To listen to Christian leaders in America you would think that the followers of Jesus are mere millimeters away from suffering the fate of the Jews in the pogroms of Eastern Europe. Which is ironic, as it was Christians who were responsible for those atrocities. But perspective and proportion are not long suits for the Christian fundamentalist.
Adding his feelings to the discussion — and echoing conservatives everywhere — Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer suggested that the desire of reasonable Americans to remove statues of slavers, traitors, and other reprehensible figures from places of honor in the public square will lead to the removal of ‘biblical characters’.
This nuttiness was inspired by a decision to review 41 statues of historical figures in Chicago — including five of President Lincoln. At first blush, it seems odd that the author of the Emancipation Proclamation would be included in the review, but it appears that Lincoln made decisions during his presidency that harmed Native Americans. If that’s the case then the review would be helpful because — as Michael Caine never said — “not a lot of people know that”.
However, for Fox nuance impedes its main mission of spreading hysteria. So Hemmer, along with co-anchor Dana Perino and guest reporter Carley Shimkus, went straight to the slippery slope argument and warned direly of something no one had even mentioned, the excising of biblical people from their pedestals. Or in Hemmer’s words
“If they start canceling American presidents, they’ll come after Bible characters next. Mark my words, right?”
God these people are such whiny bitches.
And besides, how’s that going to happen? Religious iconography has enormous protections under the first amendment. The Supreme Court — which is now one of America’s most religious institutions — has repeatedly come down on religion’s side. And it is Christians themselves that have been the most prominent ‘cancel culture’ warriors.
Religious freedom is nonsectarian and pluralistic. By all means, the Christians can have their creche on public display, but then every religion — including the Satanists and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster — are entitled to their displays on the village common. Rather than risk everyone getting a place in the sun, Christians often put the kybosh on all things religious — and if that isn’t the ultimate in ‘cancel culture’ what is?
Perrino played the nostalgia card.
“Way, way back in the day when I was first working in local news, I was at a CBS affiliate in Springfield, Illinois, and Lincoln was everything. A part of every aspect of the city and there was even a sandwich named after Abraham Lincoln.”
What Perrino’s career history has to do with the subject she doesn’t say. And let’s also note that any restaurant can still name any sandwich after anyone they want.
Shimkus then offered her two cents, saying “we are all sinners” and people from our history, despite some bad characteristics, should be celebrated. Adding that it's the education system’s fault that people are no longer patriotic and that current curricula teach people “to always view themselves as the victim.”
Her offering fails every elementary logic test. ‘Everyone does it’ is an argument that small children soon discover has no validity. Following her reasoning, Germany should allow statues celebrating Hitler. And it is rank hypocrisy to claim victimhood while bemoaning that everyone else is being taught to view themselves as the victim.
She wasn’t done:
“Are we in a transition period in our country right now where our grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren might not think of these people the way we do? They might not be taught in the same way we know them now. I say more statues, not less, not fewer. More opinions, more ideas, not less.”
It is sophistry to say that removing statues from a place of honor is denying our history. They aren’t destroyed, they are put in museums. Which is far more conducive to teaching history. And if your true concern is teaching history, then you should be up in arms against school boards who want to sanitize it by downplaying or ignoring the genocidal role white Americans have played in the nation's formation.
It is the academic whitewashers who are stifling opinions and ideas. And let’s not get started on religion’s anti-evolution science denial.
America was not founded as a Christian country, but Christians have a disproportionate amount of power. Eighty-eight percent of Congress is Christian. And it is reasonable to assume that the vast majority of state legislatures are majority Christian, as are the Governors. The Supreme Court has six Christian Justices (interestingly, all Catholic).
In the country as a whole two out of three citizens identify as Christian. Although that number is rapidly declining and is one reason the Christian right is desperate to enshrine as much of their faith in the body politic as they can — while they can.
Whining comes naturally to conservatives and religious fundamentalists. And their bitching about attempts to remove America's worst elements from places of prominence is mere projection reflecting their desire to control the narrative. And to pretend America is something that it isn’t. A nation favored by a Christian God, discovered by Europeans and built exclusively by white men, some of whom fought an honorable war to protect states' rights.
It makes fairy tales look like documentaries.