The Anti-Christian Jihad Continues

(H/T: Mrs. Woody)

From the StatesmanJournal in Salem, Oregon we find this column by Michelle Malkin. The column details attempts by two different school districts to hold "terrorism drills" as part of a commendable effort to prepare their students against the possibility of an attack. Most unfortunately, they chose to use "Christians" in their portrayals of terrorists who would threaten the lives of their students in these drills.

I well remember the first incident. In Muskegon County, Michigan, administrators chose to have their terrorists be "crazed Christian homeschoolers." (I could have sworn I'd written something about it at the time, but an exhaustive search of this blog fails to find any evidence of such a post.) Being a Christian homeschooler I was, of course, incensed. What could these idiot administrators have been thinking? The obvious inference, naturally, is that the local NEA affiliate likely has "Christian Homeschoolers" at the top of a list of subversive elements that may well organize to attack a public school.

Speaking as a Christian homeschooler let me be the first to say, "Are you OUT OF YOUR MINDS?" Homeschoolers, as a whole, are the most disorganized bunch of people I've ever met. You ever try to coordinate more than three families to have a Play Day at a park? And you think we're suddenly going to burst into a public school and start taking hostages? The far more likely threat is that one family might wander onto your campus, find an open classroom (because the air conditioning isn't working. Again.) and embarrass the class by winning their own spelling bee.

So the idea that Muskegon even considered using homeschoolers (and not just any homeschoolers, but those dreaded Christian homeschoolers) as their prototypical terrorists is painfully ludicrous. If this clumsy attempt at appeasement is laughable, those of us who homeschool are not laughing.

Moving on, then, we find another incident as recent as last month. In New Jersey, one high school chose to use a "right-wing fundamentalist" group - fictional, one assumes - who "don't believe in the separation of Church and state." "Right-wing" always equates to "Christian" it goes without saying. Just as "polygamist" always equates to "Mormon." So this right-wing fundamentalist organization - which was probably long since disavowed by any reputable Christian faith - becomes the bad guy in this exercise. All done in the interests of not offending Muslims who have been feeling the heat ever since 9/11.

I do have to admit that the second scenario is somewhat more likely than the first. Certainly we've seen our fair share of "fundamentalist" whack-jobs over the years who have chosen to take vigilantism to the next level. Cults abound in this country, and many people who have very loose grips on reality claim that God has told them to do some reprehensible act in his name. Whether we should consider these people to be "terrorists" is really just a matter of semantics. I myself would be more likely to use gangs - all of whom I personally consider to be terrorists - if I were organizing a terrorism drill for my school. They tend to be just as well armed as your basic fundamentalist, and most of them are battle-hardened veterans of the turf wars.

The point is, I'm sure that there are many, many examples of violent subcultures that these school administrators could have used to represent the evil terrorists. But they chose to use Christians, or those who are identified as Christians, rather than risk offending some other belief system. Which begs the question: If it's not acceptable to offend Muslims in this way, why should it be any more acceptable to offend Christians?

The answer is that they just didn't think about it that way. Really. The fact is that we in this country have a long-standing tradition of making fun of religious people. This tradition has mutated over time into a sort of ironic cultural jihad against organized religion of any kind. This is the only explanation for such phenomena as "The Simpsons," "South Park," and "Congress."

Well, Burlington Township, I'm offended. Truly, truly offended. So offended, in fact, that I may have to protest in front of our local public school district offices. Taking a point from Seattle anarchists, maybe I'll even burn an NEA union leader in effigy. Surely that wouldn't offend anyone?