Cranky Bastard

Bible Belt Blogger: Rosie O'Donnell denounces "radical Christians": "I suspect Rosie's point is that many Americans see the bigger threat to their families' well-being and daily lives comes from rhetoric and politics driven by radical Christians seeking conservative Christian dominion. You have secular, tax-paid public schools attended by children of many or no faith(s) that are putting up 10 Commandment displays. You have radical Christians demanding philosophical issues like faith and creation being taught as science in science classes. You have millions of gay/lesbian couples who are now written into state constitutions as second class citizens...the first such constitutional limiting rather than expansion of rights since slaves were listed as less than a full person and prohibition was placed in the constitution. You have churches pushing bills to refuse health insurance, domestic violence protections, anti-bias protections, and parenthood to gay families. You also have pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for patients. There are businesses refusing to serve various patrons simply because of who they are. Then you have people using their faith to try to stop scientific exploration of stem cell research that could cure millions of Americans with chronic diseases. Perhaps worst for many Americans is the daily rhetoric of demonizing liberals, gays, people of other faiths, moderate Christians, etc. as evil. When you have ministers saying things like 'oh, it is not right that they beat that gay man to death but he kind of had it coming since he was such a sinner', then you have to ask who is a bigger threat to your life: Islamic terrorists or ministers basically telling their congregations that it is ok to abuse certain types of Americans? Imagine if there was a constant barrage of legislative bills, political ads, and statements by public figures lambasting Christians as terrorists the way gays/lesbians like Rosie have endured in recent years? You don't see the same virulent rhetoric against the divorced/adulterers, liars, abusers of the elderly, thiefs, or fornicators that are actually listed in the 10 Commandments. For the Americans targeted by anti-Christian intolerance, I suspect you would find that, like Rosie, there is a greater concern about the daily attacks on their families by radical Christians than the spector of terrorist attacks by radical Muslims."

This, from the Bible Belt Blogger in the Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky), is a well-reasoned answer. The blogger was asking if people could agree with Rosie O'Donnell's statement that "radical Christians" were essentially as big a threat as "radical Muslims". It was posed as ridiculous in the blog, as you might have imagined from the name of said blog. The respondent, Jeff, says that in America, we should not be using our government and schools to teach and legislate morality. Taking that further, he suggests that by doing so, we are also teaching and legislating hate. It does seem a bit strange that churches are very concerned with gays and lesbians, but have been nearly complicit in child sexual abuse. Glass house with cracks, I would say.