In case you haven’t noticed, some conservative Christians are really determined to keep their rights to discriminate against gay people. One such person is Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, who earlier this year signed a law that allowed businesses to discriminate against gay people on religious grounds. This bill wasn’t just something that let local bakeries refuse to make cakes for gay weddings, either — it is so broad that it enables both public employees and private businesses to discriminate against gay couples, transgender people, and even those who have premarital sex.
It’s been said- occasionally by me- that the politics of the Rabid Religious Right has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. If you’ve doubted that, if you’re convinced I’m merely engaging in some gratuitous “Christian bashing,” allow me to offer Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant as proof of that theorem. Bryant represents the American Taliban’s bedrock belief that our government should be based on their (twisted, hateful, decidedly unBiblical) version of God. He champions a theology based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the same way Donald Trump is the poster boy for honesty, integrity, and ethical business practices. Even worse, he has the temerity to believe that Christians like him are True Believers © persecuted for their beliefs.
I suppose if your definition of “persecution” is “preventing good, God-fearing, Bible-believing, missionary-position-loving, Conservative Christian patriots from doing whatever they want to whomever they choose”…then sure, you’re the victim of persecution.
Here’s the thing, though; nowhere in the Gospel is there to be found anything even faintly resembling justification for treating a minority class as second-class citizens, as “less than” and therefore unworthy of equal rights and equal treatment under the law. Bryant- and the rest of the American Taliban- have conflated their bigotry and prejudice with the teachings of the Lord and Savior they purport to revere. When God’s on your side, ALL things are possible, eh?
It’s not about endeavoring to lead a Christ-like life; it’s about enforcing a narrow, bigoted moral/ideological/theological agenda and exercising dominion over the personal, private lives of others.
So much for “smaller government.”
Right Wing Watch points out that Bryant recently accepted the Samuel Adams Religious Freedom Award that was given out at this year’s Watchmen on the Wall right-wing Christian conference. During his acceptance speech, Bryant talked about how far Christians would go to defend their religious liberty and deny service to gay people.
“They don’t know that Christians have been persecuted throughout the ages,” he said of critics of his state’s anti-LGBT law. “They don’t know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So if we are going to stand, now is the time and this is the place.”
I find it distressing at how easily “Christians” like Bryant conveniently forget that over the course of human history Christians have been the ones most responsible for persecution. There are comparatively few examples of actual, legitimate persecution and pogroms conducted against Christians. What Bryant and his ilk are wont to do is to focus on the relatively few examples of legitimate persecution directed at Christians while ignoring the overwhelming historical record of persecution and genocide undertaken by Christians against non-Christians.
Christians have no more “been persecuted throughout the ages” than Timothy McVeigh delivered a message of peaceful coexistence and non-violent conflict resolution to the people Oklahoma City. The long-standing Christian persecution complex is a collective self-delusion used to justify the forceful imposition of a self-interested moral/ideological/theological framework on “lesser” mortals.
Bryant’s breathless declaration that “if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” stands in defense of a “faith” having nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. If Bryant is willing (or, more likely, willing to allow others) to be crucified in defense of hatred, discrimination, homophobia, and intolerance, that’s on him. I may not believe in his (or anyone’s) God, but I remember enough of my Sunday School lessons to recall clearly that Jesus was about love, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion.
It’s unfortunate that Bryant, like so many others in the American Taliban, couldn’t lead a Christ-like life if you handed him a flashlight, a Sherpa, and an instruction manual (or, as some may know it, a Bible). Their “faith” has nothing to do with the teachings of they Lord and Savior they profess to revere. It has everything to do with providing their hateful, intolerant agenda with the force of law.
EXACTLY what Jesus would do, eh?
(BTW- In case y’all we’re wondering, it actually IS possible to be a Conservative Republican AND a kind, thoughtful, loving, tolerant Christian. Who knew, right??)
