Dialectic that powers the American Religion

Bloom points out in The American Religion that Mormonism, in the early days especially, was driven by a dialectic between the need to create the new Kingdom on Earth, but to also remain outside the mainstream. This conflict powered the growth of Mormonism.

I’m seeing this same dialectic play out in the comments on Free Republic about Reverend Falwell. Here are some relevant comments:

Hatred of Falwell by those on the left illustrates just how effective he was. The darkness hates the light. A man is sometimes honored by the number and passion of the enemies he makes. This is exactly what the Bible warned would happen. Right[e]ous people WILL be persecuted, even after their death.

A large number, perhaps a majority, of the comments are concerned with how their political enemies are responding to the news. Every time an outsider to their world condemns their icon they post how it renews their faith and vindicates their beliefs. Their faith would apparently suffer if they were completely mainstream and did not have a political enemy to struggle against. Yet to be the mainstream is what they want! Apparently there is no condition where both parties can win, and they can sustain their beliefs.

What surprises me is how little they seem to be celebrating specific things that Falwell did. I really haven’t seen any posts praising his segregationist views, anti-homosexual views, Christian Zionism, etc. There has been praise in general for his good works but really only in generalities. That may be a fault of the the Free Republic forums. Their forums tend to only contain short snarky or pious comments and don’t reward more in-depth posts. A condition that is common across all forums on the Internet, not just Free Republic.