China shuts down 50 more porn Web sites in sweep

At the risk of starting something, it's curious that secularism is usually branded by the Christian political Right in America as being communistic, but when it comes down to a side-by-side comparison, Christian conservatism seems to share more than a few sociopolitical aims with true communist dictatorships like China (e.g., limiting free speech, prohibition of alcohol, subjugation of women, government-sanctioned discrimination of homosexuals, etc.)

It seems that what they both ultimately crave is the power required to prevent individuals from having self-autonomy. Similarly, it seems that this craving is, in both cases, born of a fear of losing power to an enlightened populace. The methods that each uses to accomplish this task are also strikingly similar. In the case of China, it uses nationalistic propaganda -- the loving of "Father China" -- to keep its people fearful. In the case of Christian conservatism, it uses moralistic propaganda -- the loving of "the Holy Father" -- to keep its people meek.

Terra I have to disagree with you. I am not the most religious person in the world, but reading your post you seem to be violently opposed to any organized religion. Why? Besides you arent really addressing the posted subject, oh well.

  China knows that to loose control of the internet means the people of China will learn of the outside world. The more they learn, they more they want, until they finally tell Bejing to piss off.

China knows that to loose control of the internet means the people of China will learn of the outside world. The more they learn, they more they want, until they finally tell Bejing to piss off.

But this exactly parallels much of the history of the Christian church. The Catholic Church, for example, during and subsequent to the fall of the Roman Empire had specific control of literacy among the populace, for fear that a literate population would be able to read and interpret scripture for itself, thereby voiding the power of the papacy to control church-state issues. The invention of the printing press and the Enlightenment both had significant impacts on literacy, as well as human understanding of nature, which further undermined the church's authority. The church's answer to that, in hopes of maintaining its power over the lives of people, was, among other things, to force the wrath of the inquisition on those who challenged scriptural dogma.

Lest you disregard these things as merely historical events, consider, too, that the church continues to levy its influence both here and abroad on government distribution of power, geopolitical decision-making, the availability of health care, education, etc., and I think you'll understand what I meant in my previous post. Ultimately, what the church and dictatorships have in common is a fear of an enlightened population that will, once enlightened, inevitably challenge authoritarian rule.