movement.
Through conversion
one surrenders to a higher authority. And the higher authority,
rather
than
God, is the preacher who steps in to take over your life. Being born
again,
and the process it entails, is more often about submission and the
surrender
of moral responsibility than genuine belief.
I attended a five-day seminar at Coral Ridge in Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.,
where
I was taught, often by D. James Kennedy, the techniques of
conversion.
The
callousness of these techniques -- targeting the vulnerable, building
false
friendships with the lonely or troubled, promising to relieve people
of
the
most fundamental dreads of human existence from the fear of mortality
to the
numbing pain of grief -- gave to the process an awful cruelty and
dishonesty. I
attended the seminar as part of the research for my book "American
Fascists:
The Christian Right and the War on America." Kennedy openly called
converts
"recruits" and spoke about them joining a new political force
sweeping
across
the country to reshape and reform America into a Christian state.
"I would always go in first, introduce myself, Jim Kennedy," he told
us.
"I'm checking the lay of the land and I will look around the living
room and see
if there's something there that I can comment about. Frequently,
there
will
be a large picture somewhere and where did they put it, this picture
... why
would they put it over the fireplace? Significant. "
"In Fort Lauderdale you don't find too many fireplaces," he added,
smiling,
"but there's some kind of central focus. Maybe ... golf trophies ...
I'm over
here looking at these golf trophies ... painting ... I say...
beautiful
painting, did you paint that? The first rule about looking at
trophies,
don't
touch them ... did you win all those trophies? So we have a little
conversation
about golf, but I know enough about golf to have this
conversation ...
now
what have I done? I'm making a friend."
"Compliment them on whatever you can," Kennedy said, "discuss what
they
do,
you're going to find out what are their hobbies, maybe right there in
the
living room. Then you're going to ask them about what they do, where
they're
from, how long they've been there ... something to discuss with them
... in
doing this, you have made a friend."
We are told to "emphasize the positive" and "identify with your
prospect."
We are encouraged in the green "Evangelism Explosion" instruction
manual to
use sentences such as "It is wonderful to know when I lay my head on
my
pillow
tonight that if I do not awaken in bed in the morning, I will awaken
in
paradise with God." We are told to paint graphic pictures of personal
tragedy that
God has helped solve, such as: "I had a Christian son killed in
Vietnam, yet
my heart is filled with peace because I know he has eternal life. Even
though he was killed by an enemy mortar, he has a home now in heaven,
and one day
we'll be reunited there." We are instructed to pepper our testimonies
with
words like love, peace, faithfulness, forgiveness, hope, purpose and
obedience
and remember to talk about how we have found, in our own conversion,
"courage
in the face of death."
Kennedy warns us not to carry a large Bible, but to keep a small one
hidden
in our pocket, saying "don't show your gun until you're ready to
shoot
it."
The conversion, at first, is euphoric. It is about new, loving
friends,
about the conquering of human anxieties, fears and addictions, about
attainment
through God of wealth, power, success and happiness. For those who
have
known
personal and economic despair, it feels like a new life, a new
beginning. The
new church friends repeatedly call them, invite them to dinner,
listen
to
their troubles and answer their questions. Kennedy told us that we
must
keep in
touch in the days after conversion. He encouraged us to keep detailed
files
on those we proselytize. We must be sure the converts are never left
standing
alone at church. We must care when no one else seems to care. The
converts
are assigned a "discipler" or prayer partner, a new friend, who is
wiser than
they are in the ways of the Lord and able to instruct them in their
new
life.
The intense interest by a group of three or four evangelists in a
potential
convert, an essential part of the conversion process, the flattery and
feigned affection, the rapt attention to those being recruited and
the
flurry of
"sincere" compliments are a form of "love bombing." It is the same
technique
employed by most cults, such as the Unification Church or "Moonies,"
to
attract
prospects. It was a well-developed tactic of the Russian and Chinese
communist parties, which share many of the communal and repressive
characteristics
of the Christian right.
"Love bombing is a coordinated effort, usually under the direction of
leadership, that involves long-term members flooding recruits and
newer
members
with flattery, verbal seduction, affectionate but usually nonsexual
touching,
and lots of attention to their every remark," the psychiatrist
Margaret
Thaler
Singer wrote. "Love bombing -- or the offer of instant companionship
--
is a
deceptive ploy accounting for many successful recruitment drives."
The convert is gradually drawn into a host of church activities by
his
or
her new friends, leaving little time for outside socializing. But the
warmth
soon brings with it new rules. When you violate the rules, you sin,
you
flirt
with rebellion, with becoming a "backslider, " someone who was
converted but
has fallen and is once again on the wrong side of God. And as the new
converts
are increasingly invested in the church community, as they cut ties
with
their old community, it is harder to dismiss the mounting demands of
the
"discipler" and church leaders. The only proper relationship is
submission to those
above you, the abandonment of critical thought and the mouthing of
thought-terminating clichés that are morally charged. "Jesus is my
personal Lord and
Savior" or "the wages of sin are death" is used to end all discussion.
