No More Mr. Nice Guy!

Alabama burning

I've waited in vain for someone to articulate the glaringly obvious fact about the Alabama church burnings, that hilarious student prank that got out of hand: they were racially motivated.

Fact one: they were in Alabama. You can almost say "case closed" right there.

Fact two: the first several churches that were burned were black. That was presumably the "prank" part. Then some white churches were burned "to put the investigators off the scent", as the arsonists themselves admitted. Hello, do I need to draw pictures?

But noooo, we can't acknowledge the blindingly evident fact that race was a factor. Any time an act of terrorism is carried out, it must be brown-skinned Ay-rab heathens who hate us for our freedom. If the incident can't be shoe-horned into that script, it must be airbrushed out of our collective memory. And so we embrace with unseemly eagerness the comforting notion that this was just a jolly jape that went a little too far. Just like Timothy McVeigh's little stunt was a belated April Fool's joke, and WMD-stockpiler William Krar (a good ol' christian Texas boy) was a harmless eccentric. And as for Eric Rudolph... Eric Who-dolph?

Even more disgusting is the stampede of the christian dominionists towards the nearest microphone to proclaim that they are oppressed, marginalized victims. Yes, the crazed Mammon-cult that has a monopoly on political, legal and media power in the US wants to exploit this sorry affair and create some vast anti-christian conspiracy out of whole cloth. It's the gays, liberals and atheists crushing the poor defenseless "people of faith" beneath their iron heels! Where "people of faith" means hard-right WASP's - we can't let the uppity nigras gain any sympathy points out of this, they have too many already. And hey, the perps were from a liberal arts college - you know, where they spend all their time drinking beer and smoking dope instead of readin' the good book - heck, don't that prove librulls are evil!

There is something very sick and pathological about the extreme religious right's constant need, as it grows more and more powerful, to portray itself as a pitiful, persecuted victim group. Part of it is undoubtedly projection, as I discussed recently. And part of it is plain old dumb-assery and solipsistic navel-gazing. It's all me, me, me!

As Jesus would say, screw everyone else, look out for Number One. What, you didn't realize Jesus said that? Well, surely you've noticed that Jesus doesn't say very much at all nowadays. He's been co-opted by the US christian right, and in the process neutered and silenced. Becoming born again is all about joining the right tribe, and getting to sit in judgement over other people and control their lives. It has nothing to do with thinking about, far less modifying your own behavior!

And heavens forfend that you would actually follow the teachings of some hippy radical who drove the moneychangers out of the temple and preached loving one's neighbor and giving to the poor. Hell, that's way too liberal! Jesus the mute eunuch, the mascot devoid of meaning, is a much better fit with today's right-wing christianity.