Gary Bauer is cute, like a hobbit. But he’s not very bright. He’s trying to convince us that Christians are treated worse than Muslims in America, and here is part of his proof.
If Christianity were treated like Islam, Christmas and Easter would be publicly celebrated for what they are — the signature events of Christianity, marking the birth and the death and Resurrection of Christ — not stripped of all their theological meaning and transformed into secular holidays devoted to crass consumerism.
Now, I know that Gary Bauer isn’t trying to blame Muslims for turning Christmas into a celebration of Santa Claus and Easter into a celebration of egg-laying rabbits. I think even Gary knows that Christians screwed this up themselves. So, what could he possibly mean? Perhaps he means that the government is to blame for not insisting that all Easter-related activities be focused on dying Jesus and for failing to ban Santa from the mall.
Maybe this next bit will help us learn what Gary means.
If Christians were treated like Muslims, the Catholic Church’s stances on sex, contraception and human life would be revered as welcome departures from our over-sexed, self-obsessed culture, not condemned as a cause of disease and death in the less-developed world. And if Muslims were treated like Christians, the application of Sharia law around the world would be met not with stony silence but with the outrage it deserves.
Now, I’m sitting here trying to think of who in our society is celebrating Islam’s stances on sex, contraception, and human life (aside from Muslims, of course), and the people that I’m thinking of are conspicuously like Gary Bauer. I don’t know any liberals who think Islam is a progressive voice for women’s rights. It was a progressive voice for women’s rights when it began in Arabia, just as Christianity was originally quite enlightened on women’s issues during its nascent period. But those days are long past.
It’s not really clear to me why Gary Bauer opposes Sharia law since it basically agrees with his worldview in most respects. Just change the prophet and you’ve got it right where Gary wants it.
As it always is with these RWNJ’s, it is about projection. Your last paragraph is a perfect summation. Why do you think Markos calls them the American Taliban?
In fairness, that is not what Linus said. Linus, you must remember, is a believing and sincere Christian.
I think Gary is forgetting how Catholics were treated by “Christians” in this country until very recent history.
And an Irish Catholic or Italian or Eastern European Catholic was just a “white/off white nigger” here to steal your job and take over the government for the Pope.
I think Gary is forgetting a lot of things, and there are a lot of things he never learned. But most of all, he is paid to forget and compensated for distorting. He’s a liar on salary.
A first step would be for any of the so-called Christians to acknowledge that the traditions of Easter and Chrismas are largely lifted from pre-Christian traditions of Europe by a pragmatic Catholic Church looking to smooth the process of Cristianizing the local culture. But that would be admitting the existence of history. 😛
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Pity the poor Christians, doomed to live life as the dominant religion in the world’s one remaining superpower. Oh the humanity.
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A blue print of same reasoning as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and an article I just read about Ethiopia. Orthodox believers invoking hatred while giving support to the concept of one nation, one Judeo-Christian culture, non-Muslim population (or immigrants), pro-Israel view. Ignorant of history and facts, though consumed by the masses while indoctrinating them with their fallacies.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."It’s a well worn script. The fabricated aura of victim-hood has served them well for the last couple of generations. What better way to keep the manufactured outrage stoked among the masses of low information people in their sizeable crowd than to play that card on a continuous basis. It is everywhere. And they know, of course, that the media will always bite on this subject and help them carry their banner. And don’t even try to convince any of these people that they are simply part of a mass delusion.
It is all actually quite pathetic.