One thing we do very well is to call out the hypocrisy of the Christian Right. And believe me, there's enough hypocrisy to keep us busy for years. They call themselves "pro-life", but have no interest in helping poor children beyond making sure they pop out of the womb. They feel free to judge the morals of any Democrat in office, but voted for a three times married, admitted adulterer who bragged about getting away with sexual assault, makes fun of the handicapped, and calls women "fat pigs". They claim they are persecuted just because Americans have finally had enough of their bullying and are enacting laws to keep them from continuing doing so. And, we SHOULD keep calling them out.
But, when I get 20 likes on Facebook when I post about Christian bakers refusing to bake cakes for same sex weddings, 20 likes when I post about terrorist White Supremacist groups, but, consistently, maybe 2 likes when I post about terrorist attacks committed by radical Muslims, we have a problem. When I post about the slaughter and detainment of LGBTQ people in Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim region, I hear crickets. When I post about oppression of women in counties with a majority Muslim population, I could hear a pin drop. Religious extremism by ANY population is evil, and I am consistent in my condemnation of it. I don't care if you are distorting Christianity, Islam, or anything else. Hurting people in the name of religious ideology needs to be called out and condemned.
I know my fellow Progressives are opposed to everything ISIS stands for. I know that an attack on innocent young girls at an Ariana Grande concert horrifies us as much as it does the Right. It's evil and disturbing, and we're all gutted when these attacks happen. Yet, we are in this awkward space where many of us are uncomfortable knowing what to say and how much to say. Guys- when we expend more energy condemning bakers for not baking cakes for gay people than we do condemning Chechnyans for actually putting gay men in concentration camps, we're giving the Right unnecessary fuel against us. And the only reason that I and others with whom I've spoken can come up with for keeping tight-lipped is that WE DON'T WANT TO SOUND LIKE "THEM". We don't want to be mistaken for irrational, hypocritical Christian Islamophobes. When we do post our condemnation, we are very careful to take up as much space with a #notallmuslims disclaimer as we do with our outrage.
Guys- we cannot call out Christian Conservatives for having selective outrage- for making a big fuss about every Muslim who shoots someone while not talking about Dylann Roof, if we are doing the same thing in reverse. When we do so, when we stay silent about Radical Islamic terrorism, we alienate potential voters. And, we're morally wrong to do so. We recognize that ISIS does not represent the views of the vast majority of Muslims. ISIS is a terrorist organization and is not what Islam stands for. We are not Islamophobic. We need to not let our worry of "sounding like THEM" keep us from being intellectually and morally consistent. That's what THEY do. We are supposed to be more logical, more consistent, more self-aware. That's how we bill ourselves. We are supposed to decry extremism and oppression in the name of religion. So, when we point out cake refusal and stay silent when gay Chechnyan men are slaughtered and placed in concentration camps, it makes us look just as hypocritical as the Christian Right. We need to be brave enough to speak with equal outrage about all oppression, bigotry, and violence done in the name of ANYONE's God. Who cares if our well intentioned condemnation is mistaken for some kind of prejudice about a particular religion? Right is right.
I am particularly struck by what occurred in Manchester last night. I have an 11 year old daughter who loves Ariana Grande. When I see pictures of the devastated, terrified girls running out of the arena- when I think of those who were slaughtered, it hits me hard. That could have been my daughter. Yes, the odds that any one person will be a victim of a terrorist attack are ridiculously low, compared to their odds of dying from illness, dying in a car accident, or being shot by someone they actually know, and I refuse to walk around in this world being afraid of terrorism- that's what the terrorists want, but the odds are scant comfort to the families affected by last night's terror attack. I know we all agree, but we have to learn to be as comfortable speaking out about this kind of violence as we are calling out our own homegrown Christian Right extremists.
(PS- random nature image inserted because Blogger just makes random images from previous posts your thumbnail.)
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