Overly long answer to a stupid question...

[elfs]

Dan Gainor (who?) at Faux News writes:

Imagine the furor if a televangelist went on a major TV network and told viewers Christianity would conquer the world and that the flag of Christianity would fly over the White House. Network reporters, Hollywood celebrities and the pundit class likely would seize the moment as an example of the evils of America’s supposed Christian theocracy.

...

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. What did happen is far scarier.

He then goes on to tell his fear-filled audience that Anjem Choudry, an imam from a radical Islamicist group, was interviewed on ABC This Week where he said: "We do believe as Muslims the East and the West will be governed by the Sharia. Indeed we believe that one day the flag of Islam will fly over the White House."

Gainor asks: "Why Did Media Ignore Threat of 'Flag of Islam' Flying Over the White House?"

First, one doesn't have to imagine the furor. It's already happened:

• Beverly Lahaye, of Concerned Women for America: "America is a nation based on biblical principles. Christian values dominate our government. The test of those values is the Bible. Politicians who do not use the bible to guide their public and private lives do not belong in office."
• Gary North, Instute for Christian Economics: "The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise. Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of the covenant–baptism and holy communion–must be denied citizenship."
• Gary Potter, Catholics for Political Action: "When the Christian majority takes over this country, there will be no satanic churches, no more free distribution of pornography, no more talk of rights for homosexuals. After the Christian majority takes control, pluralism will be seen as immoral and evil and the state will not permit anybody the right to practice evil."
• Joseph Morecraft, Televangelist: "Nobody has the right to worship on this planet any other God than Jehovah. And therefore the state does not have the responsibility to defend anybody's pseudo-right to worship an idol."
• Randall Terry, Operation Rescue: "Our goal must be simple. We must have a Christian nation built on God's law, on the ten Commandments. No apologies."

Christians have said that, on major TV networks, many times over the past twenty years. The press, not to mention Muslims in far off countries, have hardly gone berzerk.

Second, Choudry is not a US Citizen. He's not even in this country! ABC, to find its One Crazy Muslim, had to reach across the Atlantic to find someone obviously spittle-flecked enough to give such a bizarre rant. It would be nice if we had to go to Europe or South America to find the nearest crazy Christian advocating the overthrow of our current government. Instead, we find them on our own soil, and often given respectful space to air their opinions on Gainor's network.

Third, 88% of this country is Christian. If every Christian thought as one, then yeah, Christians could overturn any facet of the Constitution they wanted, including the First Amendment, and turn this into a country where non-Christian thought is outlawed.

Only 1.2% of this country is Muslim. Even if every Muslim in this country thought as one, a highly doubtful premise, their political clout comes to exactly nothing. The idea that Muslims could effectively, in this or the next dozen generations, affect our policies to the detriment of Christianity's stranglehold on our culture is absurd.

The threat that "someday the flag of Islam will fly over the White House" has about as much resonance with reality as "someday the Elders of Zion will rule America" or "someday, the Gay Manifesto will replace the Constitution." The fact that there are crazy people in America who believe both of these documents to be real (some of them Dan Gainor's readers, given the comments), and fear them, doesn't make them any more possible that Choudry's mad outburst.

[Apparently, I'm in a Usenet state of mind...]

Comments

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

Very good points.

It's also in mainstream literature: "At the name of Jesus every knee shall bend" or whatever..

[gromm.livejournal.com]

# Gary North, Instute for Christian Economics: "The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise. Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of the covenant–baptism and holy communion–must be denied citizenship."

Part of me sincerely wishes that he reaches this goal.

And then, the government that decides what religion is the "right" one, decides that it's not *his* particular brand of Christianity. And that he would be forced to live under a repressive theocracy not of his own making. That would be poetic justice.

Of course, that's not what he's working to build. He's really just a psychotic power-monger, using the umbrella term "Christianity" to gather support from people who don't actually belong to his religion. If he didn't do that, he could never get a majority vote, and he knows that. He wants to oppress *everyone*, not just "non-Christians". History is littered with Christian regimes that exterminated other Christians for not being the right *kind* of Christian. Certainly he's not blind to that.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

You can bring it up all you want, but they're all thinking "Well, yea - but we're right!"

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

That was bradhicks' argument in one of his posts. You can point out their hypocrisy all you want, until the cows come home and drown in the barn full of bullshit. But it won't matter, because it's THEIR bullshit. They produced it, so it must be good and wholesome!

Now there's a song title

[(Anonymous)]

"[Apparently, I'm in a Usenet state of mind...]"

Now I can't get the idea of a Billy Joel parody out of my head....