Religion as a Psycho-Social Defence Mechanism. Why Evangelicals Buy Into Hate.
by pinkagendist
Background:
This morning I was reading Gregory Paul’s essay titled The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions. Sue Blackmore summarized his findings in The Guardian in 2009. Here’s a summary of her summary:
Paul measures “popular religiosity” and compares it against the “successful societies scale” (SSS measures include homicides, the proportion of people incarcerated, infant mortality, STDs, teenage pregnancy, abortions, corruption, income inequality etc). On almost every measure the US comes out worse than any other 1st world developed nation, and it is also the most religious. The 1st world nations with the highest levels of belief in God, and the greatest religious observance are also the ones with all the signs of societal dysfunction.
“Because highly secular democracies are significantly and regularly outperforming the more theistic ones, the moral-creator socio-economic hypothesis is rejected in favour of the secular-democratic socio-economic hypothesis”; “religious prosociality and charity are less effective at improving societal conditions than are secular government programmes”.
This makes for an interesting explanation of the success of the American Evangelical Christian movement. We often get bogged down in debating the intellectual or academic validity of religious propositions and in doing so we fail to examine the psychological factors which lead to people adopting and staying within a religion. Here’s a poverty map of America.
You’ll note the bible-belt coincides with the highest poverty rates. It also coincides with food stamp usage & highest number of hate groups per capita. It’s also the home of the Tea-Party, that loud group of people constantly complaining about moochers. Interestingly the NYT recently released a map that shows the bible belt is the home of America’s biggest moochers. This pattern isn’t unique to first world countries. Religiosity also co-relates to poverty and strife in the developing and third world.
Religion as a Defence Mechanism:
It can be argued that early Christianity was at its inception an ideology of social rebellion. As a grass-roots movement it attempted to re-frame social perception and allocate value to the lower & struggling classes.
“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 19:24
(Side note: The aristocracy soon recognized this same ideology could be used to protect its own interests. When people believe that their suffering brings them closer to their god, that their poverty is a virtue, that there is pride in their strife- it also keeps them from rebelling.)
Freud states that the ego copes with anxiety by using defence mechanisms. Individuals unconsciously deny and/or distort reality to reduce stress. The occasional use of defence mechanisms is normal; However, the consistent use of defence mechanisms becomes a problem as some individuals use them to avoid reality altogether. American Evangelicals fall squarely into this category and their magical thinking patterns now permeate their perception of reality as we know it. In practice this takes the form of: You feel your life is rubbish? You can’t handle the anxiety? You cannot base hope of a better future in logic? Don’t despair! Religion can give you a thought pattern that allows you to fool yourself into thinking you’re not at the bottom of the pyramid after all.
American Evangelical leaders have gone to great lengths to sophisticate their belief-system and exploit these human defence mechanisms. Xenophobia is one if their most popular tools (remember Jerry Falwell defending Apartheid in South Africa?). If one cannot measure up intellectually, financially or even morally to society at large (as is the case of the bible belt)- a system that substitutes those measures and calculates worth by nothing other than religiosity and facile adherence to a set of religious basics is a defence mechanism jackpot. In this interesting equation reductionism is of paramount importance. Morality, according to the Oxford dictionary: concerned with the principles of right and wrong, is reduced to not being gay and not having an abortion. Keeping the focus on those two minority behaviours/actions as absolute evils allows the Evangelical majority the freedom to ignore questions of true morality that could have bearing on their own lives and behaviours- They don’t even have to ask themselves the question: What is true morality? They don’t stop at morality, their systemic defence mechanisms now touch every area of life which is why when a black man gets elected president, all hell breaks lose. It directly negates their system of hierarchy. He must have cheated, he must be from Kenya, he must, he must. Blacks, Latinos, Gays, Atheists- the systematic marginalization of these groups is of primordial importance to them, it’s the cornerstone of the Evangelical’s ego.
regarding the relationship between wealth and religion it could be argued, from a Christian view, that the danger of wealth is a marked decreased in spirituality and an increased obsession with material possessions – ‘ you cannot worship God and Mammon’ as Jesus said.
The defence mechanism theorem is very plausible, but from a Christian point of view the teachings of Jesus move beyond wealth and status – they are immaterial. The eye of the needle qoute is valid but is probably the only qoute attributed about money by Jesus.
The bastardisation of Christianity by Evangelicals is sound – I’m not going to defend them!
But do you think there isn’t ‘an increased obsession with material possessions’ amongst the poor?
And don’t you think early Christianity was anti-establishment?
will live in a consumer society which means most people are increasingly obsessed with material possessions, so the answer to the first question is yes.
