The Mental Derangement of Religious Fanaticism

I just read an article describing the self professed views of Ralph Drollinger, head of Capitol Ministries. It was the semi delusional drivel that often comes out of the mouths of religious fanatics. Mr. Drollinger is neither unique or even out of the ordinary for that brand of evangelicals that see the wrath of God in any number of natural events. His basic ignorance of science and biology is not out of the norm for an evangelical preacher but what makes him dangerous is the people he is influencing and partnered with in his ministries.

Drollinger released an article last Saturday in which he spewed the following misinformation: "Whenever an individual or corporate group of individuals violate the inviolate precepts of God's word, he, she, they or the institution will suffer the respective consequences. Most assuredly America is facing this form of God's judgement."

Drollinger then went on to denigrate the LGBT community and bemoan the fact that he believes people are somehow worshipping the "religion of environmentalism." I can see why a charlatan who preys on the fear of mentally weak and ignorant to get them to send him money might be upset that other groups attempt to raise money by using the same methodology but he obviously doesn't understand the basic difference between a belief that we need to take better care of the environment and the fantasy conversations he has with the god of his own particular lunacy. Just because his own livelihood is based on basic deception and fear doesn't mean other people trying to accomplish something they see as valuable for everyone are similarly taking advantage of people.

While Drollinger's self serving brand of fear and loathing of things he doesn't understand is not unique in religious circles, his influence on people with real power is. Capitol Ministries was specifically created to increase the amount of "Christians" in places of political power. Some of his flock that support him are Mike Pence (current Vice President), Mike Pompeo (current Secretary of State), and Betsy Devos (current Secretary of Education). All of these people regularly attend his services whenever they have time. Drollinger brags that Trump himself reads his articles and gives them rave reviews. Unfortunately for Drollinger, Trump worships only himself and it is common knowledge that the man doesn't read anything over a page long. He doesn't have that much interest in anything that isn't abject praise of himself.

We've heard all this kind of rhetoric before. The AIDS virus was widely seen as God's wrath on a world of people who had turned their back on this angry, infantile being no longer being worshipped properly. The god of the Old Testament regularly punished, destroyed, mangled, tortured, burned and banished to slavery his own worshippers when they didn't properly perform animal sacrifices to his exact specifications. Generations of his children were banished to slavery and all manner of inhuman torture and killing whenever he felt he wasn't being properly worshipped. We really shouldn't be surprised that people of Drollinger's ilk can read the Bible and come to such conclusions because the god of the Bible is undoubtedly a narcissistic sadistic monster with the blood of millions on his hands if we believe what is written in that group of books.

The fact that thousands of years later in a representative republic we are electing people with such beliefs is disconcerting to say the least. Drollinger, or anyone else for that matter, is perfectly welcome to believe in an angry, jealous god of destruction and mayhem if they want. However, I would much prefer that we don't elect people with such beliefs to positions of public power, just as I would much prefer we don't elect schizophrenics, child molesters, and murderous sociopaths. I am especially tired of hearing the truly ignorant who believe in such things use it to denigrate people who are of different sexual persuasions. In my opinion, it is a dangerous form of mental derangement to believe there is a mysterious, mystical, invisible all knowing individual of infinite hate and sadistic tendencies angrily striking people down with a virus because we love people for who and what they are. We should be vigilant in protecting our government from the influence of such groups as Capitol Ministries who are actively trying to gain more power by insisting that having this mental derangement should be a qualifier for electing our representatives in government.