“We Shall Overcome”
One of the things I’ve found especially sickening about the protests in favor of Judge Roy Moore and his Ten Commandments display is the protester’s self-righteously comparing their movement to the civil rights struggle. As evidenced by this editorial from the Baptist (!) Center for Ethics, I’m not the only one who’s noticed this :
- Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is no Martin Luther King, Jr. Efforts to portray the religious right?s agenda on the Ten Commandments as a kin to the civil rights movement cheapens King?s legacy and veils a conservative Christian agenda.
Neither the common geography of Montgomery nor the talk about civil disobedience can meaningfully tie the theocratic goals of a Baptist fundamentalist to social justice goals of a Baptist progressive.
Yet Moore?s backers rallied over the weekend with comparisons between their hero and King, supporting the judge?s refusal to obey a federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments displayed in Alabama?s judicial building.
. . .
Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, told the Montgomery rally that civil disobedience was a rightful action if Christians needed to obey God?s law rather than man?s law.Comparing supporters of Moore with those of King, Falwell said, ?One day, we too shall overcome.?
But what is it that Falwell and the religious right seek to overcome?
The Christian right can hardly claim a history of suffering from slavery, lynchings, segregated schools, separate water fountains, fire hoses and police dogs. In fact, the present-day heirs of the Christian right are the sons and daughters of those who collected money for the Ku Klux Klan in their churches, used the Bible to justify segregation and violently opposed the civil rights movement. Falwell himself even opposed King.
What the religious right really seeks to overcome is the loss of cultural power through identification with a popular social movement and an appeal to victim status.
Since our society now honors the 1960s civil rights cause and reveres King, the religious right hopes that affiliation with the equal rights movement will legitimize their agenda.
Moreover, the religious right is playing the victim card, claiming severe hardship for their beliefs. During the past decade, some American Christians have asserted that our society was ?overtly hostile? to their views and practiced an ?anti-religious, anti-evangelical bigotry.? A Southern Baptist Convention leader warned about a ?drizzle of persecution in the U.S.?
One Montgomery speaker claimed, ?What we are faced with now is an effort to set the stage for religious persecution.?
Of course, such hyperbole trivializes the genuine persecution around the world where arrest, torture, imprisonment and death occur for people of faith.
When the line is blurred between the constitutional prohibition against state sponsored religion and religious persecution, cheap dishonesty is advanced.
It also misdirects attention away from the religious right?s agenda, which is one nation under their interpretation of God?s will and their enforcers of public policy.
I’m glad somebody in the Christian community was able to keep this in perspective. It’s not like Christians aren’t being allowed to vote or own land. There’s something truly twisted about a group whose rhetoric is that the Ten Commandments should be on display because most Americans are Christian, but when they don’t get their way, they’re suddenly an oppressed minority. It can’t be both. You’re either in the minority or not. Either way, a two-ton monument to their religious beliefs doesn’t belong on government property.
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What about the Sunni muslims in Iraq or the blacks in South America? They were majorities by population but minorities by power. Just playing devil’s advocate. I think they’re wrong to claim victim status when there are persecuted Christians (see Africa) and other religious peoples all over the world who are losing their life rather than their influence for their beliefs.
Comment by Earnest — August 22, 2003 @ 12:32 pm
“We Shall Overcome”
posted by greg at 11:27 AM
“It’s not like Christians aren’t being allowed to vote or own land.”
****************
Talk about fk’ing ignorant…..you actually think your “vote” counts and you “own” your property?….Talk about your “spineless, stupid sheeple” being led to the slaughter! LOL!
Day-um kid, take those fk’ing blinders off and take a long, hard look around you…you ain’t in “America” anymore toto! Have you taken a look at the powers of this administraton? Do you even have clue what is in those Patriot Acts Ashcroft is shoving down your throat? Have you even been listening to what is happening to your fellow Americans in a country you thought was “free”? ……….Your one of those weasels that like to deny the truth till he or she is the last one up in front of the firing squad, …then it’s too late. Your one of those that will wait and discover firsthand the police state we are living in….but in time… you will!
People like you are tooooo stupid to live and too cowardly to fight to live! But don’t get your panty hose in a wad just yet, save it for when the crap does hit the fan son…..other’s will do your fighting for you, they always have down through our history…we take good care of our cowards!
You actually don’t know what this nation was built upon and where this government is taking her or you wouldn’t be sounding off like the clueless ass you are…..your children would be doomed (if you have any) if it were not for people like Judge Moore, and their are millions upon millions just like him who will show themselves soon, the ripple has just begun, their daddy was too stupid to think and react on his own without directions from Herr Bush..and company!
If the Rev. King were here, he’d be standing right there beside Judge Roy Moore…you moron! Your post showed you know absolutely nothing about neither men or the country you live in and what is becoming of her. Your just a SSOS! You and your ilk will always be a part of the problem, never a part of the solution.
Comment by lsher — August 22, 2003 @ 3:18 pm
Huh? Are you trying to say that Bush and Ashcroft are trying to take over the world and thus the only line of defense we have is a bunch of people in Alabama who can’t keep their religious views to themselves? Uhhh…okay… Don’t you have some Harry Potter books to be burning or something?
Comment by greg — August 22, 2003 @ 3:29 pm
“Huh? Are you trying to say that Bush and Ashcroft are trying to take over the world and thus the only line of defense we have is a bunch of people in Alabama who can’t keep their religious views to themselves? ”
Yep, you answered our questions about your intellect in one paragraph, you actually think its all about “Alabama”..fool! Just what we expected, dead meat! Stupid and Clueless…adios!
Comment by lsher — August 22, 2003 @ 3:37 pm
If being a fool means the inability to make sense of insane ramblings characterized by grammatical errors, misused punctuation, and run-on sentences, then you’ve caught me. The reason I ended my comments with a “?” was because I was asking a question. Specifically, I’d like to figure out what the hell you’re talking about. If you’d actually like to convince me or my readers of something, take a deep breath, explain your views clearly, provide evidence to support your conclusions, and keep the childish name-calling to a minimum.
Comment by greg — August 22, 2003 @ 3:55 pm
Isn’t Moore Allied with the very people who funded, and support the Bush people, thus making him and his ilk a tool of that administration?
I don’t think it’s an insult to anyone’s religion to point out that what these Southern Christians want isn’t freedom, it’s dominance, the right to lord it over the rest of us. What they want is Freedom to start a theocracy.
Ashcroft, by the way, is one of them.
Comment by Ross Angeles — August 22, 2003 @ 5:18 pm