[Image of Gary Cass borrowed from southern4life blog]Ah, the poor christianists in our country. They are sorely abused, challenged, chastised, made to feel inferior, unable to promote their religion, beat up by atheists, agnostics and other weird religious groups.
One wonders why this should be, seeing as how the majority of people in the United States lay claim to some form of Christianity. As PZ Myers notes at Pharyngula, you can't even get elected in this fair land without espousing a belief in God, and being a Christian believer just makes attaining a place on the public dole that much easier.
Nevertheless, Christians are under seige and we can be very glad there is such a thing as the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission! God can't help these poor christianists, so it's about time they took the situation in hand and did something about it. Rejoice in the fact that the CADC is on top of things and busy protecting Christians from their anti-Christians neighbors!
One example as to how Christians are persecuted, according to Dr. Gary Cass, head poohbah of the CADC, is the war that secularists and atheists and mainline church-goers wage on Christian Christmas celebrations.
Cass comments "The twin enemies of Christmas, secular humanism and political correctness, have had a very corrosive influence on Christmas this year."
What in the world does that mean? Were any Christians anywhere in the United States not allowed to celebrate Christmas according to the tenets of their faith? Did secular humanists burst into churches on Christmas Eve and disrupt the services? Was Santa Claus outlawed from sliding down the chimney anywhere in the U.S. where they have chimneys?
I'm mocking Mr. Cass.
The truth is that Cass has looked into the future and doesn't like what he sees. "Radical atheist groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation ... have gone on the offense." Yup. These nasties have actually placed signs and billboards around the country "attacking faith in general and Christian faith in particular." Dontcha know only Christians are allowed to put up signs advocating their beliefs?
It's almost too much to bear: "While FFRF is free to express their benighted perspective," whines Cass, "why do they feel they have to do it in the midst of the Christmas season?" They don't put up signs during Ramadan or during Jewish holidays. "Their intentions appear to be only anti-Christian."
Omigod.
Cass whines on about the bus signs in Washington, D.C. that asked "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." I guess he thinks people should only be good when and if a deity specifically instructs them to do so.
More whining, this time about "political correctness." There were just too many big retail stores that refused to mention Christmas in their advertising. Rather, they used the phrase "Happy Holidays" merely to avoid offending some people. Yikes!
And the schools! My goodness for goodness sake, some schools took the name "Jesus" out of Christmas assignments, and the University of North Carolina took down their Xmas trees because some folks complained about them.
'Tis a terrible problem, this persecution of Christians. Next thing you know some atheist SOB will want to throw 'em to the lions; right here in the US of A where trust in god is part of our money.
Cass suggests good Christian folks can help to mitigate the damage done by the atheists, agnostics, leftists, liberals, mainline Christians and just plain pagans by reading the Christmas story in Luke 1 & 2 to their families.
Why not read the Xmas story in Mark, or John, or even Matthew? Oops, that's right. There is no Xmas story in those Gospels! Well, except for Matthew. But his story conflicts with Luke's! Damn.
And go to church. Lock the doors behind you, though, just in case some leftist Christmas-hater walks by and shouts "Happy Holidays" through the portal!
Then run around wishing everyone a "Merry Christmas."
Try to smile!
Heh. Heh.
2 comments:
The paranoid myth of Christian victimization
and efforts to prop up Christian culture in the public sphere remind me of the Francophones of Quebec. They know they are at risk of fading into the past and so they force everyone else to use French, hanging on by their fingernails year after year. While I love the French-Canadian culture and hope it can survive, it will fail if it can only do so coercively. I love Christmas traditions, music, decorations, food, etc. But if I have to buy into kooky religious mythology and be forced to adhere to Puritan sexual politics just to do it...I'm afraid I'm going to have to switch to "Happy Holidays!"
These paranoid Christians bring this so-called bashing on themselves by being so intransigent. Dr. Cass' myth-based worldview is not likely to succeed without a Christian "Taliban" to prop it up.
I also loved the part about Bill Maher not consulting with enough "Christian intellectuals" on his film. Uh...???
Great comment! They truly are paranoid. By "they," I'm talking about christianists, not all Christians.
Christianists are fundamentalists who buy into all the mythological stuff and prop it up on a literal interpretation of an inerrant Bible, thereby concluding they alone have the "truth."
Millions of Christians beg to differ - it's just they stay more or less quietly in the background while the christianists take center stage. Christianists try to claim the heritage as their own but merely regurgitate the desperate and magical theologies derived from malcontents and religious thugs of a hundred years ago.
It's interesting that I get lots of whining from christianists who miss the point entirely. Just by using the word, "christianist," I'm suggesting that the boat has sailed and they are standing on the shore flailing wildly about how it's the wrong boat with the wrong color and it, along with everybody on board, is going to sink.
Real Christians, I like to think, are those who care little about dogma but try to actually follow the godman Jesus portrayed in the Gospels, living with care and concern for other human beings and the world.
Thanks for writing.
Jacob
Post a Comment