Tuesday, March 29, 2005
(11:26 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Fundamentalist Christian Terrorism
Krugman's column today makes me wonder why we never hear the phrase in my title. A big segment of the conservative Christian population in this country is dangerously vulnerable to the temptation of serious violence -- or at least to look the other way. I'm sure we can all think of examples of conservative Christians who half-heartedly denounce the violent elements in the anti-abortion movement, but think they have a point (even if it was wrong for a private citizen to kill that doctor, he deserves to die). Of course, there is also the issue of the fairly radical anti-federal government rhetoric in many conservative Christian circles, which opens up the possibility of a strategic alliance between them and the McVeigh types.All this to say: there are some undercurrents of extreme violence in American society today, and a lot of people seem to be playing on that without a clear idea of what the consequences could ultimately be. I'm thinking mainly of Republican leaders. Bush himself has been rather restrained on this front -- except for the gay marriage thing, his desire to appear "Christian" has stayed at the level of appearance, without particularly influencing his policy choices (even the gay marriage thing was doomed from the start and he knew it -- a token gesture). But people like DeLay and Scalia aren't even trying. Playing on the passions of nationalism and fundamentalism might be a great way to get people out on the polls and stealthily advance one's corporatist agenda, but these things could easily go way beyond what anyone would expect.
