The Republican Party of the 21st Century
Displays the Characteristics of an Abusive
Toxic Faith System
In a toxic faith system such as the Republican Party, the person with the role of persecutor heads the group. Just a few years ago, up until his fall from grace in the party because of the revelations of corruption, the party’s persecutor was Newt Gingrich. Currently it is George W. Bush. The persecutor is supported by coconspirators, enablers, and victims. These people all have one primary function: to allow the persecutor to function, insulated from reality. Each person in each role believes the Republican Party must continue and grow to dominate all aspects of American culture, and it is each person’s job to distort, manipulate, hide, or deny reality so the toxic system can go on. Each person in a different way protects the persecutor from outside disruptions that could stop the achievement of the persecutor’s vision.
These people create a false reality by distancing and isolating the persecutor from contact with the real world. As they grow more committed to the persecutor and the toxic political party, they become addicted to the behaviors of their role and the feelings derived from participating in the false reality of the toxic system. Once any of them stop supporting the false reality that allows the persecutor and the party to continue, they are no longer needed by the system and are thrown out.
Persons connected with a toxic faith system must be able to work under the authoritarian, manipulative rule of the head of the organization. They become order takers and must exhibit blind faith in the leader. The leader, the persecutor, becomes so strong that he replaces God in the lives of those in the Republican Party. This poisons the organization and everyone who comes in contact with it. The job of each role in the system is to process the poison into a palpable form that is sweet and seductive enough for the victims of the persecutor to swallow. Anyone not willing to help with dispensing the poison becomes a threat to the authoritarian rule, is no longer needed, and is removed from the party with all the viciousness that can be mustered.
In a toxic church system, a persecutor dictates the rules to the rest of the followers. He uses a strong inner circle to carry out the mission. Currently this inner circle is the cabinet surrounding President Bush, and certain of the most loyal of the Republican Congressional leaders and state Governors.
The persecutor makes use of the rigid hierarchy of the Republican Party so that everyone knows his or her role in accomplishing the mission. As each person fits into the structure, identity and individuality are sacrificed to meet the demands of the system. Whatever the public facade any individual politician has adopted to display to his or her constituents will be tolerated by the party so long as it doesn’t get out of line. With the faithful followers willing to do anything to support the persecutor, the organization becomes dysfunctional and unbalanced, leaning heavily toward the top. The more unhealthy the system, the more unbalanced it becomes — guaranteeing that it will not last forever. The persecutor’s control over the Republican party will fall apart unless enough people force the persecutor and others in the system to turn from their egocentric plans and move back to a focus on the American people.
A healthy system is made up of individuals with a full range of emotions, intellect, volition (or free will) and the ability to function independently. In a dysfunctional system, each individual plays out a characteristic or role needed for the system to usurp the government to its own goals. Those roles have to be played so that those in the system can remain in their denial and avoid the overwhelming fear of insignificance.
As each of the Republican Party’s persecutors have fallen, the party has gone farther to the right, seeking a new persecutor who they can consider to be more “pure” than the fallen corrupt one. Thus the Republicans have become more and more polarized in their ideology in the last few decades, and there are fewer and fewer areas where they will tolerate even the slightest differences of opinion.
The Persecutor
The first and most dominant role in a toxic faith system is that of persecutor. Persecutors don’t start out to victimize their followers. They start out as emotionally unhealthy individuals. Rather than seeking to move beyond their issues, they compensate for them in ways that are victimizing. These people need to defend against their own sense of brokenness and fallibility.
George Bush may really want the best for our country. He has implemented rules that are supposed to make him look good, especially to those wholly immersed in the Republican ideology. He may actually believe that his rules will help to protect the country. But those who are free to see the real world for themselves are not driven to accept these delusions.
