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.
