1. the sense of being-martyred is a central tenant in many evangelical circles.
it operates as a validation of faith. if the world is satans playground, if everyone who does not believe as they do is an instrument of satan, and if life is a war between the forces of good (themselves, of course) and evil (satan, who controls everyone and everything else) then matryrdom kinda follows. the curious feature is the complaints about martyrdom. that there is an element of masochism in christianity is not open to question. that these folk would be uncomfrotable with this masochistic element is nor surprising--that is something perverse types indulge---but that they would dream of eliminating it seems strange to me. what if they win? how will their fiath be validated?
2. the motif of being-at-war has been central to what appears to be wave after wave of sermons that have functioned to link the particular religious beliefs of particular churches to the political movement organized through the christian coalition (for example). as a political mobilization tool, this sense of being-persecuted operates to ring the wagons round the edges of the community, to unify it, etc. whether there actually is any persecution in the world that other people know about is secondary. what matters is that claims concerning such persecution can be made, seem plausible to believers, and can and will (obviously--read the thread above as carried out by conservatives) be repeated be repeated.
3. here, as always, the folk who defend the christian right as political formation like to act as though there is no christian right as political formation. so it follows for these folk that perceived losses in court over seperation of church and state (all the lint concerning public observance of holidays) come to be understood as attacks. so it also follows that the political mobilization of bigotry, which seeks to justify hatred--and nothing short of it--of others based on who they choose to love--is apparently seen as an extension of faith not as a political action---and when that bigotry meets opposition, the response is to whine about how persecuted christians are.
you would think by this point that the folk on the right could at least be honest with themselves, with others, about the fact that there is a distinction--and a considerable one--between their personal beliefs, their beliefs as exercized in the various churches they choose to attend----and claims rooted in those beliefs as mobilized at the level of mass politics. that there is a difference--and a huge one--between the view of the world they might adhere to and the parameters of a view of the world forced onto others through the mechanism of law.
that individuals who defend the christian right like alansmithee above do not recognize any of this changes nothing about it. except perhaps to raise basic questions about intellectual honesty. which, i am sure, will be taken as yet another example of persecution.
but you would think, by this point, in 2005, that the folk on the evangelical right could be honest with themselves about the implications of their politics. not necessarily their religious beliefs, but about the translation of them into politics. but they are not, in the main.
if this is too much to ask, at least think about the implications of bigotry against gay people that might be held to at the personal level--in complete contradiction of such abjurations as judge not lest you be judged and love your neighbor as yourself---but no matter----evangelicals are free to juggle these contradictions in ways that enable them to indulge this and other forms of bigotry in their private lives----to imagine that jesus would want them to be bigots---this is one of the features of contemporary conservative christian discourse that makes it so charming--all of which is foul enough--but following the above logic, such bigotry is now the official face of the american christian right.
yet the defenders of the right complain about how they are protrayed and try to forget that these portrayals follow from their own actions.
maybe they should reconsider their actions, rather than retreating into banal assertions of how persecuted they are.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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