Rules are incorporated slowly and deliberately into the convert's
belief
system. These include blind obedience to church leaders, the teaching
of an
exclusive, spiritual elitism that demonizes all other ways of being
and
believing, and a persecution complex that keeps followers mobilized
and
distrustful of
outsiders. The result is the destruction of old communities, old
friendships
and the independent ability to make moral choices. Believers are soon
encased in the church community. They are taught to emphasize
personal
experience
rather than reasoning, and to reject the reality-based world. For
those
who
defy the system, who walk away, there is a collective banishment.
There is a gradual establishment of new standards for every aspect of
life.
Those who choose spouses must choose Christian spouses. Families and
friends
are divided into groups of "saved" and "unsaved." The movement, while
it
purports to be about families, is the great divider of families,
friends and
communities. It competes with the family and those outside its
structure for
loyalty. It seeks to place itself above the family, either drawing
all
family
members into its embrace or pushing those who resist aside. There
were
frequent
prayers during the seminar I attended for relatives who were
"unsaved,"
those
who remained beyond the control of the movement. Many of these
prayers,
including one by a grandmother for her unsaved grandchildren, were
filled with
tears and wrenching pain over the damnation of those they loved.
The new ideology gives the believers a sense of purpose, feelings of
superiority and a way to justify and sanctify their hatreds. For
many,
the rewards
of cleaning up their lives, of repairing their damaged self-esteem,
of
joining
an elite and blessed group are worth the cost of submission. They
know
how
to define themselves. They do not have to make moral choice. It is
made
for
them. They submerge their individual personas into the single persona
of
the
Christian crowd. Their hope lies not in the real world, but in this
new
world of
magic and miracles. For most, the conformity, the flight away from
themselves, the dismissal of facts and logic, the destruction of
personal autonomy,
even with its latent totalitarianism, is a welcome and joyous relief.
The
flight into the arms of the religious right, into blind acceptance of
a
holy
cause, compensates for the convert's despair and lack of faith in
himself or
herself. And the more corrupted and soiled the converts feel, the
more!
profound their despair, the more militant they become, shouting,
organizing
and agitating to create a pure and sanctified Christian nation, a
purity they
believe will offset their own feelings of shame and guilt. Many want
to
be
deceived and directed. It makes life easier to bear.
Freedom from fear, especially the fear of death, is what is being
sold.
It
is a lie, as everyone has to know on some level, even while they
write
and
rewrite their testimonies to conform to the instructors' demands. But
admitting
this in front of other believers is impossible. Such an admission
would
be
interpreted as a lack of faith. And this too is part of the process,
for it
fosters a dread of being found out, a morbid guilt that we are not as
good or as
Christian as those around us. This dread does not go away with
conversion or
blind obedience or submission. This unachievable ideal forces the
convert to
repress and lose touch with the uncertainties, ambiguities and
contradictions that make up human existence.
We were instructed to inform potential converts that Jesus came to
Earth and
died "to pay the penalty for our sins and to purchase a place in
heaven
for
us" and that "to receive eternal life you must transfer your trust
from
yourself to Jesus Christ alone for eternal life." We were told to ask
the convert
if he or she is willing "to turn from what you have been doing that
is
not
pleasing to Him and follow Him as He reveals His will to you in His
Word." If
the covert agrees to accept a new way of life we are to bow our heads
and
pray, with the convert repeating each line after us.
"Lord Jesus, I want You to come in and take over my life right now. I
am a
sinner. I have been trusting in myself and my own good works. But now
I
place
my trust in You. I accept You as my own personal Savior. I believe
you
died
for me. I receive You as Lord and Master of my life. Help me to turn
from my
sins and to follow You. I accept the free gift of eternal life. I am
not
worthy of it, but I thank You for it. Amen."
And when it is over the new believers are told "Welcome to the family
of
God." They are told to read a chapter a day in the Gospel of John and
that they
will be visited again in a week to talk about the Bible. They are
encouraged
to pray, because God "promised to hear and answer our prayers." They
are told
to find "a good Bible-believing church and become a part of it." They
are
told to join a Christian fellowship group. They are told to witness
to
those in
their family. With this, the process of deconstructing an individual
and
building a submissive follower, one who no longer has any allegiance
to
the
values of the open society, begins.
Chris Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School,
is the
author of "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on
America."
He is a senior fellow at The Nation Institue and a Lannan Literary
Fellow.
Crusade Watch, Religious Conversion Watch - Catholic Ashrams
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