FUNDAMENTALS BAFFLE FUNDAMENTALISTS

“Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice.” --Barry Goldwater

As the drama and tension builds for the election (can’t we have it tomorrow?), we see a nation under stress. Unremitting stress is dangerous: people tend to fray around the edges. Some unravel. Some act out.

Here are a couple of revealing, unrelated-but-utterly-related, fresh news items:

------------
Christian right intensifies attacks on Obama
Conservative activists escalate 'doom and gloom' rhetoric as Nov. 4 nears
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27369927

…Steve Strang, publisher of Charisma magazine, a Pentecostal publication, titled one of his recent weekly e-mails to readers, "Life As We Know It Will End If Obama is Elected." Strang said gay rights and abortion rights would be strengthened in an Obama administration, taxes would rise and "people who hate Christianity will be emboldened to attack our freedoms." [Emphasis ours.]

Separately, a group called the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission has posted a series of videos on its site and on YouTube called "7 Reasons Barack Obama is not a Christian." The commission accuses Obama of "subtle diabolical deceit" in saying he is Christian, while he believes that people can be saved through other faiths. [Emphasis ours.]

But among the strongest pieces this year is Focus on the Family Action's letter….Signed by "A Christian from 2012," it claims a series of events could logically happen based on the group's interpretation of Obama's record, Democratic Party positions, recent court rulings and other trends.

Among the claims:

·A 6-3 liberal majority Supreme Court that results in rulings like one making gay marriage the law of the land and another forcing the Boy Scouts to "hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys." (In the imagined scenario, The Boy Scouts choose to disband rather than obey).

·A series of domestic and international disasters based on Obama's "reluctance to send troops overseas." That includes terrorist attacks on U.S. soil that kill hundreds, Russia occupying the Baltic states and Eastern European countries including Poland and the Czech Republic,
and al-Qaida overwhelming Iraq.

·Nationalized health care with long lines for surgery and no access to hospitals for people over 80.

The goal was to "articulate the big picture," said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior director of public policy for Focus on the Family Action. "If it is a doomsday picture, then it's a realistic picture," she said.

-------
Missouri Students Face Punishment for 'Hit a Jew Day'
Saturday, October 25, 2008
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,444006,00.html

ST. LOUIS — At least four students from a suburban St. Louis middle school face punishment for allegedly hitting Jewish classmates during what they called "Hit a Jew Day."

---------

Compare these tidbits to the following passages:


How the Spanish Inquisition Worked
by Shanna Freeman
http://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/spanish-inquisition1.htm

…To maintain its authority, the Church suppressed heretics. The Church had a very specific definition of heresy: A heretic publicly declared his beliefs (based upon what the Church considered inaccurate interpretations of the Bible) and refused to denounce them, even after being corrected by the authority.

…Many prominent citizens were concerned about their country's religious diversity and had bigoted attitudes toward non-Catholics. Jews were subjected to violent attacks known as pogroms and isolated in ghettos. Many were killed…. Many Jews converted to Catholicism. These converts were sometimes called marranos (Spanish for "pig" and a very derogatory term) and accused of secretly continuing to practice Judaism. They became targets of the Inquisition.

… Muslim converts to Catholicism, called Moriscos (Spanish for "Moorish"), were targeted for the same reasons as Jewish converts. In the late 16th century, Protestants, mainly Lutherans, also became the target of the Inquisition.

***

Every Spanish Christian over the age of twelve (for girls) and fourteen (for boys) was accountable to the Inquisition. Those who had converted from Judaism or Islam but who were suspected of secretly practicing their old rites; as well as others holding or acting on religious views contrary to Catholicism were targeted. Anyone who spoke against the Inquisition could fall under suspicion - as did saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. To stem the spread of heresy and anti-Catholicism, Torquemada promoted the burning of non-Catholic literature; especially the Talmud and, after the final defeat of the Moors at Granada in 1492, Arabic books as well. Tomás de Torquemada, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1s_de_Torquemada

------

AND NOW…THE HCO RANT

Handing Over the Keys?

If the United States was handed over to these fundamentalist folks, and we gave them unfettered “freedom”, what might the country look like?

The country could be run under Christian theology…the political and judicial systems could be subservient to the decrees of religious leaders. Everyone could finally be on the same page here…no more noise from those pesky unsaved, un-savable un-Christians, who by definition are going to burn in hell anyway.

This isn’t such a bad idea, right? It’s working...for Iran.

Just like Carrie Gordon Earll, the goal here is to “articulate the big picture…if it’s a doomsday picture, then it's a realistic picture.”

[Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Circa 1933: British actor Matheson Lang is chained to a cross during the Spanish Inquisition in a scene from the film "The Wandering Jew."]

Now We’re Getting Really Mad

From what unfathomable feculent well of ignorance does this stuff spew? Who is teaching this stuff under the cloak of Christian morality?

Does this stray flock ever ask what Jesus would do? Really, is this what Jesus—arguably the greatest liberal of all time—would do?

These perverted religion-laced messages are indistinguishable from those we decry in the militant Muslim terrorists who have vowed to kill all of us infidels. The “freedom” they pursue, in their extremity, would license them to blindly, wildly swing their fists regardless of where the other guy’s nose happens to end.

Barry Goldwater lost by a landslide.

The Fundamentals Baffle the Fundamentalists

These folks have it tragically backwards. Their messaging is not about freedom, it’s about suppression of freedom.

Oddly, this twisted mindset reinforces the fundamental (if possibly unforeseen) wisdom of our all-white (some slave-owning), Christian Founding Fathers in separating church and state. This fundamental, which apparently baffles and eludes these fundamentalists, separates our own unreasoning, fearful—and often savage and tribal—natures from overwhelming the better selves, the higher plane, that our “real American” ideals point to.

(BTW, let’s not get crazy ourselves. We’re all for menorahs and nativity scenes side-by-side in schools. This is part of learning about others. And we’re okay with “In God We Trust” on the money.)

These guys ever read the plaque on the Statue of Liberty? Perhaps not…it’s in New York Harbor.

Quiz

Which is consistent with the highest aspirations of the “real American” ideal (pick one):

(____) Making room in our spacious tent, room at our abundant tables, embracing and understanding with “mild eyes.”

(____) Burning dissenters at the stake.