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Sunday, January 2, 2011
A Coptic Christian with a cross made from the blood of Christian victims at his church in Egypt.
AP photo Ben Curtis
Many, but not all, who study the
Holocaust say something like the following: Christians had been saying bad
things about Jews for two thousand years. Saying those bad things made the
Holocaust inevitable / possible / easier.
Mind: This
argument focuses on critical language. It cites critical language,
specifically, as necessary and sufficient precursor to genocide.
Not all say this.
The argument is flawed
for several reasons:
Genocides have happened without the
frequently cited "two thousand years" preparation. The Rwandan
genocide is said to have been the fastest genocide in history; there had been
no previous two thousand years of verbal preparation. The Cambodian
auto-genocide targeted anyone who had an education, anyone who wore glasses.
There had been no previous two thousand years of verbal preparation. One could go
on.
Too, Christian scripture and theology do not call
for a genocide of Jews – rather they are unique in their emphasis on active,
selfless love regardless of tribal affiliation. Nazism did explicitly called
for a genocide of Jews, and Nazism defined itself as a repudiation of
Christianity.
Finally, humans, along all ethnic, religious,
class and gender divides say heinous things about one another, and they do so
without committing genocides. Blacks say horrible things about whites. Men say
horrible things about women. Jews say horrible things about Christians. Most
don't commit genocides.
In short, the argument is not
perfect.
On the other hand, hate speech – not critical
speech as part of a fair exchange of ideas but, rather, hate speech in a no-win
environment – has proven to be an essential feature of genocide. Joseph Goebbels
was a novelist. Not a soldier. Not a financier. His weapons were words. He was
Hitler's right hand man. Hitler gave power and status to a wordsmith that he
never gave to a tank commander. Germans' minds had to be prepped, through
language, to kill Jews. Goebbels saw to that.
In Rwanda,
those planning genocide used the radio. Their hateful propaganda was so important
that Rwandan radio broadcasters were later prosecuted on war crimes charges.
They never wielded a machete. They just used words to prep others to do so.
What about the horrible things that Americans and others now
say about Christians? What about the contempt, the crude jokes, the
distortions, the scapegoating, the ugliness?
Do those who
say ugly things about Christians make the persecution of Christians inevitable
/ possible / easier?
"What persecution of
Christians?" you ask. "There's no persecution of Christians. I never see
anything on the news about persecution of Christians. None of my friends talk
about persecution of Christians."
That's really
interesting. It's really interesting that so many "educated" people
are unaware of persecution of Christians. It's really interesting that the press
does not cover this persecution.
It's really interesting
that American opinion leaders got their panties in a twist over a nobody who
said he might, and then again he might not, burn a Koran.
But, unless I missed it, no American opinion leaders cared at all when, in
recent years, Muslims began crucifying Christians in Iraq and Sudan.
That's right – human beings, crucified. And all those
righteous people who cared so much about singed pieces of paper … cared not at
all.
The bombing of a Christian church in Egypt. An
Afghan man condemned to death for converting to Christianity. A Pakistani woman
condemned to death for being Christian. An Indian man jailed and tortured in
Saudi Arabia for mere possession of a Bible. The list of atrocities against Christians goes
on and on.
Why don't the usual, professional, public
righteous ones, who rant and rave about this aggrieved group and that aggrieved
group, who weep and wail and get huffy and pontificate about burned Korans, the
Jon Stewarts, the Barak Obamas, the Al Sharptons, organizations like NOW and
the Southern Poverty Law Center – why don't they care?
Does
pervasive hate speech against Christians create, or reflect, an atmosphere
where crucifying Christians in Sudan and Iraq is okay? Not worthy of news
coverage?
Pervasive hate speech against Christians: it's
everywhere, in the media, in facebook posts, on college campuses. In my own
life, I receive anti-Christian e-mails and read anti-Christian facebook posts
and hear invidious distortions of Christianity in the media and confront
Christophobia on campuses on a weekly basis. I know I've lost teaching jobs
because I am a Christian. Just being Christian. Not talking about it in class.
Just being Christian is enough to lose a job over, and no, no there is no
recourse. There's been no recourse for my students, either. Students who paid
for classes out of their own earnings have had to drop because of harassment.
Tenured professors can mock students, on a daily basis, for being Christian,
and experience no consequences.
One of my oldest friends
hates Christians. He's got a PhD. He does sophisticated white collar work. He lives
in an exclusive suburb. He's very Politically Correct, New Age,
Buddhist-Taoist-groovy. He's known me for half my life. I value his
intelligence and humor. We share important life events. On a regular basis, he
sends me uninvited e-mails mocking Christianity. The most memorable one
described his fantasies of raping Catholic nuns. He thought it was funny. I've
asked him to stop sending these e-mails. He doesn't. Are his e-mails, which I'm
sure he finds very funny and very brave, just part of the background noise that
makes persecuting Christians okay?
I'm all for reasoned
critiques of Christianity. I've delivered such critiques myself, as the
writings on my webpage show. I'm not talking about reasoned critiques in a fair
exchange of ideas. I'm talking about hate in an atmosphere where Christians are
destined to lose, either jobs or their lives. Does anti-Christian hate speech make
inevitable / possible / easier the crucifixion of Christians in Iraq?
I want to ask anyone who may be reading this: please think
twice before you mock Christians or Christianity in an ugly way. Please think
twice before you forward a message that claims that Christians burned the
witches / murdered millions in the Inquisition / tortured Galileo / inspired
Hitler / began the Crusades to convert Muslims / etc. All of these Christophobic
lies have been investigated by serious historians and serious historians have
shown them all to be more about hate than scholarship. Read Lyndal Roper on the
truth of the witch trials, Henry Kamen on the Inquisition, Robert Spencer on
the Crusades, Nancy Pearcey on the relationship between Christianity and
Science, etc.
Think about the consequences of
verbalizing hate.
Ahlam Fawzy Saber, a Coptic Christian woman, mourns the death of her two sisters and her niece in her church in Egypt.
AP Photo Ben Curtis
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