Crosses And Fighter Jets

So, at first, I wasn't going to blog about the NYT article about the evangelical minister who tried to explain to his congregation why the sickening mix of religion, militarism, and statism that we've got going on in America was not such a good idea. I mean, really, at first all I could think of to say was, well, duh. And, yeah, it's pretty fucking sickening to realize that a full one fourth of his congregation (read: the donations that fund his salary, his parsonage, and his car) left the church when he dared to suggest that maybe, just maybe, xianity WASN'T supposed to be all about war and hating on the gays and roping women back into the 13th Century. But, beyond that, I figured everyone else who follows these issues would blog the story to death, so why should I?

But today, at my coven's celebration of Lughnasadha, we got to talking about a story that recently got some national coverage. A prisoner who belonged to a Pagan religion known as Asatru was recently put to death in Virginia for murdering another prisoner. (Disclaimer: I am against the death penalty in every single case.) He tried to argue that the murder was religiously-motivated (that Asatru demands or at least accepts human sacrifice) and, since the story had sensatonal elements, the press picked it up and ran with it. Asatru isn't a branch of Paganism that I know much about, beyond the basics, and it's always been tainted by the whack-job white supremicists who are attracted to it. But what we got to talking about today was the need for serious members of the Pagan community to quickly make clear -- as they all did -- that they don't approve of what this nutjob did, don't approve of ritual murder, and don't approve of the white supremacy taint that often attaches itself to Asatru.

Of course, Paganism is a minority religion, while xianity is the majority religion in the US (Goddess, knows, we've heard that often enough). So I suppose we're particularly sensitive to the "bad apples" who make all of us "look bad." But I'm often puzzled by the paucity of xians who are willing, as this minister was, to step up and say, "No. A video of fighter jets streaking through the sky behind a cross has absolutely nothing to do with my religion." (I could do a rant about how xianity chose the symbol of torture and execution -- the cross -- as its symbol rather than, say, the rock rolled away from the door of the tomb, but it's too hot and that's been done to death, anyways.) That's the sort of twisted symbolism that ought to make anyone stand up and scream. It reminds me of nothing so much as the podium at the Republican Convention that had a cross on it.

The purported evangelical left has been far too willing to sit silently and allow the militaritsts and sexists define their religion. It would be nice if this minister's book were a best-seller.