The persecution complex, the religious right and the Republicans

I have thought for several months now that a backlash was brewing against the religious right. It was brought to a head by the Terri Schiavo debacle where 80% of the people polled were in disagreement with the Radical Christian zelots and the lawmakers who pandered to them. The persecution they have been ranting about is about to become a reality. George Will and the oligarchic wing of the Republican Party is concerned that this backlash will impact the Republican Party which made a pact with the lunatic fringe of the Christian Right to gain a majority. Without saying so, he touches on this today in his commentary The Christian Complex.

The state of America's political discourse is such that the president has felt it necessary to declare that unbelievers can be good Americans. In last week's prime-time news conference, he said: "If you choose not to worship, you're equally as patriotic as somebody who does worship."

So Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a long, luminous list of other skeptics can be spared the posthumous ignominy of being stricken from the rolls of exemplary Americans. And almost 30 million living Americans welcomed that presidential benediction.

While the radical Christians have been making most of the noise, Will correctly points out there are actually fewer Americans now who indentify with religion.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey, Americans who answer "none" when asked to identify their religion numbered 29.4 million in 2001, more than double the 14.3 million in 1990. If unbelievers had their own state -- the state of None -- its population would be more than twice that of New England's six states, and None would be the nation's second-largest state:

Persecuted?

Some Christians should practice the magnanimity of the strong rather than cultivate the grievances of the weak. But many Christians are joining today's scramble for the status of victims. There is much lamentation about various "assaults" on "people of faith." Christians are indeed experiencing some petty insults and indignities concerning things such as restrictions on school Christmas observances. But their persecution complex is unbecoming because it is unrealistic.

Their persecution complex is indeed unrealistic but could rapidly become a reality. This is the lesson of the Terri Schiavo media event. The Republicans are between a rock and a hard place on this one. They can't remain a majority party base on policies of oligarchy and the Religious Right that made them the majority has been taken over by the lunatic fringe and is rapidly becoming a liability. Too bad George, when you sell your soul to the devil you eventually have to pay. The day of reckoning is rapidly approaching.