azov
11-17-2003, 08:33 PM
Claims of Christian Victimization Ring Hollow
By TIM WISE
David Limbaugh, brother of Rush, has been making the rounds lately, promoting his new book, Persecution: How Liberals are Waging War Against Christianity. Therein, Limbaugh claims that the left, broadly defined, is doing everything possible to eliminate all mention of the nation's majority faith from the public square.
Limbaugh digs up hundreds of cases that ostensibly make clear the systematic campaign of denigration aimed at Christians. Most of these involve instances of so-called religious persecution in public schools, from which, to hear Limbaugh tell it, God has been fully expunged and where expressing one's faith is sure to result in suspension, a failing grade, or having one's Bible thrown in the trash by a humanist teacher who proclaims "this is garbage," as she slings the good book to the paper receptacle like so much refuse.
How telling and appropriate then, that in the same month Limbaugh's book became a best-seller, what with its hyperbolic claims of a leftist putsch against followers of the man from Nazareth, we should also learn of the comments of U.S. General William Boykin, who has announced a jihad of his own against Muslims.
Boykin, for those who have been living under a rock for the last several weeks, has claimed that God is on the side of the U.S. in its fight against terrorism, and that Islam is essentially a "Satanic" faith, led by idol worshipers whose God isn't as big or real as the God of Christianity. That Allah, the name for God in Arabic, is actually the exact same God as the one Boykin worships naturally escapes him. After all, everyone knows the Lord only speaks English.
Boykin's comments, far from being attacked by those in positions of power and authority, despite the supremacist mindset behind them, were shrugged off by the Bush Administration. Boykin himself was praised by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and isn't even being reprimanded, let along persecuted for his nuttiness. That's what it means to be a member of the majority faith: you can be a bigot, spew intolerant and ignorant diatribes against those of other traditions and never get in trouble. On the other hand, let a Muslim with any real position of authority go around attacking Christianity, especially after 9/11, and see how quickly they would end up on John Ashcroft's **** list, investigated under the Patriot Act.
http://www.counterpunch.org/wise11082003.html
By TIM WISE
David Limbaugh, brother of Rush, has been making the rounds lately, promoting his new book, Persecution: How Liberals are Waging War Against Christianity. Therein, Limbaugh claims that the left, broadly defined, is doing everything possible to eliminate all mention of the nation's majority faith from the public square.
Limbaugh digs up hundreds of cases that ostensibly make clear the systematic campaign of denigration aimed at Christians. Most of these involve instances of so-called religious persecution in public schools, from which, to hear Limbaugh tell it, God has been fully expunged and where expressing one's faith is sure to result in suspension, a failing grade, or having one's Bible thrown in the trash by a humanist teacher who proclaims "this is garbage," as she slings the good book to the paper receptacle like so much refuse.
How telling and appropriate then, that in the same month Limbaugh's book became a best-seller, what with its hyperbolic claims of a leftist putsch against followers of the man from Nazareth, we should also learn of the comments of U.S. General William Boykin, who has announced a jihad of his own against Muslims.
Boykin, for those who have been living under a rock for the last several weeks, has claimed that God is on the side of the U.S. in its fight against terrorism, and that Islam is essentially a "Satanic" faith, led by idol worshipers whose God isn't as big or real as the God of Christianity. That Allah, the name for God in Arabic, is actually the exact same God as the one Boykin worships naturally escapes him. After all, everyone knows the Lord only speaks English.
Boykin's comments, far from being attacked by those in positions of power and authority, despite the supremacist mindset behind them, were shrugged off by the Bush Administration. Boykin himself was praised by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and isn't even being reprimanded, let along persecuted for his nuttiness. That's what it means to be a member of the majority faith: you can be a bigot, spew intolerant and ignorant diatribes against those of other traditions and never get in trouble. On the other hand, let a Muslim with any real position of authority go around attacking Christianity, especially after 9/11, and see how quickly they would end up on John Ashcroft's **** list, investigated under the Patriot Act.
http://www.counterpunch.org/wise11082003.html