[Dialogue] Christian Right's Recruiting Tactics

Tue Apr 24 13:55:59 EDT 2007

Here are excerpts from an article by 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 Institute and a Lannan Literary Fellow.  The full article is at
http://www.alternet.org/story/50934/

Jim Rippey in rainy Bellevue, NE

Secrets of Christian Right's Recruiting Tactics,  By Chris Hedges, Truthdig
via Alternet. 4/24/07

. 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 and the democratic state, begins.

------------------------------

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 its tired and opaque
cliché, one has accepted "Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior."

The emotional meltdown that leads to the conversion experience -- one often
induced in crowds skillfully manipulated and broken down by demagogues -- 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 one's life. Being born again, and
the process it entails, has far more in common with recruitment into a cult
than it does with genuine belief.

I attended a five-day seminar in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where I was taught
the techniques of conversion, often by D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge
Ministries. 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.

The seminar, which I attended as part of the work I did on my book "American
Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America," gave me a window into
the subtle and pernicious techniques this movement uses to manipulate and
control its followers. 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
.

. The conversion, at first blush, is simply euphoric. It is about new
friends, loving and accepting friends, about the final 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 call the converts, invite them to dinner and have
time to listen to their troubles and answer their questions. Kennedy tells
us that we must keep in touch in the days after conversion. He encourages us
to keep detailed files on those we proselytize. We must be sure new converts
are never left standing alone at church. We must care when no one else seems
to care. The new 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.

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." 
.

. 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 and the democratic state, begins.

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