The "War on Christians"

Conservative movement leaders have come up with what they surely hope is a fool-proof method of getting their followers to the polls in November. Not content merely to stoke the flames of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny in the hearts of "the base," they are willing now to take the exploitation of Christ Himself to new lows.

Tom DeLay, Sam Brownback, Phyllis Schlafly and other luminaries of the reactionary right are trying to convince American Christians that they are a persecuted minority. It is, they say, nothing less than a War on Christians.

This week, radio commentator Rick Scarborough convened a two-day conference in Washington on the "War on Christians and the Values Voters in 2006." The opening session was devoted to "reports from the frontlines" on "persecution" of Christians in the United States and Canada, including an artist whose paintings were barred from a municipal art show in Deltona, Fla., because they contained religious themes.

"It doesn't rise to the level of persecution that we would see in China or North Korea," said Tristan Emmanuel, a Canadian activist. "But let's not pretend that it's okay."

Among the conference's speakers were former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) as well as conservative Christian leaders Phyllis Schlafly, Rod Parsley, Gary Bauer, Janet Parshall and Alan Keyes.

To many of the 400 evangelicals packed into a small ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, it was a hard but necessary look at moral relativism, hedonism and Christophobia, or fear of Christ, to pick just a few terms offered by various speakers referring to the enemy.

I seem to recall reading something somewhere by some Guy who had a few thoughts on the subject of persecuted Christians.

It went something like this:

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Too bad that Guy didn't possess the wisdom of Mr. Tom DeLay. Surely, Mr. DeLay's counsel is better than that of the Guy who said to consider yourself blessed when people deem you worthy of persecution on Christ's behalf. Surely, it is much more Christ-like to gather in the Oak Room for a bout of whining, complaining and political strategizing.

WWJD, indeed?