Last night, I put up a post called "It's OK, it was only a Jew". The post was about how one Army trainee gets to remain anonymous and face minimal, if any, punishment for attacking another trainee. The victim, 20-year old Private Michael Handman, was beaten badly enough he had to be sent to the hospital. The attack occurred a mere 4 days after Handman had spoken with his commanders about the [verified] antisemitic antics of a couple of drill sergeants. The Army, in it's infinite wisdom, has determined that the attack was not motivated by any bigotry and has authorized a non-judicial penalty against the attacker which guarantees the perpetrator's privacy and shields anyone outside the Army from having access to any information discovered during the investigation.
Today I came home to hear that a bunch of 6th-graders in a Missouri middle school thought a great bonding school spirit event would be to have "hit a Jew" day. It's kind of like obnoxious tie day, only cooler because you get to make sure the non-Christian kids feel part of the school with a heartfelt slap in the face (literally).
Now, I've noticed that there's been an increase in the amount of intolerance of Christians, even many non-religious Christians who pretty much limit their religious observance to everything Christmas and Easter baskets, since Right-Wing Christianity gained momentum as a political movement over the past 8 - 10 years. But, it seems to me, that the overt intolerance towards "others" has increased exponentially as the rhetoric of the past two years of the presidential campaign has heated up. It's not just against Jews, or Muslims or LGBT, there seems to be a rise in the overtly expressed disdain of anyone who doesn't at least pretend to be of the secular Christian variety (note: religious LGTB who are automatically excluded from being considered any type of Christian unless they're part of the "ex-gay" movement just because they are, somehow, mutually exclusive). The fiery rhetoric and increased reports of bigotry and what should be considered hate crimes seems sadly and disturbingly reminiscent of another time and other places in which the Christians were called to arms to protect their homeland. . .are we facing the beginning of a similar crisis now?
Tags: Religion; civil rights; religious freedom/freedom of expression; xenocentrism/xenophobia; conservatism; Christian; antisemitism
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