War on Christians! Lock and Load!

The Revealer offers us a report by Elizabeth A. Castelli of a conference entitled "The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006". This event was sponsored by Vision America. Here's just a few excerpts from the report:

...Several interlocking narratives and rhetorics are at work in the Vision America program. One critical piece of the puzzle is a traditionalist, triumphalist historical narrative in which the United States was given to Christians by God to establish a providential nation based on biblical precepts. (No apologies -- nor even passing reference -- to the land’s prior occupants)...

...The historical narrative moves inexorably forward, touching upon the Civil War -- but with no mention of the now-inconvenient role of literal biblical interpretation in the feverish defense of slavery. Indeed, by contrast, these contemporary conservative Christians cast themselves as the rightful heirs to abolitionism (and the women’s suffrage movement and the civil rights movement and so on)...

...It is a movement that resoundingly denies that it is theocratic, dismissing such a characterization as one aimed at provocatively and cynically linking right-wing politicized Christianity to radical Islamism. At the same time, it is a movement that argues that political, social, and moral life must be solely grounded in scripture...

...Conference presenters and audience members seemed convinced that a well-organized, well-financed cabal of homosexual elites are plotting a cultural takeover. Marshalling a wide array of arguments against homosexuality (“it’s unhealthy,” “it’s all lust and perversion,” “it’s disgusting”) and gay marriage (“it’s an attack on the family because that’s where faith is passed on -- the goal is simply the destruction of religion” or “it’s an attack on biblical truth and therefore on God”), some speakers advocated for the reintroduction of the concept of “shame” into the culture. Meanwhile, Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition urged the abandonment of the terms “homosexual” and “gay” in favor of adopting terms such as “sodomites” and “the perverted ones.” Some speakers read graphically explicit material found on gay websites to the conference, apologizing profusely for the shock and disgust they knew they would be generating but insisting that it was necessary for the participants to confront this material. By the end, one was left with the distinct impression that the organizers and participants in the conference spend far more time than the average gay person thinking about, talking about, and fantasizing about gayness...

...Beginning with the premise that there is a war on Christianity, conference organizers and participants were eager to issue calls to arms in response. “We are under spiritual invasion!” intoned Rod Parsley, an evangelist from Ohio. “Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons! LOCK AND LOAD!” (The audience responded to these imperatives with a raucous and exuberant standing ovation)...

The "Contract with Congress" each participate was encouraged to sign included support for the Constitution Restoration Act (previously discussed here) and the Marriage Protection Act.

Just a bunch of fringe militants, right? Surely Anglicans would never associate with such extremism. Take a look a the list of signatures on this petition advocating for the Marriage Protection Act sponsored by the Religion Coalition for Marriage. Episcopal Bishops Ackerman of Quincy, Beckworth of Springfield, Duncan of Pittsburgh and Howe of Central Florida have chosen to align themselves with these folks. One wonders if the above listed Right Reverend Sirs also affirm the sponsor's Top Ten "Scientific" Arguments Against SSM?

Crazy stuff. Keep your powder dry.

J.