The Christian Right is Neither

Every day, it seems, I hear another example of how Christianity is being warped into a weapon. Many in our country, including the president, have spoken about how Islamic extremists are bending the word of Islam and using it for bad intentions. I agree with this statement in many ways. Islam is not a religion that encourages violence in the name of god. The irony is that many of these same people are committing the same crime against their religion. Religious zealotry is just that, no matter what religion is being used as a springboard.

Examples of this are becoming more plentiful. When one of these so called 'Christians' uses a truck to run over crosses laid in memoriam of dead soldiers at the Cindy Sheehan protest site you have to wonder if people realize they are defiling a symbol of their own religion in their haste to shutdown ideas that they don't agree with. These people espouse 'Compassionate Conservatism' but are truly Conservative with their Compassion.
In this same vane, today comes the news that Pat Robertson has advocated the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. It seems that Robertson has deemed Chavez to be a grave danger to our way of life because he intends to spread Communism and Islamic Extremism across the continent. Someone should tell Mr. Robertson that the Red Scare is long over. Robertson goes on to say that Chavez is "a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us badly."

It's interesting that so many of these dangerous religious madmen sit atop a vast expanse of oil (perhaps it's the oil itself that drives them to maniacal madness, as in Texas.) What should really be said is that they stand in the way of American's ability to consume whatever they want without consequence and that a graver threat to our country is gather within at the moment.

Sadly, what no one speaks about is another group of people who are really hurt by the Christian Right. That is the Christian Middle and the Christian Left. It is sad to see your belief system used by others to propagate hatred when you yourself use it for love. And it's even sadder to see the exposure given to them by the media. To see them splashed across the television so that it comes to the point that most people forget that there are Christians who believe in god and who love their neighbors but don't wish to harm anyone who feels differently.