these people want you dead, and they have guns.

[hth]

I hardly ever talk about politics in my lj, mostly because I assume people are mainly here for the fic and don't care what I think about the New Hampshire primaries -- particularly the people who aren't even from the U.S. and presumably have their own political issues to worry about.

But I want people to read this. I really want people to read this. I need people to understand, as many people as humanly possible, that this is for real.

This is for REAL, my friends, and notice what this good Republican Air Force veteran who used to be a lawyer under fricking Ronald Regan is telling you: most of the people coming to him complaining of harrassment are Christians. Fully a quarter of them are Catholics, most of the rest are from one or another of the moderate mainline Protestant denominations, and a handful are from one of the world's other religions, or none. It doesn't matter to these people what you believe. If you do not fit into this one, extremely narrow and specific form of evangelical, dominionist Christianity, THEY CAN'T STAND YOU. They want you to knuckle under, or they want you dead.

Read the interview. And do not listen -- please, I am begging you not to listen when the mainstream press sneers their so very delicate disdain over how "angry" this or that progressive candidate or speaker is. Do not let them shame you into conciliation with the so-called "social conservatives," because the people who put them where they are are not interested in bipartisanship and they're not interested in compromise and the only use they have for your conciliation is to make you that much weaker. You will need your anger to survive.

I am not especially an alarmist. But I've come, over the years, to take this kind of thing very, very seriously -- particularly because under my own religious beliefs, we have a very specific term for this kind of chanted, rhythmic, trance-like incantations on the topic of someone's death: mallacht, curse. Most of you probably don't think of it as anything more than horrifically mean-spirited, but to me it's an actual assault, and one that our legal system has absolutely no redress for. They have guns, they have venomous magic, and they need me, literally, to love them or die. I take this very seriously. I hope you do, too.

Comments

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

This is not exactly a surprise: I've read of the attempts to proselytize in the military academies, and I've read criticism of similar attempts on sports teams (the "athletes for Jesus" sort of thing). But there's apparently a hell of a lot more going on than I was aware of, so thank you for posting. I'm going to link in my LJ.

[apple-pi.livejournal.com]

I did read the interview, and thank you for linking to it. I'm an agnostic military spouse, and to be honest, I'm open about not being a Christian, and no one has ever given me shit for it, or even so much as looked funny at me (not to my face, anyway). But I can easily imagine that this is true. I'm a Unitarian Universalist, and I've had some interesting conversations with UU chaplains - they are few and far between. I suspect it may be the same with Jewish chaplains, and I'd be interested to hear their recent experiences, both in the academies and in the working units.

This is sobering, and scary, and not particularly surprising. :-(

[dodificus.livejournal.com]

I'm not American but I've always watched and read about the right wing religious fundamentalists with a deep sense of unease and something approaching fear. The US casts such a large shadow over the world that it's hard to read articles like this and think this has nothing to do with me or my country.

[stungunbilly.livejournal.com]

That is just terrifying. Thanks for linking. I also take the kind of curse they are laying down seriously; it doesn't have to be magical to kill.

[without-me.livejournal.com]

That is fuckin' insane.

[hylomorph.livejournal.com]

What an amazing interview. The idea of Jews as a "canary for the morality of communities" is insightful and disturbing. The NY Times was reporting years ago that various hate groups are infiltrating the enlisted ranks (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/washington/07recruit.html), which was bad enough; a co-opted officer corps is much scarier. I would write to my senator (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9178374/gods_senator), but I don't think he'd be very sympathetic to my concerns.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

I await the day of the robot revolution....

Seriously, I just want to smack those scary-ass fundies and then go "bisexual pagan pervert germs, no returns" because they act like angry 5-year-olds and I can't respond rationally to irrationality.

[the-girl-sleuth.livejournal.com]

Usually I just comment on your fic, but I wanted to say thank you for bringing this to my attention. What really stood out for me was the reminder that only a small percentage of the German's were Nazi when Hitler had his takeover, in fact, a smaller percentage than the number of people from these dominionist groups who are in the military. That was absolutely chilling.

[geekturnedvamp.livejournal.com]

I knew this sort of thing was going on--especially at the Air Force Academy--but thank you for linking, what a great (but scary!) interview. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is going on my list of groups to give money to, and I sent an email to my family asking that they contribute as well. (We already donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center, ADL, etc., but I hadn't heard of the MRFF before.)

[dine.livejournal.com]

this really is amazing and horrifying - I agree that it needs to be taken seriously. I'm going to share this, because only if people are really aware of what's happening out-of-sight is there any chance of maintaining the (dwindling) rights in our Constitution

[dovil.livejournal.com]

Le sigh. Thank you for the link!

[ratcreature]

This is really disturbing.

[lferion]

I'm pagan, with a degree in a mainline Christian denomination, and this scares me to death.

Very, very scary bad magic. The scariest part is these guys *do* know what they are doing.

I thank all the powers that be for people like Weinstein. I wish there was more that I could do other than hold fast and speak out.

Thank you for the link.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Good grief. Can the anonymous callers seriously imagine Jesus acting like that? Something's gone seriously wrong with their faith.

[ilyena_sylph]

Thank you for the link, believe me, I'll be sharing it.

Maybe this is evidence I need for an argument I need to win with my grandmother, who doesn't understand why Huckabee scares me.

Thank you again.

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

Hi. I came here looking for SGA fic and episode commentary. I'm glad, though, that I found his. Thank you for it.

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

Came this way via skywardprodigal

I'm not surprised by this in the least. The same thing is happening in mainline churches - I'm an Episcopalian living in California and we had a whole diocese break away from the national chuch (there's at least one congregation in Fresno who voted no which leaves them in a really interesting position). To hear the media tell it, it was all about the ordination of gays and lesbians in the church and supposed rampant liberalism. And yet, there's ample proof that something more insidious is going on (follow the money!) and there's a game plan 30 years in the making that's being played out.

I wish more people would wake up and realize how all of this is linked together. It's not enough to say, "Oh, those people are crazy." They have traction and they have access to power which is a dangerous combination.

If you ever get the chance, see if you an dig up an article from the November 2000 edition of Texas Monthly Magazine. The article is called "They Haven't Got a Prayer" by Pamela Colloff and it's about the battle over school prayer in a small Texas town. What's significant about it is the people who brought suit against the school board in that town were Christians whose children been harassed when they chose not to participate in what basically were school sponsored evangelical activities. Everything detailed in the article you posted happened to them - death threats, questions about their faiths (at least two of the families were Mormon and Catholics), proclamations about going to hell. I periodically reread that article just to remind myself to stay vigilant.