I'm Sorry, I Don't Have Time to Eradicate You Today

After reading that we are facing yet another Congressional resolution telling us that "We are too, we are too, we are too a Christian Nation!" (despite a Constitution and a First Amendment that clearly indicates that we are not, we are not, we are NOT!) -- after weathering National Bible Week, and Huckabee's Xtian asshattery, and then re-reading Obama's "Call to Renewal" speech in which he says that a "sense of proportion" is needed from "both sides" when talking about "faith and democratic pluralism" (Really, Senator? Cuz I always thought that "proportion" meant "balance among the parts of something" -- which would require that the Religious Right do some serious catch-up in the tolerance department before we could attain a "sense of proportion") -- after all this, I find my previous aversion to fundie Xtianity blossoming into a full-fledged, mouth-foaming rage.

Which is probably exactly what they want -- so that they can validate their perfectly ridiculous projection that queers, atheists, fem'nists, lib'ruls, etc. ad nauseum, are out to destroy them.

Two things I've noticed about Xtianists:
1) They constantly project the worst of their own excesses onto others (homophobic ministers who preach against the depravity of drug use while snorting meth with gay hookers, screeching fiends who insist that their religion is under attack as they simultaneously legislate for the eradication of alternative religion or absence of religion in others, youth pastors who denounce the immorality of sex before marriage while they molest teenagers).
2) They are paranoid to a degree that I think would warrant institutionalization in any other context.

I can resonate with some of Jesus' messages (Love your fellow man, don't be judgmental, etc.) -- and in some respects, he seems like a real fun guy (too bad the Xtianists keep turning him into a real fungi).

However, I think there is a two-headed fly in the soup of Christianity (even in most of its more "liberal" forms) that is bound to be problematic in a pluralistic society:

Head #1 says: "No one comes to the father, except through me." ~ John 14:6
AND
Head #2 says: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." ~ Mark 16:15 "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations" ~ Matthew 28:19

I've never been comfortable with anyone who claims to have The One-And-Only Real, True Answer to Everything, so Head #1 immediately sets off my alarm bells as a potential enemy of inclusive democracy -- I believe that this is why the founding fathers specifically prohibited government from passing any law that establishes religion.

And, as to Head #2 -- Well, that's kind of a problem for a pluralistic society, isn't it? Especially once you combine it with Head #1.

When they bring these two heads together, Xtians have the One True Path to heaven, PLUS a handy, dandy mandate to bring every single fucking creature on the planet to their way of believing -- whether they like it or not.

I believe that this mutated fly is at the heart of the massive projection and paranoia that Xtianists demonstrate -- they know that they are out to convert the entire world (or subjugate/execute those who won't convert). It's a time-honored tradition, as well as current custom for nearly all Christian sects, with a very few exceptions (Can you say missionary? I thought you could).

So of course they would think someone like me (lesbian, feminist, progressive, non-Christian) is just aching to destroy their "way of life" -- because that's what they are focused on -- suppressing and/or erasing everyone and everything that is NOT LIKE THEM.

It never occurs to them that I might be too involved with my own life to spend weeks and months planning to eradicate their religion -- they're too busy planning to eradicate people like me.

It's their "Christian Duty" to do so.

Unfortunately, this Christian Duty of Proselytizing the One True Faith has a long, ugly history as the motivator of heinous acts. The early Catholics instituted the destruction of pagan temples in Greece around 400 AD, Charlemagne beheaded 4,500 Saxons who got "caught" practicing paganism, thousands of Muslims were slaughtered during the Crusades, tens of thousands tortured and executed during the Inquisition, Hindus and Buddhists were persecuted and killed in Portugal, the Albigensians were eliminated . . . . the list goes on and on.

And then came the Reformation!

You'd think the Protestants (since they were "protesters") would have given some thought to whether this whole "convert or die" thing was something they really wanted in their "new and improved" version of Christianity -- but no -- now, since there were two (count 'em TWO!) kinds of Christians, it just meant double the converting (or double the dying).

Protestants joined in with fervor, killing 600,000 Catholics in Ireland in the space of a few years, burning whole bundles of "witches", and agreeing on one thing with their Catholic enemies -- that all Native American peoples must be "saved" -- or face the consequences. (Although they often seemed to have decided that once the "savages" were "salvaged", they might just need to be slaughtered anyway -- many of the Cherokee people who died on the Trail of Tears identified as Christian.)

I haven't even touched on the Bible Riots, abortion clinic bombings . . . . or the Holocaust

"Today Christians ... stand at the head of [this country]... I pledge that I never will tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity .. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit ..." ~ Adolf Hitler

What a fun bunch! I bet you're just dying to have a beer with the lot of them.

My chief problem with all these feebly-veiled attempts at establishing a theocracy in this county is that this is the reality of "Religious History, Xtian Style" : Convert or Be Eradicated.

Plus the fact that Xtians seem excruciatingly unaware of how they project this agenda onto others.

OK -- my two chief problems are: Convert or Die, Unconscious Projection . . . and
the toxic synthesis of arrogant privilege and abject paranoia . . . .

Amongst my problems with Xtianity are such elements as . . . . Wait -- I'll come in again . . . .

Some years ago, I was walking through Home Depot. There was this guy who kept following me around. At first I thought he might be store security, but after about 20 minutes, I started to have a slightly creepier sense about who he was and what he might be up to. After visiting six or seven different departments, only to look up and find him lingering a few yards behind me, I finally turned and fixed him with a heavy dose of stink-eye -- at which point, he blurted out: "Why are you following me?!"

I'll bet he was a Xtian.

[Note to allies who identify as Christian: I have no problem with what you believe . . . for you . . . which you probably already know -- so no need to go there, OK?]
[Cross-posted]