Mainstream media outlets in the West love to point out when Muslims go batshit. Over the past few years, we have been exposed to a steady stream of outrageous Muslim behavior. Take, for example, this article from CNN that reports on one group of Muslims burning down a Mosque belonging to a sect they consider blasphemous, while chanting “burn, burn” and “kill, kill”. Intentionally or not, that helps reinforce the idea that Muslims are bloodthirsty lunatics who thrive on death and destruction.
No one actually died in the Mosque torching. But, as the UK’s The Independent reports, an Iraqi Muslim girl wasn’t so lucky after her father and brothers brutally beat her to death in front of her mother for being friendly with a British soldier. Muslim ‘honor killings’ have frequently been reported in the Western media, most likely because they are so barbaric and abhorrent to Western sensibilities.
What we don’t see enough of in the West from the mainstream media is a focus on the evils of Christianity. One reason is that a large portion of the audience is Christian, particularly so in the USA. Another reason is likely that Christians don’t often go around chopping off heads, blowing people up, or beating their daughters and sisters to death. Still, we do see a great many news reports about Imams in England and other countries preaching hate, encouraging their Muslim flock to blow up the infidel. So it’s not always about actual violence when it comes to reporting on Muslims. There are even reports about trivial bits of Islam that the rest of us can complain about and mock, such as when Muslim patients in a UK hospital demanded that their beds be turned toward Mecca so they could pray. When it comes to similar sorts of Christian absurdity, it’s the fringe media that we have to turn to.
The most recent report of batshit Christian behavior that I have seen comes from Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi. For an upcoming book, he went undercover to experience firsthand just what goes on in an evangelical megachurch. Rolling Stone published an adaptation from that book called Jesus Made Me Puke. What he describes is pure lunacy. I have no better words to describe it. Read the article. Please.
The problem is, it’s not just some fringe cult of outsider Christians who practice what Taibbi describes. He joined up with the Cornerstone Church in Texas, where John Hagee is pastor and which has over 19,000 active members. As part of his experience, Taibbi went on a three day retreat designed to bring people closer to their god. What he describes is like Jesus Camp for adults. It’s a program designed to break people down until they are emotionally vulnerable, then indoctrinate them with nonsense. This is the sort of psychology that has been employed by countless cult leaders, such as Jim Jones, in the past. Only, this is on a much larger scale. I infer from the article that people visited there from all over the country, not just from Cornerstone. And it’s a regular program, not a one-off thing.
Muslims are perceived as a threat because Islamic violence is here and now. It’s immediate. What people aren’t paying attention to in their own back yards though is the potential for future atrocities committed at home in the name of Christianity. Programs like the one Matt Taibbi participated in, which even led him to have feelings of belonging as it progressed, are creating hundreds of zealots (brainwashed drones) each year.
American Christianity is becoming more like Scientology or the People’s Temple. It’s no longer just about going to church, praying, and leading a ‘Christian lifestyle’. The very definition of ‘Christian lifestyle’ is changing. Once, it was enough to listen to preachers and Sunday school teachers expounding the more palatable parts of the bible. Now, it’s about instilling an unwavering faith in people, building up a belief system that will accept anything Christian leaders say without question. People who will do what they perceive as ‘God’s will’ no matter how horrible or how high the price.
Many in the West believe Islamic extremism is the greatest threat to Western civilization. That may be true in Europe. In America at least, it’s time to rethink that position. The biggest threat to our future may very well come bearing a cross.
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