Richard Thompson's Martyr Pose

From the Department of Ridiculous Hyperbole comes this statement from Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center:

Behind its legal actions is the belief by its president and chief counsel Richard Thompson that Christianity is under siege from all quarters, but especially from the federal courts, the American Civil Liberties Union, and what Thompson calls the "homosexual lobby."

The ACLU and the courts are "basically cleansing America of religion and particularly Christianity," Thompson says. "It's almost like a genocide. It's a sophisticated genocide."

Well of course. The US is a nation where 95%, at least, of all government officials at all levels are Christian, yet we're still this close to throwing Christians into ovens. How does someone say something this idiotic with a straight face?

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How does someone say something this idiotic with a straight face?

Ed, they can only say this with a straight face if they actually believe it.

See also : Any lie repeated often enough will be believed.

He also told a small school board, with a straight face, Trust me, we'll represent you for free, it won't cost you a penny.

Ed writes:

The US is a nation where 95%, at least, of all government officials at all levels are Christian, yet we're still this close to throwing Christians into ovens.

I like the Jon Stewart quote on this -

Yes, the long war on Christianity. I pray that one day we may live in an America where Christians can worship freely! In broad daylight! Openly wearing the symbols of their religion?. perhaps around their necks? And maybe ? dare I dream it? ? maybe one day there can be an openly Christian President. Or, perhaps, 43 of them. Consecutively.

If I understand it correctly, it's only crude, conventional genocide which involves ovens, tanks and bombs; Thompson is speaking of "sophisticated genocide," which relies on weapons such as sarcasm, bathos and litotes.

By Jeffrey Kramer (not verified) on 15 Mar 2006 #permalink

Anyone remember the Daily Show bit about the facts in Iraq being biased against the president? The facts being biased! Hah! Anyway, the next thing the Daily Show should do to make fun of DI/ID is talk about how reality is biased against intelligent design. Or that facts are biased against christianity.

A genocide so sophisticated that no one has died. Wow!!! That's a pretty damn sophisticated genocide. Let me see if I understand how this sophisticated genocide works. We round up all the Christians, then let them go to church, hold down jobs, run for elected office, sit on school boards, eat in restaurants, pray anywhere they want, read the Bible anywhere they want, teach their children anything they want and the whole time we are wiping off the face of the earth.

Apparently there's a fine line between sophistication and ineptitude. Kind of explains the Republican Party, if you ask me.

Christianity is under siege from people who want their churches to support their biases, and who will lie, cheat and steal to make that happen.

Even after the trial, it hasn't struck Thompson that the reason his side lost is that the school board lied about what they wanted to do, and about what they had done, and that his experts lied about the science?

Christianity is under siege from people who want Christians to lower the standards -- people like those who argue Intelligent Design should be taught as science, for example.

Is Christianity strong enough to resist that assault? Thompson appears to be rooting for the wrong side, to this Christian.

By Ed Darrell (not verified) on 16 Mar 2006 #permalink

I think he means his kind of Christians, who BTW do not represent the rest of us who identify ourselves as Christians (though sheepishly).

His kind of Christians want everybody else to be his kind of Christians. His kind of Christians want to ride roughshod over civil liberties and the Constitution. Many people don't like that. I hardly doubt that Christianity will wither away as a result. There still seem to be an awful lot of churches where I live ...