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Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 93F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..
Mostly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Potential for severe thunderstorms. Low 72F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Updated: July 5, 2023 @ 8:59 am
In June 1692 Bridget Bishop, age 60, became the first person convicted of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. She was hanged. The Puritans in charge accused more than 200 of witchcraft, and 19 were convicted and hanged (15 women and four men). One man was pressed to death with stones. At least five accused of witchcraft died in prison, and two dogs were killed because they were believed to be linked to the devil.
Sure this happened hundreds of years ago, but it’s still a good reason for not having a state religion, as was decided when the colonies formed a new country.
All the world’s major religions share a message of peace and some version of the Golden Rule. That’s the good news. The bad news is that religion also emboldens some people to commit self-righteous acts of violence in the name of their God.
I’m glad we live in a country that is supposed to be tolerant of different beliefs. There are so many! Among the very biggest religions there are several denominations of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddism. And as I’ve written in columns before, probably none are more fragmented than Christianity. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, there are 30,000-45,000 different denominations of Christianity in the world – including some churches within denominations that are “independent” of that denomination.
This reminds me of a story a friend of mine told about a man who was ship wrecked on a deserted island. Years went by before he was finally rescued. The people who saved him noticed there were three huts on the island, so they asked him what the deal was. He said: “The first hut was my home. The second hut was my church. The third hut was my new church. I had a problem with the old one.”
Can you imagine declaring ourselves a Christian nation? Eventually there’d be no more political parties. That’s the good news. The bad news is that every Christian denomination would be having conventions and primaries and debates and then we’d have to decide if we’re going to vote for the Mormon candidate or the Anglican candidate for governor. Do we want to go with the Presbyterian nominee for president, or the Lutheran nominee? What will it mean if there’s a Catholic majority in the Senate and a Baptist majority in the House? It might depend on whether the House majority are in churches with the Southern Baptist Convention or the National Baptist Convention USA, or the American Baptist Churches in the USA, or the National Baptist Convention of America.
And how will our state and federal district lines be drawn then? Will Methodists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Quakers, and Mennonites have a shot at electing one of their own?
Sadly, many Americans don’t even know all those denominations are Christians. Sadder still is that there are so many Christians who think all other Christians unlike themselves aren’t “real Christians.”
I’m old enough to remember asking grownups why Christians were blowing each other up in Ireland in the ’60s and ’70s and I remember abortion clinic bombings. According to the National Library of Medicine, from 1977 to 1988 there were 110 cases of arson or bombing involving antiabortion violence in the U.S. Since 1993, at least 11 people have been murdered in attacks on abortion clinics in cities across the U.S. according to Samuel Perry. He’s an associate professor of sociology at Baylor University. He and Andrew Whitehead, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University, wrote the book “Taking Back America for God.” They say today’s Christian nationalism is really about preserving a certain social order.
Perry says the vast majority of Christian nationalists never engage in violence. “Nonetheless, Christian nationalist thinking suggests that unless Christians control the state, the state will suppress Christianity.”
Perry also points out in a recent article for The Conversation, that Christian nationalists and violence have been linked several times in the last few decades including the standoffs at Ruby Ridge in 1992 and at Waco in 1993 (both of which started based on illegal weapons charges). Following that, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols cited revenge for Waco as the motivation for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
“In yet another case,” writes Perry. “Eric Rudolph bombed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. In his confession, he cited his opposition to abortion and anti-LGBTQ views as motivation to bomb Olympic Square. These men cited their involvement with the Christian Identity movement in their trials as motivation for engaging in violence.”
I’ve been to Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta several times. Seeing the marks left in the sculptures there by the nails that exploded from the pipe bombing doesn’t bring anything Christian to mind.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene represents the 14th Congressional District of Georgia. She thinks Christian nationalism is a peachy idea. Perry notes that in an interview last summer she said the Republican Party “need[s] to be the party of nationalism. And I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists.”
Considering that Greene regularly spews outlandish conspiracy theories, and has liked social media posts in the past about killing Democrats, I’m not picking up a Christian vibe from her. And since she posed with the Wilder Brigade Monument last year at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park – in her own district – saying it honors Confederate soldiers and that she will always defend our nation’s history, I don’t think she knows much about the nation, either. The Wilder Monument honors John Thomas Wilder’s Lightning Brigade of the Union Army, not Confederates.
Perry also mentions U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, who recently said: “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church.” And Boebert has referred to the separation of church and state as “junk.”
Other politicians think it’s junk, too, so that’s something to watch out for. When the church directs the government everyone not part of THAT church is a witch.
Steve Gillespie is editor of The Daily Press. Email him at editor@paragoulddailypress.com.
Steve Gillespie is editor of The Daily Press. Email him at editor@paragoulddailypress.com.
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