religion as plague
David Horton’s piece at HuffPo comparing religion to a plague is, I suspect, exactly the sort of opinion that will fuel paranoid Christianist fantasies of persecution at their “War on Christians” conference. The fact that Horton’s opinion doesn’t cause the loss of their jobs, declare their marriages void, take away their children, or throw them to the lions doesn’t matter to the Christianists, though; what really fuels their ire is not the powerlessness of those who dissent, it’s the fact that dissent is allowed to exist at all.
That totalitarian impluse is what they have in common with Islamists, and one of the reasons that their demand for control of our nation must be resisted. They only want freedom of speech and freedom of religion for themselves and those who believe and act exactly as they do, which is to say that they don’t truly want freedom at all. They want total control, and they must not get it.
Paul Waldman comments on the “War on Christians” conference, highlighting the Christianist mentality:
That conservative blame-America-first crowd is really getting out of hand.This is one big difference between the right and the left. Both sides have their nutballs. But on the left, the nutballs are ignored. The nutballs on the right are treated by some of the highest elected officials in the land as though they are reasonable people who deserve to be pandered to.
update (1:58 PM):
Bill Press concludes his piece on the conference over at HuffPo this way:
There's no war on Christians. Just the paranoia of a small band of right-wing Christians with a crucifixion complex. They're not happy unless they believe someone is nailing them to the cross. [emphasis added]
I’ll be using the phrase “crucifixion complex” in the future, and I hope Press doesn’t expect royalties.