All George Bushes create a false reality for themselves, which is the purpose of any addiction. They invest their skills and talents in creating and feeding the false reality that drives an addiction. They use the power given to them by those who buy into their false identity with them to gain prestige and control of the environment and the people around them. This self-constructed creation mirrors back to them a sense of security and significance separate from any true self and relationship with America’s peoples.
Persecutors like George W. Bush, feeling that they are The Called of God, feel invincible because they believe everything they think up is backed by God and his word. They support the Party’s rules and regulations as they preach against anyone not willing to follow those rules. Any challenge or attempt to confront is disqualified and dismissed with a tirade that pretends to be an accurate assessment of the situation.
It is actually just a distortion of the truth to support the toxic system as it has become adapted to meet the needs of the current political persecutor’s ego. Using a spin-doctored interpretation of reality in this way makes the persecutor tough to reach and his unreal world almost impenetrable. He takes his own tenets and turns them into teachings believed to be of God.
Persecutors are usually great performers and place a lot of emphasis on performance. Their performance becomes everything, and they surround themselves with people willing to say that the performance is outstanding. The Party faithful mistake the persecutor’s public performances for the needed but neglected performance of the Duties of the Office held by the persecutor. Aside from the persecutor’s performance and the applause of men and women for a job well done, he feels worthless. Performance validates the persecutor’s worth and being to himself. Every day becomes a new battle to regain self-worth. Although able to perform, the persecutor rarely feels good about his performance and must have adulation to compensate for a sagging ego.
The persecutor feels acceptance only when followers express pride in him and compliment the performance. Each new crisis becomes an opportunity to reestablish his self-worth by being commended for the performance under pressure. The persecutor takes great pride in rising to the occasion, handling the new challenge, and proving to the followers of the party that they are following a capable leader. An image comes to mind of sycophants crowding around and complimenting emperor Nero on the quality of his fiddle playing, during the burning of the city of Rome.
Everyone needs a source of protection in time of need. Without it a person becomes overwhelmed with the pressures of life. Putting religion as a shelter in the place of faith in God is evidence of no faith at all. The persecutors don’t trust anyone. They trust instead their addictive relationship with the toxically submissive party and will do anything to protect their party. They are at war with themselves, and everyone becomes the enemy. They actually become addicted to the belief that they are being attacked by those who have less worthiness and faith in God than themselves. They play this card forcibly when attacking anyone who has had the audacity to publicly disagree with them.
When addiction sets in, the addict learns to trust the source of addiction for everything. The addiction, be it power or alcohol, becomes the god of the addict. The persecutor finds political power to be an addiction that produces good feelings, prestige, and the ability to feel in control. This god of ungodly religion is the persecutor’s entire world where every day brings a new victim to come under the destructive power, control, and manipulation of the persecutor.
Persecutors manipulate their victims with guilt, shame, and remorse. They project their guilt and shame onto others. Persecutors are full of disappointment. They are disappointed in themselves because they are not as great as the others they compare themselves to. Each new accomplishment becomes an addiction, producing less and less gratification. Each time the accomplishment does not produce the reward, the disappointment with everyone else, who they see as having failed them, intensifies.
A disappointed persecutor is always in search of relief from the source of disappointment. He will do anything to experience an emotional high and break through to that state of existence where false pride can override the disappointment. The persecutor appears to be self-sufficient and self-satisfied. Yet those close to the persecutor know differently. The persecutor looks for compliments, begs for attention, and is willing to reward anyone for some bit of good news. The efforts that go into countering the disappointment build up the sagging ego and ease the pain of insecurity. Those who work with the persecutor know that the way to his heart is through compliments, flattery, and praise. Anything that supports the delusion that “I’m okay” provides relief.
Persecutors think that no one labors like they do and no one should be rewarded like them.
