“Top Ten” List Feeds Christian Persecution Complex.
The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission has published their list of the “Top Ten Instances of Christian Bashing in America”. Mind you I in no way condone actual threats, harm or abuse (verbal, physical or psychological) toward anyone. But as with most of their claims of “bashing” this top ten list is fraught with hyperbole and hysteria. And as with most RRRW Christian sources none of their claims, no matter how serious, have any citations at all. They know their like-minded readers are going to just take them at their word, but I certainly don’t, and you shouldn’t either. But on with the list.
INSTANCE #10: Jack Black Musical Video
In a short video posted on FunnyorDie.com entitled, “Prop 8 The Musical,” an all star cast of Hollywood celebrities perform a low budget musical farce that defames Christ, mocks Christians and distorts the teaching of the Bible. Jack Black played the lead role of Jesus.
Actually the video has Jesus come out and remind bigots who quote the tired old “the Bible says gays are an abomination (so they don’t deserve anything and that’s why it was good and righteous that we eradicated their right to marry and I don’t understand why people are questioning our deeply held religious beliefs blah blah blah)” that the Bible says a lot of things that even devout Christians don’t adhere to any more. They no longer refuse to eat shellfish, they don’t sell their daughters into slavery, they don’t stone their wives, etc. He also calls them hypocrites for picking and choosing because they don’t do any of those things yet continue to preach against gays and work to harm them. There is nothing in the video that defames Jesus or distorts the teaching of the Bible. Certain people are just ticked off because it exposes them for what they are. Hypocritical bigots who use their religion as a weapon against gay people and a shield for themselves against question or criticism of their actions. Watch it yourself if you don’t believe me.
INSTANCE #9: Bill Maher Gratuitously Attacks Pope
Bill Maher, host of the HBO program Real Time, made light of the Pope during his recent visit and the tragic sexual abuse scandal. Maher said, “Now I know what you’re thinking, Bill. You can’t be saying that the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy (radical Mormon polygamist) Texas cult. For one thing, alter boys can’t even get pregnant. But really, what tripped up the little cult on the prairie was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands all over the world. Cults get raided; religions get parades… If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you Pope.”
How is anything Maher said wrong? For decades the Catholic church responded to sexual abuse complaints by intimidating and even threatening victims. They also moved offending clergy from one diocese to another in an attempt to quiet the storm in the former community. They essentially ignored the problem and many thousands of victims suffer needlessly. Only when secular lawsuits began did the Church finally have to admit openly there was a problem.
Pope Ratzinger’s comments on the tragedy:
He urged efforts “to address the sin of abuse within the wider context of sexual mores” as well as a reassessment of “the values underpinning society.”
“What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?” the pontiff said on the first full day of his US visit.
“Children deserve to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships. They should be spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today.”
Gee, it’s terrible about what those priests did to those children but–hey, look over there!!!
We shouldn’t worry about protecting children from predatory clergy because pornography is presently widely available? WTF? Not only is that a complete non-sequitur but he completely ignores the fact that 50-60 years ago when pornography was far less available priests were still abusing children. What is Pope Ratzi’s excuse for that? How about he just says “Satan made them do it” and be done with it.
Now lest anybody think I’m singling out the Catholics, I’m well aware that sexual abuse by church agents is rampant in many denominations. It’s to be expected where sexual repression is combined with deference to authority (particularly religious authority) and subservience of women and children. Head over to Conservative Babylon and Deep Thoughts to get your fill of pedophile and rapist pastors, reverends, deacons and the like.
INSTANCE #7: Minnesota University Professor Desecrates Communion
A Biology Professor from the University of Minnesota, Paul Zachary Myers, recently desecrated a consecrated communion wafer from a Catholic Mass. Meyer’s has also asked people to steal the Eucharist for him in order that he might desecrate it and display it on his blog.
How is this Christian bashing? Meyers nailed the wafer, along with torn out pages of The Koran and The God Delusion (a popular atheist book) to a copy of The Koran. His message is that things are things and should not be made sacred/idols. Sadly those who prefer to elevate things and ideologies over humanity didn’t get it, and probably never will.
Tell you what. Rip up a Rainbow Flag. Shred a dozen. I don’t give a darn. It won’t harm one hair on my head or worry me for a minute. The rainbow flag is a piece of fabric and a symbol. Damaging or even destroying it would not be “bashing gays” or harming us as people. What harms me and my community is denying us equal rights, protections and freedoms under the law, and preaching that we deserve to be mistreated–even when you claim to be doing it out of “love”.
