Yes, I believe these homegrown religious extremists are every bit as dangerous as their Muslim fundamentalist counterparts. They want to combine church and state and force all of us to live by their ancient and culturally irrelevant beliefs—their narrow lifestyle of choice.
Since the SCOTUS rulings, the Christian Taliban has been doing its best to stir the pot of anger, hatred, intolerance, and separatist extremism while raising money to promote their bigotry so they can hurt more people.
A few examples:
- Paul Kraft, writing for Alan Keyes‘ Renew America, is calling for states to secede from the union. [good grief!]
- Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, Dean of the Liberty University School of Law in Lynchburg, VA, states that “This [the SCOTUS rulings] is the things revolutions literally are made of.”
- Tony Perkins has also been throwing around the word “revolution.”
- Dan Cathy has rekindled the firestorm around Chick-fil-a by tweeting, and then deleting, his true feelings (which are absolutely moderate by comparison with calls for secession and revolution) about gay people’s civil rights.
You know, I have to call attention to how the leadership of the Christian Taliban turn everything on its head, calling white black and black white. They are now once again, in their grand tradition, claiming religious persecution. They are yet again playing victims. We’re sick of this, guys! It just doesn’t work! You are the ones persecuting gay people. Other than checking your oppressive intolerance of others, these decisions by the SCOTUS don’t impact you at all, in any way. In no way do they harm (or even impact in any way) you or your marriages. You are the meanies here, not all of the open and fair minded people.
But why all this fuss from the Christian Taliban? I mean, I know their 100% commitment to achieving their agenda without any compromise whatsoever makes them really bad losers. But, let’s look at the bigger picture here.
The SCOTUS played it safe with their Proposition 8 ruling. They didn’t take a stand for civil rights. They punted. They played politics, trying to give everyone a little something. Shame on them [SCOTUS]!
So gay people in the state of California can once again get married. The absurd Defense of Marriage Act (Thank you, Bill Clinton—not!) is effectively stricken down. While these are the decisions I expected, and while most liberals are very happy at the moment, I am more than a bit glum. You see, I wanted the court to stand up and do what is right. I wanted the court to take the moral high ground. I wanted the court to remain above political expedience.
I want a court that stands in the great and high tradition of civil rights and liberty and justice for all.
In fact, in my humble opinion, this conservative court is not a friend of civil rights. Look at their decision yesterday, gutting the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Texas has already declared its intentions to restrict access to the polls for minorities in that state, just hours after the SCOTUS decision was announced. The long term implications of this ruling are significant and absolutely deleterious to democracy. Think about this and then practice democracy!
As Justice Ginsberg wrote in the dissenting opinion,
In my judgment, the Court errs egregiously by overriding Congress’ decision. …
Throwing out preclearance [the guts of the VRA] when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet…”
The SCOTUS hid the hideousness of their anti-civil rights position on the VRA by delaying the announcement of their rulings on the DOMA and Prop 8 cases, knowing full well the headlines would stay focused on those later cases and not their devastating the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Politics indeed.
So, to all the Christian Taliban that want Americans to start living by their religious laws I say: start living by them yourself first, then we might talk. By that I mean if you want to defend marriage, then stop getting divorces.
In the meantime, we need a new voting rights act in this nation immediately or the transglobal corporations will continue to drive this nation into poverty, destroying what’s left of the middle class. We saw what the Republicans tried to pull in the previous election. Now they can deny the right to vote.
Related articles
- Rep. John Lewis: SCOTUS ‘stabbed’ landmark civil rights law ‘in its very heart’ (tv.msnbc.com)
- SCOTUS Strikes Down Key Provision in Voting Rights Act of 1965 (themoderatevoice.com)
- Congressman Calls Clarence Thomas ‘Worse’ Than Edward Snowden (huffingtonpost.com)