Entry 106, on 2004-12-24 at 17:07:50 (Rating 1, Comments)
I heard an interesting discussion recently regarding the increasing activity and influence of fundamentalist Christians worldwide. Its obvious that these people were largely responsible for the re-election of George Bush in the US. The Republicans skillfully manipulated the morality issue (which was little to do with true morality and more to do with intolerance and ignorance) and this resulted in a lot of votes from the more conservative religious elements.
This group of American fundamentalists, who used to be though of as a bunch of mindless fools, have suddenly have become a powerful force and the inevitable consequence is policies which are taking the world backwards to a time when superstition and intolerance ruled.
Could this happen in New Zealand though? Probably not, because the number of people involved in organised religion here is much lower. Apart from some Polynesian communities, where church attendance is very high, most New Zealanders don't take religion very seriously. To have their minds warped sufficiently to follow extreme fundamentalist beliefs, most people have to have regular reinforcement of the message their church is pushing.
Unfortunately, because the US is the only world superpower, the influence of fundamentalists there affects us all. But in New Zealand, we usually remain as independent from the US as possible (we still have a ban on US nuclear ships, for example) so I hope we can again be an example of common sense in a world where many other countries are sinking under the burden of financial, religious and social conservatism.
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