cognitive dissident

Tom Krattenmaker’s “A War on Christians? No.” at Yahoo News is a good rebuttal to the persecution complexes of those behind the “War on Christians” conference that began yesterday in Washington. Krattenmaker notes that “the rhetoric of persecution from Scarborough and his fellows rings false. A war on Christians?” and continues:

It sounds more like an exaggerated scare tactic aimed at grabbing attention, rallying the troops and sowing deeper division between the opposing sides in the ongoing debate over the proper role of religion in the public square.

Worse, it trivializes the true persecution of Christians in the early history of the church and the real abuse unleashed on Christians today in some corners of the world. Christians in America are hardly being thrown to the lions.

[…]

So, for our domestic debates, let's find a more appropriate, more sober vocabulary. Many words might describe what's going on between conservative Christians and their political opponents today. "War"? That's not one of them.

(Thanks to Lya Kahlo at Escapee from the Meme Machine for the tip. She noted, in a perfectly apt description of Christianist paranoia, that “Whenever Goliath pretends to be David, it's pathetic and tragically funny.”)