I don’t think think early Christianity was anti-establishment for the sake of it, it was ostracised from the mainstream – the disciples where arguing against the Sanhedrin say they had just crucified the Jewish Messiah – I see Christianity as being bothered about the after life. The arguement between the Vatican and China is that Rome says ‘Christians have to obey God, not the State, but that includes the respecting the State’
I see Christianity – as you say – presenting an alternative paradigm which is worked out by being part of the mainstream, and outside the mainstream. The established church in the UK is VERY ‘establishment’ by its own definition with the Queen being Supreme Governor!
Brilliant my friend – thanks for this great analysis. Funny how Christians, when pressed, always seem to be saying, “Ah, but that’s the other kind of Christians…”
The point of your argument is valid and illuminating – if Christianity had any value one would expect to see the benefits in the populations supposedly espousing it, but the opposite evidence is found.
The Christian hypothesis can be rejected for lack of any good accruing from it’s adoption.
Great, let’s move on and develop the things that do work.
I’ve never seen the evangelicals in quite that light before but now that I do I feel as if I’m connecting the dots on a very disturbing picture. Is there any true difference between these evangelicals and those fundamentalist muslims who embrace the concept of jihad? And if they can turn to acts of terrorism in the name of god then how long is it going to be before the evangelicals start doing the same thing?
At the moment the religious Right has power and influence but what happens if they start to lose that power? Will ‘god’ tell them to cleanse the ungodly?
Wasn’t it one of those evangelical ministers who burned the Koran in front of television cameras – knowing that there would be a backlash from the Muslim world?
How do you tame a beast with a million slathering jaws?
They’re exactly the same as Muslim fundamentalists and their leaders exploit the same weaknesses. It’s only more obvious in the Muslim example because the notion of the suicide bomber is such an outstanding illustration of desperation leading to such an extreme act.
The koran burner guy is also a great example of whipping up anti-x sentiment. He’s a proponent of the “theory” that Muslims are trying to impose sharia law in the US- despite a total lack of evidence of any such efforts. So he’s exploiting ignorance and fear- as they all do.
I think the only way to stop it is education, but they know that themselves which is why they’re on a crusade against education and science. In the long run, though, reason does win out because religion only perpetuates itself in this exploitative form in the underclass.
I agree – education is the key and I believe the last 20-30 years have been partly to blame for the situation we now face.
Education theory took a wrong turn in both the US and in Australia [as we seem to copy so many of the trends in the US]. The way kids were taught to read and write left many of them functionally illiterate. It also left them with a belief that creativity was more important that skill, or facts. We’re paying the price for that mistake now.
Having the religious Right in the US hijack the education system is just more of this exploitation of ignorance.
This is from The Newsroom on HBO in America. Sometimes the lie (fiction) speaks more truth than reality. This is sort of an answer to your question about the religious right.
WOW! Is this for real? I mean, was this really a news commentary or was this part of something else, like a movie? The reason I ask is because the shots panning out to the technicians etc looked like something you’d get in a movie.
If this /was/ real then Will McAvoy [?] is my new superhero!
Apologies for the questions but I don’t recognize the names or faces as we don’t get these programs here in Australia.
Thanks so much Colin.
No, it’s not real. It’s the new show from the maker of West Wing on HBO. But who says fiction can’t be true, eh?
Ah, what a shame. This is the kind of principled journalism I’d /like/ to see in place of the docutainment we now have.
Those snippets of live footage are very powerful. I think this may be a show I’ll be watching in the future!
Before giving it a lot of serious thought, in the past I found myself wishing I were able to believe because Christians often seem to remain happy and positive even when life sucks. Self delusion can go a long way; when one is able to believe in magical things it is easier to ignore the surrounding poverty and despair. After all, why burden yourself with worry for this place when there’s a mansion waiting for you in heaven.
I spent much of my childhood and early adolescence hoping “to believe” too. It would be wonderful if lighting a candle or kneeling down in prayer could make someone pass their mid-term exams… I soon realized that spending that time studying had better results
It’s a wonderful idea. I think that’s what makes it so appealing to people. As with any scam it should be thoroughly researched before buying into it, but this scam has an anti-research defense mechanism built in: “You’ve got to have faith!”
Joseph Smith was a known con-man and started a religion of his own. Coincidence?
Let us hope reason indeed wins out, for the Fundamentalist Christians, Fundamentalist Mulsims, and any other fringe group with a big mouth is a scary scary beast, doing nothing but spreading ignorance and garnering hatred. If I was religious I might pray for the end of religion.