Anti-Christian bias, African-Americans and racism
My cyber-buddy, Dignan, has posted a link to an article at OpinionJournal.com entitled "Why I'm Rooting for the Religious Right". A special thanks to JM for getting around OpinionJournal's subscription page and e-mailing me the article.The writer, James Taranto, states that he is put off by all the "self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and contempt for democracy and pluralism--all of which characterize the opposition to the religious right." The entire article has a victimhood appeal to it. I'd sum it up as "Those poor Christians, they have been marginalized for so long and there is so much prejudice against them."
It is that same sort of charge that the Family Research Council used to launch Justice Sunday, which they billed as an attempt to "Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith".
I think the idea that there is some sort of widespread anti-Christian prejudice is ridiculous. There probably is some animosity toward social conservatives, but that is because most of America isn't socially conservative. (Thus the framing of the argument as an attack on people of faith rather than against social conservatives). My worry is this use of the "Christian" moniker. When social conservatives claim anti-Christian prejudice, they sometimes have a good case, but at other times, like in the case of the filibuster of judges, they don't.
This reminds me of the identity-politics of the 1990s, when prominent African-American leaders would proclaim racism every time a black child was disciplined in school, a black driver was pulled over, or a black grad student was not given entrance to university. Sometimes they had a point, but most of the time it was a red herring. Eventually, I got to the point that everytime Jesse Jackson was on the news, I assumed he was lying.
With too many red herrings like the filibustered judges, soon the public will grow weary and true cases of religious bias will no longer receive the public outrage that it should. Is America headed for "anti-Christian prejudice" exhaustion?
posted by Expat Teacher @ 12:23 PM
