From www.washingtonpost.com
The arrests of members of a Michigan-based "Christian" militia group should convince doubters that there is good reason to worry about right-wing, anti-government extremism -- and potential violence -- in the Age of Obama.
I put the word Christian in quotes because anyone who plots to assassinate law enforcement officers, as a federal indictment alleges members of the Hutaree militia did, is no follower of Christ.
there has been explosive growth among far-right, militia-type groups that identify themselves as white supremacists, "constitutionalists," tax protesters and religious soldiers determined to kill people to uphold "Christian" values.
Eugene Robinsonas usual is spot on in his examination of the rapidlygrowing lunatic fringe collectively referred to as "Christian militia". It is fitting that this is Holy Week for most of the world's true believers in Christ when they commemorate the death and resurrection of their savior. It is the most solemn period in the Christian calendar.
When I was still a Catholic and studying for the priesthood, this was the time in the liturgical calendar that I most looked forward to. It was the essence of the mystery of God and the various services which commemorated the life of Christ were the most symbolic and transfixing. Beginning with Palm Sunday recalling Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem, to Holy Thursday when the sacrament of the Eucharist was created along with the first priests, to Good Friday which is the only day in the year when that same sacrament is not celebrated, until midnight Mass on Holy Saturday when, in a totally darkened church, a single candle is lit from a new fire and its light is shared with all the worshipers until the entire Church is lit and the words "He is risen" are proclaimed.
The death and resurrection of Jesus are the sine qua non of all Christina beliefs. Without them being chronicled who would have remembered the words of an itinerant preacher for almost two millenia? Yet while those words have been remembered, for many who profess to be His followers, their meaning has been lost.
There is nothing new about these so-called "Christian militias". From the Church-sanctioned armies of the Crusades, to the Inquisition. to the Protestant and Catholic "armies" of Northern Ireland killing each other for decades in His name, there have always been "warriors for Christ". Was there ever a more oxymoronic term than "warriors for Christ" ? Yet these people believed that they and they alone possessed the Truth. And that it was their God-given duty and obligation to convert or eliminate all non-believers. It is the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus.
The real scandal in Christianity today is not the perversion of the paedophile priests in the Catholic Church but rather the greater perversion of Christ's message which is not limited to one particular church or sect. Nor is it just theses self-proclaimed but deluded followers of Christ who wage Holy War. There are thousands of Muslims who have perverted the teachings of their own prophet and have set about purging the entire world of infidels. How did the simple message of a young Jewish man so many centuries ago that we should love one another become buried in hatred and violence?
Jesus wept.