Blowing Smoke - Michael Wolraich [36]
The list of outraged Christian conservatives goes on and on, but let’s stop with Andrea Laffery, the director of the Traditional Values Coalition, who put the matter quite plainly: “The goal is to undermine the First Amendment and persecute Christians who oppose homosexuality.” 54
Despite the secret having been discovered, Democrats proceeded with their plan to undermine the First Amendment and persecute Christians. When George W. Bush threatened to veto the Matthew Shepard Act, Democrats bided their time until Obama was elected and brought it back. Safely attached to a large defense bill, the act finally became law eleven years after Matthew Shepard’s tragic death.
The Thomas More Law Center, a conservative “civil liberties” group, has challenged the law on the grounds that it curtails free speech, infringes upon religious liberty, creates “thought crimes,” and violates some 30 percent of the Bill of Rights. But unless the plaintiffs can find a new hero with the stature of Judge William Brevard Hand, humanist-avenger, the suit is unlikely to succeed. Most religious right leaders have already moved on to the same-sex marriage wars, which still burn fierce and hot in ballot initiatives and court cases across the country, leaving behind only the smoldering ashes of their once blazing outrage.
5
MAD AS HELL?
Why Politicians and Journalists Are Wrong
about the Source of “Populist Rage”
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
—Yoda
IT IS DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE a more perfect example of right-wing persecution politics than the opposition to the Matthew Shepard Act. A bill designed to discourage hate-fueled violence against homosexuals is represented as a malicious, discriminatory assault on Christians masterminded by the people that it was designed to protect. Those who subscribe to this point of view categorically reject the possibility of discrimination against homosexuals in general and Matthew Shepard in particular. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), for example, insisted that Shepard’s murder was a simple burglary gone awry. (No homophobia here, folks, just the bloody pulp of a dying gay man tied to a fence, move along.)1 They then project the hatred and discrimination onto supporters of the Matthew Shepard Act, complaining that the Christians, not the homosexuals, are the victims of persecution.
In the face of this point of view, one may wonder, “Who do they think they’re fooling?” If that’s what you’re thinking, the answer is—not you. The persecution politics narrative is not designed for anyone who might be tempted to question it. There is a rational case to be made for opposing the Matthew Shepard Act, but the fantasy of a plot to persecute Christians by prosecuting “thought crimes” is not it. Notwithstanding the occasional William Brevard Hand, this story won’t persuade the courts, it won’t persuade liberals, it won’t persuade moderate conservatives, it won’t persuade anyone who applies the slightest bit of critical analysis. It wasn’t even embraced by Fox News.
Instead, promoters dispersed the narrative through the right wing’s internal recirculation system—Christian television, talk radio, church sermons, mailing lists, blogs, books, and dinner conversations. It’s like an airplane full of swine flu victims. The Inspiration Network, for example, treated viewers to a seven-part documentary series, Speechless: Silencing the Christians, about hate crimes, the gay agenda, and the war on Christmas. Rev. Donald Wildmonam complemented the documentary with a book by the same name that asks, “Why has a coalition of liberal secularists, homosexual activists, and Fortune 500 companies united to wage