INSTANCE #6: Religulous the Movie
Bill Maher released a very shallow, pseudo-intellectual documentary entitled Religulous. The movie did not cover any new intellectual ground. It simply raised the old attacks on the faith. Maher studiously avoided being fair and did not allow for legitimate Christian answers from any leading Christian intellectuals.
Get over it. I didn’t hear any Christians denouncing the heavily biased Expelled, which was nothing more than Creationists decrying the fact that they couldn’t pass off their religion as legitimate science and claiming that was “persecution”. But of course any movie that fails to paint religion and the religious in a strictly positive light will naturally be denounced as “bashing”. They can dish it out by the pound but they can’t take it even by the ounce.
INSTANCE #4: Colorado Law Criminalizes the Bible
SB200, a Colorado state bill recently signed into law, criminalizes the Bible. Section 8 of the bill entitled “Publishing of discriminative matter forbidden” makes publishing the Bible illegal because it contains anti-homosexual passages. This is part of a larger effort to criminalize the expression of certain opinions and beliefs.
No they didn’t, and this is another instance of the RRRW misstating the content and/or effect of laws to terrorize their flock into a desired response. SB 200 merely added sexual orientation to a list of other “protected classes ” (which includes race, national origin, marital status, and religion–which I don’t hear them crying about) against whom discrimination is illegal. That, of course, is what got the bigots’ panties in a knot. They loathe the prospect of not being able to legally discriminate against us in the name of their “deeply held religious beliefs”. Mind you similar disinformation campaigns were waged with SB 777, Proposition 8, Proposition 102 and many others, promising all manner of horrors if they did or did not pass. They’ll do and say anything to protect their perceived right to keep us under their boot heels. Making themselves out to be the victims is only part of the game.
INSTANCE #2: Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin Is Attacked
Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, came under sharp attack by some in the mainstream media because she self-identifies as a Christian. The Washington Post published a cartoon by Pat Oliphant mocking Palin because she has a background as a Pentecostal/Charistmatic Christian. A suspicious arson fire at Sarah Palin’s home church recently caused over $1,000,000 in damage.
Sarah Palin wasn’t attacked “because she self-identifies as a Christian”. Sarah Palin was rightfully criticized as unworthy to be vice president of the United States because she:
Is ignorant about American History.
Is rabidly anti-gay.
Is a corrupt, self-serving and hideously dishonest.
Is a radical RRRWer who wants to force her brand of theology on everyone by any means necessary.
Is ignorant of foreign affairs and had no foreign policy experience.
She was entirely unfit for the job and to claim she was attacked for being a Christian is disingenuous at best.
INSTANCE #1: Radical Homosexuals Assault Prop 8 Marriage Supporters in California
During and after the November campaign stories flooded in of pro-Prop 8 signs being taken, people verbally and physically assaulted, church property and private automobiles vandalized, and person’s jobs and pastor’s lives threatened simply for exercising their right to campaign and vote in support of traditional marriage.
Correction. Radical Homosexual Activists exercised their First Amendment right to protest when their right to marry was stolen by an organized campaign of hatred, intolerance, lies and big money. As I’ve noted previously there’s no such thing as “traditional marriage” so anybody who thought or claimed that voting Yes on Proposition 8 was anything but an act of anti-gay bigotry was lying, be it to themselves or others.
Furthermore, the protests were predominantly peaceful and while some acts of vandalism occurred there have been no officially documented instances where gay people engaged in unprovoked acts against others. The giant cross lady provoked those who stomped on her cross, the “white powder” has never been proved to come from anybody in particular, let alone radical homosexuals, and please note that CADC provides not one link to support their claims of these Gays Gone Wild assertions. If they’re going to purport that clergy were threatened and the like they need to back it up with citations–ones that have some form of proof that the people who engaged in the acts were gay and acting against the individuals because they were religious. Wild allegations simply won’t do.
Christians in America are not persecuted or oppressed, except in the imaginations of some individuals. People disagreeing with a belief or position, even in a contrary way, is not bashing. The people who do the most persecuting are the ones who whine loudest when their gilded seat of privilege is questioned or challenged. The bullies cry loudest when anybody dare stand up to them.
