Screaming Silence

Last weekend, an extremist religious leader, Kevin Swanson, hosted a get together in Iowa, a get-together attended by three of the GOP candidates for President, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, and Bobby Jindal.  This 'conference' had many different themes, but one that was undeniable, repeated in literature and speeches throughout the weekend, was the call to round up all the gay people in America and start executing them.  This crazy man, and his group, called for the killing of 32 MILLION PEOPLE, and religious Republicans in this country said nothing.

After the horrific attacks Friday night in Paris, the rhetoric from the far right was intense.  Everything from blaming President Obama, to insisting to never help any refugees, ever.  One call, echoed by the far right numerous times on social media, was the insistence we have to "kill all Muslims."  All of them, across the globe.  Numerous people are calling for the genocide of a religion, 2 BILLION PEOPLE, and Christian Republicans in America never condemned it.

This post isn't about crazy people.  Crazy people have existed as long as humans have existed.  No, this post is about the non-crazy religious right.  Where the heck are you?  No, "I'm against gay marriage, but executing millions is wrong."  No, "What happening in France was truly horrible, but Jesus would NEVER agree with the attempt to exterminate an entire religion; billions of people."  Nothing!  But Starbucks has a coffee cup which doesn't say "Christianity is #1" and you guys can't shut up!  When it comes to these calls for extreme violence, the religious right's silence is loud and screaming.

This is a country whose founding fathers specifically pursued the separation of church of state, and NEVER wanted a state religion, but the American religious right has been able to wrap this country in religion, forcing the recognition of Christianity into every aspect of American life.  But the religious right has a dirty little secret; an unwillingness to talk about the teachings of their religion beyond abortion and gay marriage.

It's been sad to watch as the people who claim to be the embodiment of Jesus on Earth cheer the pulling away of food from hungry people, health care from the sick, shelter from the exposed, and try to ignore the whole 'welcome strangers from strange lands' parts of the scriptures.  By the way, Matthew 25:35, Lazarus and the whole fishes and loaves stories are pretty clear on this.  As the rhetoric and actions of Christian extremists ramps up, the mainstream religious right's silence is becoming unforgivable.

The death penalty administered under torturous conditions, the torching of African-American churches in this country (an ACTUAL war on religion), the thirty thousand plus deaths due to gun violence every year in this country, the gleeful howls for WAR(!), gay executions, genocide of a religion are all ignored.  Not only are they tight lipped about these anti-Christian elements, many who claim piety are leading the calls for the more violent aspects of this broken logic (God loves nukes!).

As this spirals further out of control, we expose the religious right as the frauds they are.  They're not REALLY Christians, they're Republican Christians.  Their version of Christianity is filtered through a political mantra, a mantra which has become more and more driven by hatred and bigotry.  It's a crime watching the religious right conveniently forget their Christianity when the political leaders they worship command them to.  They willingly ignore base scripture, teachings and doctrine, to promote individual political ideals, casting aside their trumpeted devout reverence.

Religious right, let me help you out.  Jesus would never be for the death penalty, or for the gun culture this country has endured (remember live by the sword, die by the sword?).  Jesus wouldn't be quiet as his churches were being attacked, especially when those attacks are driven by unintelligent racial intolerance.  Jesus would NEVER cheerleader a war, EVER.  And if you think Jesus would be for the mass extermination of millions, or billions, of people, then you clearly have never read the book you claim to represent.  For the record, Jesus would not be for genocide.

I'm Catholic, and I'm raising my kids in the Catholic faith.  My kids are at church right now, taking extra religious classes.  I accept this concept; if I want religion to be in my kids lives, I don't expect them to learn it in a public school, as part of a sports team, plastered all over my city hall, or on the side of a coffee cup.  And I won't indiscriminately gloss over the majority of the Bible, just because my political party's platform goes against it.

I know a lot of people in the religious right claim to be 'pro-life,' but if you say nothing about people starving, the death penalty, the torching of churches, the horrific levels of guns and gun violence in this country, if you think war is the answer, or if you are mute when crazy people call for the execution of 32 million people for being gay, or the mass extermination of 2 Billion Muslims, don't blame me if I laugh at your insistence that life is sacred for you.  It's clearly not.