God only loves crazy White Bigots

Charisma Magazine has posted Rick Joyner’s weekly update where he claims that anti-Christian persecution in America has greatly accelerated under the Obama administration. Of course Joyner doesn’t have any real evidence to make such a specious claim besides arguing that the Shepard-Byrd hate crimes law “specifically targets Christians,” still insisting that the government is just itching to use the 2009 law to arrest pastors, ban the Bible and censor speech. He also warned that “serious persecution against Christians in America “will come from the U.S. officials who are committing acts of “treason” by trying to “subject Americans to international laws and the U.N. resolutions”; naturally, Joyner did not name specific international codes that will soon be imposed on America.

I’m constantly astonished at the manner in which so many “Christians” can claim to be oppressed. In a country where 80% of the population identifies as Christian, there’s evidently a malevolent force afoot in the country which “specifically targets Christians.” Never mind that 99% of Congress, the entire Supreme Court, as well as the President and Vice-President identify as Christians. Somehow, despite all evidence to the contrary, Rick Joyner is endeavoring furiously to awaken Christian Americans to the threat facing them. Where that threat is coming from is difficult to divine, but I think the ultimate goal is to keep money flowing into Joyner’s ministry. It seems there’s a strain of Christianity that needs to feel as if they’re under attack in order to feel alive…and Joyner is one of the zealots manning the point of the spear.

The beautiful thing about being a member of the Rabid Religious Right these days is that you’ve been served up fundraising opportunities ammunition to “support” your fear-fueled breathless entreaties left and right. There’s the Black guy of questionable provenance in the White House. There’s the “Kenya/Indonesia/madrassa/Muslim” thing, which Joyner and many others of similar ilk are milking furiously. And there’s the recession thing, and hard times always brings out those looking for easy answers and someone to blame their problems on.

How Joyner can with a straight face argue that the Christian 80% is oppressed by an evil, non-Christian 20%- especially a President who’s clearly and repeatedly professed his fealty to Christianity- simply defies rational understanding. And perhaps the problem here is that people like me are expecting people like Joyner to be rational and reasonable. Perhaps this really has little, if anything, to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it really is about Joyner’s attempt to attract attention (and money) and his desire to be taken seriously.

It’s not Christianity that scare me, but your Christians are so unlike your Christ….