Isolated from truth

Frank Schaeffer used to be a Fundie leader, which means he can explain how they think to the rest of us. Yeah, we have known about some of this stuff for a long time. Even so, it is good for Schaeffer to write about it in the Huffington Post and get it in front of a wider audience.

Schaeffer notes that Fundies have been trained from a young age to not think for themselves. They must trust their faith (as handed to them) and reject outside evidence. The leadership protects the flock from outside ideas because otherwise they would lose their message and power.

Every election season they pop out of their caves of self imposed exile to comment on and try to influence where the country is headed (the Bronze Age would be nice). Since their isolation tends to be so complete (their own schools and universities, their own publishing companies, and Fox, their own TV network), they hate everything that might break through that isolation. Thus public education is feared. Colleges that are not Fundie are feared because they promote the free exchange of ideas (and that's why Santorum says kids shouldn't go to college). Media is feared for the same reason. All public institutions, such as gov't agencies, Federal Reserve, even infrastructure projects, are feared because they demand a baseline of fact.

Abuse brains like that and their owners become damaged. They are lashing out at reality -- and presiding over the destruction of the GOP.