Persecutors need forgiveness more often than they can admit, and each time they have backed themselves into a bind anew, they ask for it, veritably demanding forgiveness. While they are asking, they appear quite sincere. But they are not. They ask for forgiveness only when they cannot talk their way out of something. When someone finally comes up with evidence of imperfection they cannot explain away, there is a great shift in the emphasis of the persecutor. Tearful confessions usually do the trick to win back the doubting Thomases whose faith in the persecutor started to wane at the revelation of the wrongdoing. Thankfully America is not inhabited only by Republicans, and enough people are unwilling to swallow this kind of lie, that often the wrongdoer can be forced from the position of public trust and power he has abused.
I have written only ‘he’ in this section, for the Republican ideology does not admit that any woman will ever be good enough or pure enough that their misogynistic philosophy can ever permit her to become the Official Persecutor of their party.
The Coconspirators
For every persecutor, there is at least one coconspirator who manipulates, plots, and plans to keep the persecutor in power and position. The persecutor and the coconspirator work as a unit; they operate as one. In large organizations like the Republican Party there is usually more than one coconspirator. Several coconspirators work together to form a team of yes-men and yes-women that will do anything to protect and defend the persecutor. They feed into the persecutor’s ego and further blind him from reality. When there is a conflict, they usually find a way to agree with the persecutor and support his position. They are loyal and supportive of the persecutor in every way. They are quite happy that George Bush makes their role easier because he chooses never to read a newspaper for himself. If it was not for them, the persecutor’s empire would fall quickly.
In a toxic faith system, these are the most dangerous followers. They are as driven and misguided as the persecutor, and because they are close to power, people trust them. Their faith in the persecutor is the reason why so many will continue to support that person when trouble, rumor or admission of wrong surfaces as it inevitably does when the system so corrupts itself.
The primary role of a coconspirator is to make the persecutor look good. The coconspirator is the caretaker of the entire system and also has the especially important task of being the caretaker of the persecutor’s image. If the persecutor lacks compassion, the coconspirator will supply it and make sure that the persecutor is identified by the Party followers as compassionate. When the coconspirator receives adulation from the persecutor, it is usually related to making the persecutor look good by covering up or compensating for some major flaw in the persecutor’s true character or image.
In a typical crisis, the coconspirator comes to the rescue of the persecutor, thus gaining special favor in the eyes of the persecutor. First, the persecutor confesses to the coconspirator that a great wrong has been done. He admits that ‘sin’ has occurred and that “now, more than ever, I need your love, support, and forgiveness.” The coconspirator is told that the persecuting politician has been under relentless persecution. There are admissions of working too hard and becoming burned out. Perhaps there is the slight hint that if those around the persecutor had been more helpful, the disaster would have never happened. With the persecutor’s dramatic and tearful confession, the coconspirator is hooked, becomes addicted to the emotion, and with the intensity of the crisis rallies to save the persecutor, the victim of this “dreadful” situation.
The coconspirators believe their actions are genuine. They see everything from the point of view that the persecutor has been called of God to head the country and that everything must make sense in light of that positioning by God. The coconspirators delude themselves and others and further enhance the delusions of the persecutor.
Each coconspirator sees the evil plot out to get the persecutor and takes it as a personal mission to protect the persecutor at all costs. If it means that lies and distortions must be propagated to retain the persecutor in the government, lies and distortions will be devised. The ultimate act of loyalty to the persecutor is the willingness to lie. For lying to create the delusion of sincerity and purity, the coconspirator is rewarded with gifts, power, money, and prestige.
Coconspirators are often adults who have felt inferior all their lives. When they find favor from a powerful leader, they will die to protect their source of self-worth. They defend the persecutor and protect the empire or party because they know when it crashes, their own feelings of self-worth will die. The desire for right and wrong is replaced with the desire to feel good because they are part of something big. Having wanted security and significance all their lives, they finally have found an entire organization that gives them that value. There is no way they will allow that value to deteriorate.
Coconspirators are addicted to the political system that gives them importance, and to the embodiment of the Republican Party, the persecutor. Coconspirators invest a lifetime of effort supporting the persecutor, so it is not easy to turn away from the system or the person that heads it. Buying into the strong existence and lying to cover problems make it more difficult for coconspirators to turn away from the persecutor and the addictive relationship with power.
