I have been reading Daily Kos for some time now and posting for a little over a month... and I have noticed what appears to be a disturbing trend. The degree of diversity in the forum is amazing on many levels and, IMO, is the greatest strength of this forum. There is young and old, male and female, gay and straight, black, white, hispanic, asian and native american. There are those who are highly educated and those who are less so; there are democrats, republicans and independents... and in the face of so much diversity there is a great deal of tolerance and respect from most... a willingness to, if necessary disagree... without being disagreeable in all points...
Except when Christianity enters the discussion.
I am stunned sometimes by the level of vitriol directed at Christians by some in this forum... vitriol that, from what I've seen, has been undeserved. The irnoic part is many of those spewing said vitriol are the first to point out a bias dogwhistle that demeans or denigrates someone's race, gender, sexual preference or religion... as long as religion != Christianity. Otherwise very tolerant and educated people who post rationally and with great understanding and who are profoundly disappointed by those whose replies to them are Pavlovian and reactionary become Pavlovian and reactionary themselves... and in doing so are become that which they themselves loathe.
But it begs the question to me... why is the tent of the Democratic Party not big enough for some to allow professed Christians to come in? Why, even as some loathe being tarred with a stereotypical brush that paints them in the most negative light, do these same people pull out the same brush for Christians?
While I concede that professed Christians have done a lot of damage, emotional, spiritual and physical, to many that has resulted in their eschewing Christianity, that doesn't make everyone who is a Christian guilty of being an abuser any more than my being able to trace my ancestry back to a Nansemond County, VA auction block means I should assume all caucasians I come across want to enslave me.
Christianity and progressive politics are NOT mutually exclusive. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" didn't originate with Marx; it originates in the book of Acts, chapter 2, verses 44-45... "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." and was reiterated in Acts chapter 4, verses 34-35..."Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."
If one is a Christian in word and deed, he seeks to live peacably with all people. If one is a Christian in word and deed, he will seek to live out 'disinterested benevolence'... to do good for others for no reason other than the fact that others have a need one is capable of meeting. If one is a Christian in word and deed then he will stand up against oppression and seek to work for a society that is inclusive rather than exclusive. If one is a Chritian in word and deed he will strive to eliminate the things that make us fractious and factious, more inclined to divide and conquer than to unite the pieces into a whole that is more than the sum of it's parts. And if there is not room under the Democratic Party's tent for one seeking to live like this, we as a party have serious problems.
I am not asking that anyone drop their guard and assume anything about anyone. I am not discounting the level of damage done by those claiming to be Christians or the fact that for many the scars left by that damage may have scabbed over but they are far from healed. But there are Christians out here who have genuine concern for the common weal of all... who are seeking simply to do all they can for all they can for as long as they have health and strength to do so.
We are not all proselytizers. We are not all Dimmesdalian hypocrites. We are not all exclusionary spiritual elitists who deem any who does not believe as we do unworthy to commune with us.
When the same kinds of preconceived notions and presumptions are directed toward those with an anti-Christian bent, they decry it as wrong... so shouldn't it be equally wrong when the shoe is on the other foot and those used to receiving said treatment are the ones projecting it?