Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Christian Jihad

You, know, I don't want to harp on this, but I'm a little surprised* at how entrenched the attitude I mentioned in my last post is. What brings it up again is a story I read in the online slush for Baen's Universe. Without going into too much detail, the story features a character who is a cross between Jerry Falwell and Rev. Don Wildmon, who is protesting a particularly violent TV show. When he is supplied with military weapons, his followers not only attack the remote island on which the TV show is taped, but also begin randomly attacking abortion clinics and homosexual-rights groups.

This is at least the second story I've read in past months in which Christian rightists (and more specifically, American Christian rightists) take up arms against a world of sinners in order to impose their own moral views by force. And what's more depressing than the assumptions implicit in the stories (and though both authors denied that the stories represented their personal views, the denials seemed disingenuous - I can write a story about elves without believing in magic, but can I seriously argue that my story about lazy, stupid blacks who prefer slavery to freedom doesn't represent my personal views in any way?) is the lack of protest from anyone else on the boards. There were plenty of criticisms of this point or that point, but none about the stereotyping of Christian conservatives as being one step away from worldwide jihad.

Am I just crazy? Look, I think it's silly and ignorant to believe in the six-day Creation, the worldwide Flood or the Virgin Birth. But I think people who believe that we're just a Supreme Court appointment away from outlawing abortions, legalizing homosexual murder and reinstituting slavery are just as silly and ignorant (and they're out there, apparently in large numbers and supported by famous names). It's a hateful caricature, and I'm getting tired of it.

*to which a friend of mine would reply, "I'm only surprised that you're surprised"

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