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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-24 02:55 am (UTC)From: