12/16/2017
__________________________________________________________________________________
Evidence-based Science-based Fetuses Transgender Vulnerable Entitlement Diversity
This is not exactly true.
This is not Donald Trumpβs handiwork.
He is not the author of this list.
He isnβt smart enough to come up with a combination of words so perfectly synchronized to hurt and silence marginalized people.
Only Evangelicals can do that.
As a Christian and twenty-year pastor, one whoβs served for much of that time in the American Bible Beltβthe list is eerily familiar.
Itβs the extreme Evangelical Christian Rightβs signature mix tape, the careful curated playlist theyβve had on heavy rotation in their indie gatherings for the past 60 yearsβonly now itβs getting wide release, thanks to the monster theyβve aligned with; one whoβs perfectly happy to disseminate it to keep their union intact.
Every sick, perverse Right Wing religious line of attack is there within those words:
A disregarding of scientific fact in favor of necessary religious mythology. The unrelenting demonizing of the LGBTQ community. The hyperbolic vilifying of those defending a womanβs right to choose. The neglect of the poor and marginalizing and coddling of the wealthy. Open contempt for people of brown skin, foreigners, immigrants.
Historic misogyny and raging white supremacy.
The list is a bulleted seven-point Sunday sermon outline, the kind thatβs been given every weekend in pulpit pounding churches by spitting, sweating, furiously angry white menβwho tell people the sky is falling and assure them only a vengeful white God can hold it up. Theyβre a list perfectly designed to leverage the fear Bible Belt Evangelicals work specifically and almost solely in.
These seven words are not the work of Donald Trump. He can barely craft a coherent Tweet, let alone compose a brilliant bit of subtle violence like this. This list is a wicked witchβs brew, crafted by the preachers and pastors and religious universities whoβve sold their souls to this President in order to get the market share that their extremism wouldnβt allow naturally. These words are written in the unmistakable hateful hand of the Pences, the Falwells, the Dobsons, the Grahams, the Southern Baptists, pro-abortionists, and Family Values crusadersβand theyβre tailor-made to legislate the Evangelicalβs elevation of cisgender, white, wealthy Americans. It is mass murder without truck bombs and AK-47s. Itβs domestic terrorism, just with less obvious weapons.
And itβs the kind of thing that would make Jesus turn over damn every table in sight, were he able to stop vomiting long enough to do so.
America is not a theocracy but it soon will be, unless people of faith and those who hold no spiritual tradition who recognize and abhor such religious extremismβoppose it loudly and continually. That this kind of forced compliance is the antithesis of the life and teachings of Jesus, as well as the Constitution. Both argue loudly against whatβs happening here.
We cannot allow faith-based bigotry to become the law of the land here or we no longer need claim this nation a place where Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness matter. We can give up that whole Land of the Free, Home of the Brave garbage.
This CDC list is not random, itβs not impulsive, and itβs not the work of a bumbling, unintelligent, fraud like Donald Trump.
It is a deliberate, careful-crafted, dangerously precise work of white Evangelicals who arenβt going to watch their faith tradition die without taking out a whole lot of innocent people as it does.
This is what terrorists do.
And itβs what good people need to stop them from doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment