Frank Schaeffer takes on the fundies on Rachel Maddow

Frank Schaeffer was interviewed by Rachel Maddow yesterday, and – wow. Just, wow. Never before has a guy ever come on public television and given a more honest, factual and downright badass description of fundamentalist Christianity in America. It’s one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen; makes me wish I caught the Rachel Maddow Show on my crappy Bell Canada plan. *whines*

Maddow starts by shining light on a bizarre and frightening New Jersey poll that reveals how over a third of NJ self-described conservatives believe that President Obama might be the Antichrist.

Seriously.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Here are some choice quotes:

Maddow: “What do you think the White House strategy is gonna be to rebut the fact that more than one-in-three conservatives think the President might be the Antichrist (at least in New Jersey)? That, is a PR challenge.”

One they probably shouldn’t even attempt to address, honestly. No good would come out of them giving credence and attention to these kooks by taking the time to address them and their claims.

Schaeffer: “That evangelical subculture has rotted the brain of the United States of America.”

[…]

[Talking about how we should deal with such kooks] “Look. A village cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot. It’s as simple as that. And we have to understand: we have a village idiot in this country; it’s called fundamentalist Christianity.”

And that’s just a couple of quotes form the interview. Watch the rest; it’s quite worthwhile to watch Schaeffer describe just how utterly insane fundies are.

Overall, one of the overlying issues in the interview is how to deal with such people, those who believe the current President (and as with so many before him) is the Antichrist, who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old, who believe the end of the world is nigh, and so forth. The answer Schaeffer gives is the correct one: we don’t. We do not try to move them or change their ways; their minds are liquefied, festering with stupidity, ignorance and indoctrination of the worst forms. They are hopeless; they are lost cases, and dealing with them amounts to no more than spending time trying to teach quantum physics to a slug. The only thing to do, is to ignore them, to move on, and perhaps, on occasion, take a fleeting glance back to amuse ourselves at the sight of these crazies amassed on a hilltop, waiting for God to show himself.

---

Well, wouldn’t you know it, Pastor T.Estes of HardTruth has already found this story and is whining, raging and crapping his tight-binding pants about it as we speak. It’s quite amusing to take in his over-generalizations, his misunderstandings (whether accidental or deliberate, none can know other than him) and the general exhibition of his Christian Persecution Complex. My, his schtick never gets old (if only because he’s always coming up with new ways to express the same silliness).

Just one begs-to-be-corrected example: Tom claims Schaeffer is an atheist. Apparently, Tom is now deaf, for Schaeffer himself clearly asserts to being a “church-going Christian”.

Me thinks doth does project too much, Tom.

(via Pharyngula)