Can someone explain to me how young earth creationists can even exist at high levels in our government? It just seems so embarrassing. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.
Because huge swaths of the population either agrees with them or agrees with their other political/economic/religious views.
Personally, what shocks me more than individuals getting elected, are the educated individuals who believe it. I work in an office filled with engineers. Amazingly, my first cubicle neighbor, and I've found he isn't an outlier, was a diehard young earth creationist. Electrical engineer, 4 year degree at a good school. Still somehow believes in a vast conspiracy by scientists in league with the devil to hide The Truth. At a previous company, another engineer, this one with a PhD, was not ashamed of the time he berated guides/curators at the Museum of Natural History for a display on dinosaurs.
Speaking as someone who grew up in Texas in conservative evangelical family, there are plenty of churches that are politically active (not all but there are a lot). So you basically have a voting block that takes marching orders from their spiritual leaders.
I attended such a church until my early 20's (I'm 32 now) and around elections there were many sermon reminders that they needed to go vote for people aligned with their conservative values. At my former church they wouldn't explicitly endorse candidates, but it was understood you voted Republican. If the Republican at least appeared to be an evangelical Christian, you would get more support. (I remember George W. Bush being called a "man of God" by several people.)
Moreover, if you had an inclination to, say, vote Democrat, then you better be quite about it. People would just about question how "true" of a Christian you were if you did that.
Disclaimer: I know that not every church in states like Texas are like this. I know because I went to less political churches too. (I don't go to church anymore for what it's worth.)
I too grew up [and reside in] Texas. I grew up in rural Texas and live in a large city now. I don't believe the religious zealotry is near as prevalent in the public (even the voting public) as it is in the representatives. I know stories like this don't make it seem so, but I find that many Texans vote based on fiscal policy instead of social policy. The unfortunate consequence is the politicians tend to be both fiscally and socially conservative putting voters in a quandary to prioritize if they don't side with all values.
Couple that with post-election apathy towards what's going on in Austin, and you get crackpots. Not saying that some people don't specifically vote for creationists, but my limited experience tells me most do not.
I certainly agree with what you're saying. There is a difference between fiscal and social conservatives, and the fiscal camp is larger. The religious right by themselves are not as powerful as some on the left make them out to be. But I still think the evangelicals have a certain power, because the fiscal camp needs them to vote. So the fiscal camp whips up concerns about the social issue du jour to get them to the polls.
Hacktivism project: attend services at these churches around election-time and document (audio and video if possible) any cases of them endorsing for or against specific candidates.
Churches can lose their tax-exempt status for doing that. It happened to a church in upstate NY during the first Clinton election. (They later had the ruling overturned on the basis that the IRS somehow singled them out for disproportionate treatment, but I'm hopeful that with more evidence of more churches doing it, simply getting caught wouldn't be legitimate grounds for crying "They're picking on me!" any more...)
I live in Texas. I've yet to see or hear of this really happening. I've seen churches directly involved in politics my whole life. Sure, they try not to mention names, but they don't need to.
Because leadership ability does not require critical thinking. Leadership is certainly better if it has it, but leading groups of people to achieve their objectives doesn't require it. So you get some excellent leaders who think the world is flat.
It is unfortunate that so many people still believe in fairy tale creation stories of the world, enough so that crazy public officials are elected into office. But I suppose the Human mind by default is irrational.
Not coincidentally, religious influence in government is one of the factors that has been slowly leading me to question the merits of democracy in general.
