Remove Jew, add Christian

The Pope is calling for a summit in light of a recent wave of anti-Christian violence.  OK.  We'll see how that goes.  One reason I think for the violence?  Because all those old liberal professors I had were right.  You see, when I was growing up, I learned about the harmful effects of societal bigotry. That corporate racism in which we all lived.  Not the laws that sad blacks had to use a different drinking fountain.  But the undercurrent of racial bigotry.  It was the ease with which our society used racial slurs, made racial jokes, put down people of color as a matter of course.  It was the day-to-day living out of racism that was every bit as bad as any law that said a black must go to a different school.

Same with anti-Semitism.  It wasn't as if the Nazis took over and invented anti-Semitism.  That bigotry against Jews was in the life blood of Europe.  It didn't matter why, whether it was racial or religious.  It was there, in the atmosphere, in the air people breathed.  It was that assumption that all Jews were crooks, that Jews were corrupt, that Jews 'those kind of people'.  It was the easy acceptance of anti-Jewish caricatures, a willingness to laugh at and mock Jewish customs and traditions because of a dislike of Jewish people.  It was, in effect, the subtle acceptance of hatred and contempt for the Jewish people that was so acceptable in Europe that allowed for the Holocaust every bit as much as any flagrant Nazi policy of extermination.

Fine.  I believe them.  Because not only have we seen violence across the world against Christians, we've seen it here at home.  Oh, it's still never assumed to be a 'hate crime.'  When a man opens fire on Christians in a Colorado church, despite his writings signalling a hatred of Christianity and call for its extermination, most in the media chose to focus on his mental instability.  That happens.  Any vandalism, church burnings, assaults against Christians is immediately assumed to be due to some other reason.

Yet these things are happening.  And globally, they are happening more every day.  Why?  Need I say.  Look at how Christianity is portrayed in our popular media.  Look at movies and books like The DaVince Code.  That is nothing other than the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion applied to Catholics.  It's the old [___________] are part of a great, vast conspiracy of evil and murder trying to take over the planet.  You simply remove the old 'Jew' from the blank, and insert Catholic/Christian. 

From Tavis Smiley to Keith Olbermann, Christians are routinely attacked, accused of outlandish crimes, mocked and derided.  Movies portray them as corrupt, evil, stupid, zealous fanatics.  People like P.Z. Meyers, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins frequently use the old terminology, phraseology, and condemnation that was once applied to minority groups like blacks or Jews.  They simply change the terms to Christian/Catholic and receive rave reviews, invitations to speak at our leading universities, and praise from our media culture.

And that's here at home.  The way Christians are perceived and portrayed throughout the Muslim world is just as disconcerting.  Since 9/11, I've lost track of how many Muslim pundits have brought up the Crusades - or at least the part of the Crusades where Christians did bad.  Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said it best when he blamed Christianity for anything and everything done by any nation of the Western world, even if such things - like the dropping of the atomic bombs - were widely condemned by such Christian groups as, you know, the Catholic Church. 

Now, if my old liberal professors were correct, and such constant and acceptable trashing, thrashing, and re-trashing the re-thrashed trash is a major reason for old bigotry and racism and slavery and genocide, should we be shocked that the socially acceptable contempt for Christianity in our popular culture, our popular media, and our academic intuitions should facilitate such things?  And if in the Muslim world, where at least a fair number of Muslims have no problem emphasising all that is wrong with Christianity, receives nothing but vindication for their views by people they consider to be living in a 'Christian' culture, ought we to be shocked that such violence is springing up around the world?  After all, it wasn't just Hitler who was to blame.  It was all of European Culture, all of the Christian West.  It wasn't just the slave owner who was to blame, but all of European and American culture that accepted the bigotry and prejudice and stereotypes. 

Therefore, based on the traditional liberal interpretation of events I learned all those years ago, I can only suppose that no matter what the Pope says, it will do no good.  As long as Hollywood, Keith Olbermann, Christopher Hitchens, and Imam Rauf continue to spin the Christian Faith as they do, the violence will continue.  And those fine institutions and individuals will, of course, no doubt accept the blame they've been all to willing to bestow on others for so long.