Understanding “Tea Party” Participants
This is the best article I have read to date from someone wanting to engage and understand those that participate in the “Tea Party” political movement. It is interesting reading. I mentioned in a post that I was frustrated by the term “Muslim American”. This author picks up this mode as some Tea Party participants identified themselves as “Christian Americans”. This is division rather than diversity and how the fear profiteers will continue to as “lord of the manor.”
“Me” the People: A Day with the Tea Party
by Alex MCNeill | Religion Dispatches | August 30, 2010Individually, most Tea Partiers probably are nice people, trying to do what’s right, motivated by good intentions that extend from their faith in God and in their understanding of what this nation stands for. And individualism is exactly what the rhetoric of the rally was all about. From the Web site: “throughout history America has seen many great leaders and noteworthy citizens change her course. It is through their personal virtues and by their example that we are able to live as a free people. Our freedom is possible only if we remain virtuous.” Mirroring their Christology, salvation for themselves and for the country is an individual act.