Back on the Duggar thing… sort of.

I keep bringing up the SBC as they are the largest single religious denomination in the US that falls under the “Protestant” category.

For those who don’t know American history, there was a split in Baptist denominations around the Civil War, including the issue of slavery.

You can easily guess where the Southern Baptist Conference fell on these issues.

Anyway, as the dominant religious groups in many places in this country, the SBC is part of society that is affecting the society as a whole.

In their largest seminary they installed Albert Mohler as the head, who cleansed it of heretical teachers and installed his own men. He has also influenced the leaders of the smaller seminaries and other heads of the SBC.

Anway, Mohler and his cadres are moving the SBC from the more traditional Baptist view of politics and society (i.e., separation of church and state) towards the more hard line portions of the staunchest southern Presbyterians, who are Dominionists and such.

Anyway, Mohler is more and more becoming a Fox outlet, complete with mutual love of Sean Hannity, etc.

Still nothing from the Mohler gang on Duggars, but sure enough Mohler’s worker-bee in the blogosphere, Denny Burk, jumps on the Jenner thing (note that Burk spends most of his time blogging about sex, for some reason):

Bruce or Caitlyn? He or she? Should Christians accomodate transgender naming?

Perhaps the most disturbing thing in this blog entry isn’t what you’d at first recognize.

Rather, it’s Burk’s linking to one Doug Wilson, a Presbyterian reactionary, which he has done so approvingly before.

Doug Wilson (who fled to the great white north) makes the Dominionists look soft (save for Rushdoony-ites.) For example, Wilson argues that slavery is still acceptable today, because it’s allowed in the Bible.

My point: America’s religious groups are undergoing a radicalization also. “Evangelical” Christians are dividing into two halves - progressives, and reactionaries (such as Wilson, Burk, and Mohler.) I don’t know how evenly the split will be in numbers.

So when you see Duggar-itis know that you are looking at a part of American society that is more than just a handful of people. We’re generating our own fundamentalists extremists (wouldn’t be the first time.) Look at the comments in Burk’s post, and of the previous ones during the past couple of weeks. Lots of not-quite-Freeper ugly, but very, very angry people hiding behind “Jesus”.