Two thousand years ago a man came from Galilee, healing the sick, teaching peace, and if you are so inclined to believe, he was the living son of the god of love, come to redeem all mankind.
Being good and righteous, his words were mostly forgotten, unless some depraved thing could twist them into tools of menace and control. This sickness has come and gone through twenty long, dark centuries of robbery, rape, murder … and worse.
Today the thing we'd thought we'd set aside during the wars of the Reformation has again taken root, this time growing within sight of our capitol. Another time of darkness is upon us, unless the forces of reason strike with every tool the rule of the law provides.
First, understand what we face. This is a Pope's Pear. It was inserted into the vagina of a woman who 'committed' miscarriage, then cranked open to the maximum extent, at the very least forever maiming and most likely killing the victim.
We are, for the moment, not yet manufacturing these things again, but the state of Utah seems primed to start locking women away for the misfortune of bearing a fetus with some genetic flaw that does not permit it to live to term.
Today in America some parts of the country tolerate flaming homosexuals. The terms flaming and homosexual might have been found juxtaposed in a different way five hundred years ago, such as is seen in this woodcut, depicting the execution of sodomites by public burning.
And who today is using this archaic word, sodomite, to describe the men whom we know to be biologically inclined to prefer other men?
The west conquered and lost the Middle East over a two century time frame, beginning in 1095 and ending with the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291. The word 'crusade' in English calls to mind pious knights in shining armor. The Arabic word for crusade translates into 'barbarian invasion'. The cannibalism during the Siege of Ma'arat is one of the more extreme examples of western depravity, but any read of the history of this era shows such conduct to be the norm. Sir Steven Runciman, a 20th century British historian, summed up the crusades in one pithy sentence.
"High ideals were besmirched by cruelty and greed … the Holy War was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God"
Lest you think this sort of conduct is aimed only at those who are biologically unfortunate or adherents to a foreign belief system an inspection of France in the century after the collapse of the Kingdom of Jerusalem reveals similar conduct at home. The peaceable Cathars were, like the unfortunate sodomites above, burned at the stake and hunted to extinction by 1321. One hundred and ten years later Joan of Arc lead French troops to victory in the Hundred Years' War and was burned at the stake for her trouble.
We could go on like this, century after century, wading in blood up to our armpits as we peruse the intersection of Christianity and government. It is safe to assert this: never has divine right been the backing of government without the persecution of some 'other' being part and parcel to it.
What do we see happening today?
A brutal invasion of an Arab country under false pretense. The torture of the innocent, re-igniting the 800 year old reputation the west has in the Middle East. An incompetent hack of a small town mayor is first annointed by a Kenyan witch hunter and then mysteriously selected as the running mate in an aging, failing Senator's presidential bid.
Things are bad on the local level as well. A steady flow of 'lone nuts' like Scott Roeder, inflamed by eliminationist rhetoric and conspiracy theory harass and sometimes murder law abiding citizens. The 'mentally ill loner' cover story was ripped to shreds recently, when the American Taliban in Amarillo, Texas were revealed. Now we see violent kooks moving in platoon strength.
Right in the middle of all of this are the residents of the house on C Street, members of a shadowy group known as The Family. Members include philanderers John Ensign and Mark Sanford.
And here we find the family, pushing laws in Uganda that would mean the execution of homosexuals.
Have you seen enough? 2012 will be like 1212, only with nuclear weapons, should these folks manage to seize the reigns of government again. What happens in Guantanamo will happen here and those of you who call yourselves Kossacks are first in line for 'reeducation'.
I won't lower myself to their eliminationist rhetoric; let them live their lives as they choose, but their superstition and hatred have no place in public policy making. Let them be found out, let them face civil and criminal proceedings where cause can be found, and let the rest be hounded from political office by our former middle class, who were quite thoroughly robbed by Wall Street while these charlatans distracted with their dog whistles and magical thinking.
(UPDATE: Lots of talk about Stupak-Pitts. Full disclosure - Lois Herr is running against Joe Pitts and she graciously agreed for her campaign to be the test case for our work on Twitter. Spedwybabs made an ActBlue donation page for her and Lois is endorsed six ways from Sunday by feminist organizations. I don't even know if anyone is trying to get at Stupak, but PA-16 is ours if we all hit it hard.)
I met the last two Christians Jesus might recognize as such, standing by the side of the road in Las Vegas, New Mexico. I told just a bit of that story below.