Where the Danger Lies

Today, I am offering up a three-fer of commentary (here are parts I and II) on a member of the Iowa Republican National Committee's reaction to an atheist invocation given at a city council, and it shows how much ignorance, misdirection and provocation can be packed into one short commentary. In part, Tamara Scott claimed that "those who come against Christianity want to destroy Christianity." She is very concerned about the lack of prayer in schools and claimed that Christians make better citizens because the principles of their religion change their hearts, and when those principles are removed "You see the Ferguson. You see the riots. You see the Antifa. You see the Resistance. And when you take away that heart of prevention, then government has to become more authoritarian and coercion..."

This is in reaction to an atheist invocation remember. There was no call to end religion as we know it, or a cry of "off with their heads!" about Christians. (You can even go read an article about the man who gave the invocation, Justin Scott.)

In this post, I don't actually want to delve into the differences between Ferguson, riots, antifa and the resistance. In my view, Scott is eliding those differences in an appeal to fear of violence which has been prevalent among social conservatives of late. The presumption underpinning the link between the four she mentions is that violence is inherent in "the left" or "the hard left" or whatever label we want to slap on it. There is no mention of right-wing violence, like unrest among militias (i.e. the Bundy family) or anti-abortion activists. In naming Ferguson and perhaps the generic riots, there is a clear dog whistle for racists.

Further, presumably the cause of all the violence is that people involved lack Christianity in their lives. Going unstated is a common stereotype that atheists are depraved, that, because we don't believe in god, we lead a life in which anything goes. It is sometimes presumed we don't value our own or other people's lives. Some Christians think atheists are possessed by demons. How many times have I heard that atheists reject god because they just want to sin?

I don't think I need to post outside links to make the point that both historically and currently, religion has been a motivator for violence. Wars, the crusades, the Inquisition, lynching, Islamic terror, the violence in Israel, anti-abortion violence - just open up the news or a history book and look at what people are doing in the name of their god. And sure #notallChristians and #notallMuslims and so on. Yes, good people are doing good work in their religion. It's just that there is a lot of violence done too, and the point here is that violence is not unique to atheists. It is a regrettably human trait that can be propped up by an appeal to a deity.

I want to be clear here that I am not condoning any violence and, as I said, I do not want to deal with the specificities of these four categories. In part, the categories are just place holders for the phrase "be afraid!" Instead, I am interested in the rhetorical move of setting up an us-versus-them mentality that only serves to further polarize groups. In this particular case, Scott's appeal to fear is a call to Christians that they are under attack by godless outsiders who want to destroy their religion. Godless outsiders, who have no respect for all that is right and good, are bent on violence to disrupt the world.

This appeal is plain wrong - factually and morally. It is wrong factually because there are Christians in Ferguson, in antifa and the resistance (and likely the generic "riots"). There are and have been Christians who have perpetrated violence. It is wrong morally because demonizing other groups (and reinforcing racial and religious stereotypes) to prop yourself or your cause up is unjust.

Scott had the opportunity to appear gracious in her reaction to a single atheist making an invocation. She could have welcomed it by celebrating the freedom of religion which makes the United States so great. Instead, she blew it, opting for a course of entrenchment and fear-mongering.

(For a final post, see Part IV)

Random little pleasure:

-spotting a monarch butterfly enjoying the flowers