| A discovery |
 A discovery
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Oct. 3rd, 2009 @ 10:52 am 
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Last night, I was watching The Daily Show - in particular, the bit where John Oliver was interviewing some "Tea Party Protesters".
One of the teabaggers showed her top piece of protest gear: a black Smith & Wesson .45 holster containing a wooden crucifix.
See, here's the discovery.
I think of myself as being religiously calm. I'm tolerant of blasphemy, tolerant of militant atheists, tolerant of so-called Christian fundamentalists who offend me pretty much exactly as much, tolerant of other viewpoints on religion in general. I don't list non-Christian religions as something of which I consider myself tolerant because I don't find them offensive in the first place. I think it's inappropriate to suggest that I, or anyone else, could have a monopoly on the Truth.
However, I discovered, in that moment, that I am in fact capable of being offended, on religious grounds, in a way that makes me suddenly and deeply angry, and that smugly showing off a cross complete with representation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ jammed into a holster for a gun is, in fact, on the other side of that invisible line I hadn't realised existed.
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I was reading over my flist (I always go to the last entry I read and then read forward) and realized WAIT IT'S A CRUCIFIX? Even manga doesn't do stuff that tasteless!
If the gun were a prop on Supernatural intended for killing demons (or some urban fantasy character's "vampire killing gear"), I would be 100% cool with it. Or if it were some piece of tacky modern art intended to higlight the connection between religion and violence, I'd think it was stupid and pretentious, but be okay with it. But I'm sure this woman means it sincerely, and honestly believes that Jesus is with her as she carries a gun around to protest socialism (do people forget that Jesus's one comment on taxes was that Christians still had to pay them?). It smacks of the same vibe as crazy pro-lifers shooting doctors who perform abortions because "God wants them to." A much milder version of it, since she presumably hasn't actually shot anybody with her Smith & Blasphemy gun (and I seriously hope she has no intention of doing so, but with some of those teabag people' it's difficult to be sure -- have you heard about the federal census taker who was lynched* in Kentucky?), but still creepy. *He was found hanging from a tree, naked, with his census badge taped to his neck and with the word "Fed" written on his chest. Lynching's really the only word that describes it.
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