Move Over, Islam: Christians Can Make Death Threats, Too
Many folks were none too pleased when Blair Scott, the communications director of the American Atheists, went on Fox’s “America Live” to discuss her organization’s lawsuit against the World Trade Center Memorial Cross last month.
If you’re reading this post, you’re probably already aware of the 8,000 death threats left on the Fox News Facebook page by angry viewers. And if you aren’t aware, you really should check out the astute atheist blogger who managed to capture screenshots of the hateful comments before Fox took them down. Apparently, some Fox News viewers would like to “…hang the leader of that group with nails through their hands and feet…RAM a spear through their side all after being whipped and beaten publicly.” Others prefer to let someone else do the dirty work: “Stupid atheists. I hope God kills them all.”
When we atheists question and criticize religion, we are often told something like, “It’s because of the Judeo-Christian values of this country that you can say those things here without fear or punishment. Try going over to Afghanistan and criticizing religion. See how long you last!”
Atheists in America ARE wildly better off than many of our foreign counterparts, sure, but more people need to realize that nonbelievers are not exactly sitting pretty here–and Fox News viewers have done a pretty good job of showing us just how unwelcome our views can be.
This is all the more deliciously ironic, of course, when we recall how quick Fox News pundits were to play defense earlier this summer, when the media labeled alleged Norwegian gunman Anders Breivik as a fundamentalist Christian extremist.
“The left wants you to believe that fundamentalist Christians are a threat,” Bill O’Reilly declared. But apparently the left wasn’t doing a good enough job convincing us, so about 8,000 Christian Facebook posters jumped in to help out.
Skeptical Monkey doesn’t mean to imply that all Christians are violent minded, nor are we trying to put “shooting dozens of people” and “leaving spiteful Facebook comments” on equal moral ground. But we can’t in good conscience ignore 8,000 death threats, nor can we pretend that they were the work of just a small band of religious crazies. These are real people expressing real anger, folks. And if the best defense is that they were only making empty death threats, well, forgive us if we don’t feel much better.
These Facebook posters may not ever bring their violent plans to fruition, but we’re willing to bet that most of these people wouldn’t be weeping too loudly if someone else went through with one of these bloodthirsty ideas. When any person, Christian, Muslim, or otherwise, believes themselves to be part of cosmic battle between good and evil, it isn’t so much of a leap for that person to wish death and destruction on the perceived “evil” side.
In light of all this, Skeptical Monkey would be immensely appreciative if Christians would stop pretending that their religion is so far above, say, Islam in terms of peace and humility.
Now, only one question remains: will anyone care enough to leave violent threats on this particular post?
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