But it can be done. The coconspirator can have a clean slate by confessing their need to feel secure and the willingness to deny, distort, and lie to protect that place of security. The coconspirator must be willing to face himself or herself, see what is really there, and stand alone without being propped up by a devious and controlling persecutor who, along with everyone else, has victimized the coconspirator.
The Enabler
The role of the enabler varies from that of the coconspirator. The coconspirator is actively involved in delusion and connives to keep the persecutor in power. The enabler is not as active in the deception; it is a passive role that allows, rather than promotes, victimization. They have lesser positions than those of the coconspirators. They are not as active in the decision making of the organization but willingly support those decisions made at the top of the organization. They are ready to rescue the persecutor and placate him whenever possible.
The enablers are the primary caretakers of the persecutor. They are often asked to do the behind-the-scenes dirty work of the persecutor and coconspirators. They resent being placed in these roles with these functions, but they rarely complain. They are addicted to the persecutor, the toxic system, and their role. They are addicted to the feelings of worth they obtain when they are called on to fix the problems or cover up the wrongs of the persecutor.
They lose themselves in the life of the persecutor. The more they have invested in the persecutor, the more they resent themselves. Rather than break free of the system, they cling more tightly as they lose more and more of their self worth. They cannot view themselves outside the role of enabler. They become so dependent on the persecutor and the system that they will believe any lie or rationalization if it will maintain peace and the status quo of the relationship.
The addiction to the persecutor takes precedence over everything else. The addiction poisons them and robs them of their faith. They rationalize supporting evil and a victimizing system out of the need to be submissive. The addiction to the person is the single most important factor in allowing the wrongs of a toxic faith system to continue.
Throughout a toxic faith system — whether it is a ministry or a political party — there are many who exhibit enabling behaviors. The enabling behaviors form the very identity of the person, who is insecure and unable to think for himself or herself. The primary function of the enabler is to allow the persecutor to continue and the toxic faith system to survive. Each behavior makes sense only in light of the drive to support the toxic system.
One of the most enabling behaviors is going along with the group consensus. When this occurs in a government, damage can be done to thousands, even millions of people. Especially when the Republican leaders are in agreement, the enabler will go along and comply with the desire to continue as if there was no problem.
Thoughts of inaction paralyze the enabler and prevent that person from doing what might be the most helpful. Helping would be seeing the reality of the problem and confronting it. Instead, the fearful enabler allows the problem to grow until someone else intervenes.
The behaviors of the enabler serve as insulators from reality for the toxic system and especially the persecutor. When criticism is leveled at the persecutor, it is denied and covered up. Fellow workers in the party soon learn that it is not safe to talk or express feelings, especially when those feelings doubt or question the persecutor’s behavior. As long as the enabler pushes criticism aside or silences those who want to speak from within, the persecutor is free to continue unabated in the quest for power, insulated from the reality that might hamper his efforts.
Unlike the persecutors and the coconspirators acting out of the addiction to conquer, the enablers act out their behaviors to survive. To them, the world is cruel, and the persecutor is the victim. They believe that if someone as strong as the persecutor can get in trouble, they themselves would be destroyed quickly. They will do anything not to have to face the world alone. They rationalize that they are acting in the nation’s best interest. They state that their decisions are made in accordance with their faith. They are actually holding on for dear life, doing anything that will prevent them from having to endure the painful process of change and facing the world alone.
Because they are so determined to keep things as they are, they feel responsible for everything. They take the entire burden of the party on themselves. They work harder and harder to keep the party going and the persecutor in power. They neglect their own needs for the sake of meeting the needs of the persecutor. They consider every new development a threat to their existence, and protection is the only means to survive. When the persecuting head of the party falls, the enabler believes if a little more effort had been given, everyone would have been happy.
