Saturday: Right Wing Christianity is an oxymoron

Evil hides behind many beautiful faces

From the Globe and Mail we get this description of the murderer who confessed to shooting more than 87 people at a youth camp in Norway:

“He describes himself as a Christian, leaning toward right-wing Christianity, on his Facebook page,” Mr. Andresen said.
[…]
Mr. Breivik’s Facebook page was blocked, but a cached version describes a conservative Christian from Oslo who owned his own organic farming company, called Breivik Geofarm.

The profile veers between references to lofty political philosophers and gory popular films, television shows and video games. The Facebook account appears to have been set up on 17 July. The site lists no “friends” or social connections.

The profile lists interests including hunting, political and stock analysis, with tastes in music ranging from classical to trance, a hypnotic form of dance music.

Mr. Breivik had also set up a Twitter account recently, with a single post on July 17, a citation from 19th century thinker John Stuart Mill: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests.”

If you are a conservative, “right-wing” Christian, please note that horrors like this will be permanently associated with your ideology. Don’t give me that crap about, “Well, you can’t blame all of us for the actions of a few.” Yes, I’m talking to YOU. You know who you are. I know you personally. I know how you go off on angry tirades against anyone who doesn’t toe your particularly militant form of Christianity. I see how you allow bad things to happen to good people because you put your faith in God and are going to close your eyes and pray that the Rapture is just around the corner. Who is telling you that it is OK to remain passive in the face of so much misery?

This massacre is the result of the eschatological furor to purge the earth of all that the right-wing “Christian” thinks is rotten. This is what you get when you demonize people who do not think that America is a Christian nation. This is what you get when you believe every mean-spirited, selfish, greedy, hard-hearted fecal emanation from the mouths of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson and the other false prophets.

The real Jesus said turn the other cheek, give away all of your goods, love your neighbor and that those who are good to the least among us would be with him in heaven.

He did not say, “kill the children of the people whose political views you do not like because this will teach them a lesson and bring on the Apocalypse.”

The rottenness of the world that you want to purge now includes you. The term “Christian” is fast becoming a dirty word, like Al Qaeda. Not Catholic or Lutheran or Presbyterian or Methodist.  *Christian*  It has taken on a whole new meaning in recent years.  When you walk into a party and announce your *Christianity* at the first opportunity (and I know you will), everyone will now know exactly what you mean.  It now means fundamentalist, narrow-minded, judgmental, self-righteous, anti-intellectual, selfish and now violent.  Is that what you want?

If that’s not what you want, turn away from the conservative TV and radio shows and religious programming with their false prophets.

You will have to answer to Jesus for what you have allowed to happen in his name.

Ezekiel 28:15-18

You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.

Through your widespread trade
you were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, O guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.

Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth;
I made a spectacle of you before kings

By your many sins and dishonest trade
you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you,
and it consumed you,
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground
in the sight of all who were watching.

Update: The backlash has begun.  This is the headline at the New York Times:

Norway Charges Right-Wing Christian

I feel sorry for all of the innocent Christians who we will now learn to fear.

Update II: This is from The Guardian, describing the murderer, Anders Behring Breivik:

It was revealed that the 32-year-old former member of the country’s conservative Progress Party – who had become ever more extreme in his hatred of Muslims, left wingers and the country’s political establishment – had ordered six tonnes of fertiliser in May to be used in the bombing. While police continued to interrogate Breivik, who was charged with the mass killings, evidence of his increasingly far right world view emerged from an article he had posted on several Scandinavian websites, including Nordisk – a site frequented by neo-Nazis, far right radicals and Islamophobes since 2009.

It is time to stop the madness in this country as well.  Recently, a moveon.org meeting was broken up by Tea Party activists (from Stephen Colbert’s site, of all places) who then proceeded to follow some of the meeting participants and harrass them.  Enough is enough.  Didn’t the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords teach these people anything?  Glenn Beck and the whole crazy anti-liberal, anti-islamic bigotry has to stop.  We need to shame these people because if we don’t, it won’t be long before some right wing christian decides to follow Anders Breivik’s example and we will all be sorry we didn’t put a stop to it.

Watch the video of the encounter.  Is Utoya far behind?