I find it constantly fascinating to watch Christians in this 80% Christian country whine about how attacked they are. I know, I know: I talk about this a lot. But it truly is astounding. In the past, Christians were sent to the lions. Now, it turns out that they were not sent to the lions because they were Christians, but it is hard to find a Christian who will admit it. The fact remains, however, that they were Christians, they broke the law and got killed — like many other minority groups. And modern day Christians think that they went to their deaths because the Romans just hated Christians. What’s more, modern Christians think what these early Christians did was noble.
Given that they think this, it is hilarious that they simultaneously think that they are being oppressed when a clerk at Target wishes them “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” And today, we have another example. It comes to us via Jimmy Swaggart’s son Donnie. According to Right Wing Watch, “Donnie Swaggart… hosted a panel discussion… dedicated to discussing the controversy that had erupted in Houston, Texas, after the mayor’s office subpoenaed sermons and other materials from a handful of pastors as part of a lawsuit anti-gay activists had filed in an effort to overturn a local antidiscrimination ordinance.” During the segment, Swaggart claimed that “They want the Bible gone” — referring to the minority that aren’t Christian and support non-discrimination. And he followed that up by noting that the only difference between ISIS and these people is that “those here cannot chop our heads off.”
This is brilliant. It is true that we have a Christian-centered culture where whining about being told “Happy Holidays” does not get you laughed out of polite society. And it is true that there are no people that I know of running around specifically trying to murder Christians in this country. And it is true that Christians in the United States are in no way oppressed. But Donnie Swaggart knows that Christians are oppressed because the only thing that is keeping me from chopping off the heads of Christians is that I know I can’t get away with it. Or I don’t have a big sword or otherwise am not able to do it.
It doesn’t get any better than this. Christians are being oppressed because unnamed people are only stopped from chopping their heads off by the law. I might note that in Salem, the “witches” were hanged and not burned at the stake. And the reason they weren’t burned at the stake was that England had made it illegal because the Christians were really getting out of hand in that regard. If we should be worried about anyone sinning in their hearts — constrained only by law — it should be Christians.
But the story gets better. Right Wing Watch posted less than one and a half minutes of video from the show on their YouTube channel. Within just a few hours, “Swaggart’s SonlifeTV has filed a copyright complaint.” And, of course, YouTube took it down because YouTube is evil that way. That should give you some idea of just how serious Swaggart and his kin are about the open flow of information. According to him, we non-Christians want the Bible gone. But he doesn’t want to allow his own words to get outside his own cult where everyone agrees.
But we’re like ISIS.
H/T: Ed Kilgore