When the party fails and the current persecutor falls, the enablers believe that a few more sacrifices would have saved the day. The coconspirators fuel this thinking with manipulative comments in time of trouble. The coconspirators confront the enablers about doing a better job of meeting the needs of the persecutor. Others will ask for greater sacrifice and understanding from the enablers. These unrealistic expectations trap the enablers into believing more work and more effort must be extended. They break sometimes under the pressure. The enablers carry the weight of the world, especially the weight of the delusional world of the persecutor, and everyone around the enablers seems to imply that more must be done to help the persecutor and the party. They fear they may not survive if they do not comply.
Enablers know that what is happening is wrong. They want it to change but are too afraid or don’t know how to facilitate change. Enablers feel so powerless outside the world of the persecutor and are so dependent on the persecutor that they believe they are unable to face the consequences of change. These feelings are not accidental, but are carefully sustained by the organization of the Republican Party itself. Enablers are different from the coconspirators who know things are not right but fight to keep them that way. The enablers are burdened by guilt over their wanting things to change. They never stop hoping that somehow the persecutor will decide to live differently, the party will go back to serving the nation, and everything will be wonderful.
They increase their efforts to support and love the persecutor, hoping this will result in the needed change. Their increased efforts of love and support only feed the ego of the persecutor and allow the persecution to go unabated. The magnitude of the lies and rationalizations they are willing to swallow grows and grows as the Party gets farther from any reality. They feel sorry for all of the deceived victims but not enough to risk forcing change on the system. They hope for something to make a difference while refusing to do anything they could themselves do to change it.
Enablers respond to each new crisis and all of the subtle hints of the toxic system to do what is needed to protect the party. The party, especially to the coconspirators, blackmails the enablers to stay in the supportive role — whatever the price. Each enabler acts under different personal reasonings. An enabler who has been in the role for a long time will quickly move to feel sorry for just about anyone requesting pity. Trained Party enablers quickly respond to the rescue call and move in to support and save the persecutor.
The key response of the enablers is to support. When they doubt the persecutor and the mission of the party, their first answer is to continue to offer support. They have been left few responses by Republican Party ideology other than to defend and support the person in the midst of criticism. The persecutor’s world may become more unpredictable, but at least there is the constant force of the enabler’s support. This support allows the persecutor to believe he is right. It is fuel to continue the delusionary existence that exploits many victims.
The Victim
The most unfortunate of all the roles in a toxic faith system is that of the victim. Victims don’t know what they’re doing when they blindly support a toxic faith system and its persecuting, victimizing leader. They trust their leaders to be people of integrity and will shun any mention that it is not so. They are constantly inundated with ideological rhetoric that this is so, no matter what things look like to anyone who cares to think for himself or herself.
Victims sacrifice their time and money and faith to support the system. The persecutor, coconspirators, and enablers manipulate these people to keep the toxic party system going and the persecutor in power.
Victims are compliant people. They cause no problems because they believe everything that is passed down from the top. From their positions in the background, they make everything appear okay with the blind support they offer. Their blind allegiance is taken for granted because victims lose themselves in the party. They never make a fuss and never rock the boat. They just wait to carry out the next duty that is assigned. Victims sacrifice personal needs and desires so that they can be part of the system.
The silent and invisible victims sacrifice their need to be significant in order to be valued by the system. They fear rejection and abandonment so much that they would rather be exploited members of something than to be on their own and part of nothing. The leaders in the Republican Party know this and exploit it regularly. Any sadness and pain from feeling insignificant is carefully hidden from the other victims, just one more lie made in order to be acceptable. Everyone acts as if it is a great privilege to be taken for granted and lost in such a worthwhile mission.
