Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Christian Persecution Rag

The Christian Right likes nothing better than feelings of persecution. Being reviled is like the Union label. Anything that proves Christians are a struggling, Godly minority always in imminent danger of being rounded up out of their million-dollar mega-churches and fed to the lions of secularism ... that absolutely turns 'em on.

So Michael Spencer's "The Coming Evangelical Collapse" in today's Christian Science Monitor will tickle that itch of the Christian Right for technicolor apocalyptic futures and the longed-for coming of the Antichrist. Yeah, verily.

Spencer sees a rolling blood-dyed tide of anti-Christianity ahead, churches deserted and empty, pastors of former thousands begging on street corners, animal sacrifice practiced in the Supreme Court, burnings at the stake ... yadda, yadda, yadda.

Spencer sees all the hyped up fictional persecution as the price to be paid for the Christian Right's decision three decades ago to sell themselves to the political goals of the Republican Party: "Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society."

If you're prone to this sort of delicious fantasy persecution-envy, you can go wallow as you please.

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