(3.5-minute read)
Looking back
I’m going to reference an interaction that took place in 2014 during the Obama administration that stayed with me. There had been an influx of children at the southern border. Some churches had gotten involved in helping with the flow of immigrants by providing shelter and sustenance. Just helping because it was the Christian thing to do. Some families had been separated though it wasn’t a matter of a “zero-tolerance” policy.[1]
Anyway, some “Christians” took exception to churches helping immigrants. There were online discussions in Christian forums on the topic. At one website of a church involved there was a back and forth between a guy and the pastor of the church. The pastor cited some scripture and about what Jesus would do and what he said. The man retorted:
“Jesus got it wrong.”
Bible hammer.
I just read a post from a squeaky clean scrubbed faced young “Christian” complaining that their posts were removed from a social media platform for posting scriptures informing people of the “biblical truth” about LGBTQ people that were a violation of community standards. Therefore, media is biased and censorship is real! Then they patted themselves on the back for remaining “true” to their beliefs of bigotry and intolerance that they say the bible promotes and justifies.
I read these kinds of posts all the time in social media and in comments sections on news articles.
There are plenty, and I mean PLENTY, of right-wing media sites where posting hate speech is permitted. The problem is that Neo Republican Christian Nationalist fascists want everyone to promote their intolerance. They want their intolerance taught in schools. They want Christianity to be the national religion of intolerance.[2] They have been pushing that agenda for years.[3]
Couple of things. Media isn’t the government, it’s business. Business has the right to refuse service to people promoting hate and injury to others. It isn’t a violation of someone’s “freedom of speech” right. People don’t have the right to holler “fire” in a crowed theater if there is no fire because people can get hurt in a stampede. We don’t have the freedom to cause injury to others.
Free speech isn’t free of consequences.
Hate speech.
People that want to promote hate can do so in their churches and with all those that they associate with. They can stand on street corners and yell hate speech. They can boycott those with opposing views. They can use hate speech when protesting. They can write hate speech. They just don’t have carte blanche to post and promote hate and violence everywhere and anywhere they want.
This is my blog. I’m not going to promote their pagan brand of violent racist homophobic Christian Nationalism.
I’m biased that way.
Moving along.
It isn’t just black churches and synagogues that are being vandalized.
Christian Nationalists want to do more than just encourage hate speech. They want to threaten and intimidate those that disagree with them with opposing messaging. They threaten Christians as well. Threats are often followed by acts of vandalism like what happened at the Holy Covenant Metropolitan Community Church in Brookfield, IL.[4] Christian churches that are openly LGBTQIA inclusive are being vandalized too.
The rise of fascism isn’t confined just to the United States either. An older couple in Australia was painting the steps to their church in rainbow colors to show their solidarity with LGBTQIA+ people and were accosted by a “Christian.”[5] The steps were later vandalized. Open and affirming churches are being vandalized all over the nation.
I picked the picture for this post because I believe that it demonstrates the mentality of the type of person that we’re dealing with. Erasing LGBTQIA people entirely. That’s a policy. They have started by taking away their rights and are currently in the process of denying their legal existence. Right now they’re focused on transgender people then they’ll work their way through the rest of the list AND they have a long long list of people that they’re after. Are you on the list?
Know anybody that is?
[1] https://www.factcheck.org/2018/06/did-the-obama-administration-separate-families/
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/27/opinions/christian-nationalism-marjorie-taylor-greene-tyler/index.html
[3] https://newrepublic.com/article/121153/poll-republican-majority-wants-christianity-be-national-religion
[4] https://www.rblandmark.com/2023/04/11/brookfield-church-serving-lgbtq-community-vandalized/
[5] https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/04/vandals-defaced-a-churchs-rainbow-steps-but-the-church-quickly-stepped-up/
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