Victims make great sacrifices. They sacrifice their happiness and self-respect to feel important and gain acceptance. They unknowingly sacrifice their needs so that persons they esteem can be saved from experiencing the consequences of their own behaviors. Although they are unaware of it, a victim’s attitude of sacrifice has more to do with a lack of self-worth than anything else. In the name of God they sacrifice far beyond what God would demand. The ways in which they give of their time, money, and themselves perpetrate the exploitation by a party that is not dedicated to serving the nation. The more the victims sacrifice, the more victims are created by the party.
Toxic faith leaders are always talking about how others must sacrifice for the sake of the system. Such men are ready to sacrifice anybody and everybody else in the real world in order to maintain their delusionary world. They believe that the followers who sacrificed themselves for the leader were sacrifices the leader himself made, but Toxic leaders never actually willingly make any personal sacrifices.
The victim’s hope must come through exercising the gift of free choice given to human beings by God. Free choice is never made in the midst of emotional blackmail or pressure to conform.
Thanx & a hat tip …
While reading the book Toxic Faith by Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1991), something began to seem very familiar about what I was reading. What surprised me was where I realized that the familiarity of the description came from.
This document has been adapted (written in 2004) largely from Chapter Seven of Toxic Faith. I am not a shrink of any kind, so it is inevitable that some errors of my understanding of the book have crept in, but I believe that this adaptation is substantially a true description of what has happened to the Republican Party, changes which began gaining great momentum perhaps around the time of the presidency of Ronald Reagan (who I myself believed in at first). The Republican ideology grows narrower and narrower with each passing year and with each fallen persecutor.
I make no claims that this document is perfect in any way. I am just hoping that it can stir some people to thinking about the questions in their own minds that they have been refusing to face. I do find that I wonder how long it will be before this president’s secret political police pay me a midnight visit.
Does Condoleeza Rice (hope I spelled that correctly) fill the role of a Coconspirator or an Enabler? I’m not sure. Every time I see her on the news, what I see in her eyes is someone who sold her soul for the sake of her ambitions, and is now trapped and almost hopeless.
Colin Powell almost became an Outcast of the party and for a short while nearlyh looked like he was going to regain his honesty and integrity, but he quickly knuckled under pressure and toed the party line again.
Dick Cheney is obviously at the heart of the Coconspirators, making sure that no one who comes into contact with the party leadership can go away without being coopted into their delusional world. He works in secret and isolation, never having to meet with any people who are not party ideologues.
John Ashcroft of course is the Coconspirator who is directly responsible for the enforcement of the new rules of this persecutor, in the assault on the constitutional rights of both citizens of the United States of America and the basic human rights once granted as a matter of course to visitors to this country.
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The following two sections are quoted without adaptation from the book. See how many of them you can find instances of within the Republican Party’s behaviors now in the Twentieth Century.
Ten Characteristics of a Toxic Faith System:
1. The members of the toxic faith system make claims about their character, abilities, or knowledge that make them “special” in some way.
2. The leader is dictatorial and authoritarian.
3. Religious Addicts are at war with the world to protect their terrain and establish themselves as godly persons who can’t be compared to other persons of faith.
4. Toxic faith systems are punitive in nature.
5. Religious addicts are asked to give overwhelming service.
6. Many religious addicts in the system are physically ill, emotionally distraught, and spiritually dead.
7. Communication is from the top down or from the inside out.
8. Rules are distortions of God’s intent and leave Him out of the relationship.
9. Religious addicts lack objective accountability.
10. The technique of labeling is used to discount a person who opposes the beliefs of the religious addict.
Ten Common Rules of a Toxic Faith System
1. The leader must be in control of every aspect at all times.
2. When problems arise, find a guilty party to blame immediately.
3. Don’t make mistakes.
4. Never point out the reality of a situation.
5. Never express your feelings unless they are positive.
6. Don’t ask questions, especially if they are tough ones.
7. Don’t do anything outside of your role.
8. Don’t trust anyone.
9. Nothing is more important than giving money to the organization.
10. At all costs, keep up the image of the organization.