An earlier posting (October 2008) mulled over the rise of the faith market in the US after World War II and the utilization of the then-new technological wonder known as television. In the 1950s enterprising soul-savers still clutching their newly minted bible-mill diplomas, and sniffing the gold to be made through the far-reaching media, latched on to electronic ministry with holy lust. In those early days the divinely driven were complaining bitterly that the media ignored them, which was not exactly true for if it had not been for television few persons across the nation would have known that the array of moral champions existed at all. To garner attention one scheming servant of the sacred launched a "Coalition for Better Television," the real purpose of which was to impose upon the public the religious right's particular version of "moral code." Thus religious extremists embarked upon political waters in the name of religious devotion.
In 1961 an attention-grabbing faith-based, politically inspired group were parading under the banner of Moral Majority, which sponsored its first seminar on "Understanding Politics." The training session had nothing to do with making oneself spiritually worthy of god's blessing; rather the ideas being eagerly shared was on how to shove their particular version of religion into the workings of national government.
As is common among the faith-driven, other divinely inspired keepers of god's word were receiving slightly different instructions from heaven. Oddly, the governments of the world--especially the government of the US--seemed to trouble god much more than did the conduct of his strange array of messengers. And stranger still was the emphasis placed on the attainment of materiality for the sake of spiritual advancement! To advance this seemingly contrary means of attaining spiritual worthiness, various rightwing movements showered the faithful with an endless assortment of manuals and pamphlets. Titles of these always implied that only they held the keys of salvation. The advice, however, usually pivoted on take over of national management.
The movers and shakers of the religious right, although not exactly chummy with one another, sought to establish a modus operandi to achieve political power. Topping the list for achieving a power base was the necessity to recognize the givers and takers--meaning go after those who will donate cash. To impliment this they had to have a plan which would include: 1) have a candidate or [invent] issues; 2) be organized and keep it organized; 3) establish a means of keeping money flowing, which meant finding persons who would get personally involved in collecting money for the movement.
To effectively siphon money into the cause, the advice was: 1) project the income necessary for the operation and expansion; 2) define the levels of donations to be aimed for; 3) devise programs for attracting donations; 4) implement the plan. The advice on how to pursue collection of donations stressed the necessity of never emphasizing with a contributor: know all that you can find out about possible donors, but never emphasize with them. The reason for this was the fear that to emphasize with contact might allow the donation-seeker to decide whether a contact would or would not donate.
Always the mantra was think big, and that necessitated keeping the path open for people who might be inclined to give thousands of dollars. How should they pursue this? The most effective way and the least costly way to reach the most people and raise money was determined to be go direct response, which meant use the Postal Service. They then drew upon persons with writing talent to compose fund-raising letters, and the principle thing the authors had to remember was the basic psychological quirk that inspires people to let go of their money. That ignoble idiosyncrasy is that people tend always to be most willing to lend support against something than show willingness in support of something.
And that may be why religion and politics never seem to be capable of touching any semblance of genuine glory.
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