How To Use Religion To Your Advantage

So, you're an up and coming dictator? Have *I* got some great news for you. There's a nice little appeal to emotion out there that (1) easily sucks people in, based on inherent fear of the unknown, (2) makes for a fantastic diversion from having to respond to questions with factually-based answers, and (3) already has a strong consumer base. You ask: To what do you refer, EconAtheist?

Christianity!

Yes, Christianity. You too can wield this astounding hammer of silliness; your opponents will literally wither in fear at the thought of having to confront you as you display your newfound love of Jesus, son of the wrathful God of Abraham.

Let's take a look at how you can manipulate hordes of stupid people use the Power of The Lord to your political advantage*:

• “Providence withdrew its protection and our people fell… And in this hour we sink to our knees and beseech our almighty God that He may bless us, that He may give us the strength to carry on the struggle for the freedom, the future, the honor, and the peace of our people. So help us God.” (Pat Robertson said something similar after 9/11)
• “Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without religious foundation is built on air; consequently all character training and religion must be derived from faith.”
• “We were convinced that the people need and require the Christian faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we will not stop until we have stamped it out.”
• “Our Party neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary it stands on the ground of a real Christianity… For their interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of today, in our fight against a socialist and communist culture, against atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for a consciousness of a community in our national life…These are Christian principles!”
• “With a tenth of our budget for religion, we would thus have a Church devoted to the State and of unshakable loyalty.” (Faith Based Initiatives)
• “Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Islamist, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”
• “We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit… We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press—in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of Liberal excess…”
• “The watchword of American foreign policy ceased to be: preservation of the American nation by all methods; but rather: preservation of world peace by all means.”
• “Worst of all, however, is the devastation wrought by the misuse of religious conviction for political ends. In truth, we cannot sharply enough attack those wretched crooks who would like to make religion an implement to perform political or rather business services for them. These insolent liars, it is true, proclaim their creed in a stentorian voice to the whole world for other sinners to hear; but their intention is not, if necessary, to die for it, but to live better.” (Think: Jesse Jackson)
• “…we must not dodge this struggle against Terrorism, but prepare for it, and for this reason acquire armament which alone offers protection against violence. Terror is not broken by the mind, but by terror.”
• “The Ten Commandments are a code of living to which there’s no refutation. These precepts correspond to irrefutable needs of the human soul.”
• “I would like to thank Providence and the Almighty for choosing me of all people to be allowed to wage this battle for America. I follow the path assigned to me by Providence ... there is a God… And this God again has blessed our efforts during the past 5 years.”

Guess who's the genius behind all of these quotes? Yes -- You in the back there. George W. Bush? No, no, no; that dude's a total loser. Any other guesses?

Adolf Hilter? Yes! The young Filipino woman in the front row got that correct.

Think of the possibilities, my friends. Think of the possibilities...

* courtesy a post, at the Mike Malloy forums, by the lovely and talented Spitfire of ATJ; Spit notes that all are actual Hitler quotes - from both his speeches and from Mein Kampf - that he found on the internet but with "Germany" changed to "America" and "Jew" changed to "Islam."