re: #31 Charles

Sometimes I can hardly believe how reactionary the right wing has become. Just a few years ago it would have been unthinkable for these freaking cavemen to suddenly pop up and try to ban contraception. Now it’s just an accepted part of the political scene. Unreal.

The religious right’s persecution complex is getting more and more intense. There’s a hard core following that actually thinks of themselves as separate from the rest of America, fighting against conspiracies to destroy them.

A big part of it Charles is the overwhelming belief among many fundamentalist Christians that we are living in the End Times and that events are unfolding in line with the Book of Revelation. One of the big themes of Revelation was the persecution against God’s people in the last days before the return of Christ.

As an example here is Revelation 20:4

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years

They believe that they WILL be vastly and widely persecuted for their beliefs. It’s not an IF, it’s a WHEN.

So whenever something like this happens, they start up with the usual “persecution” stuff to rile up the believers.

Of course there is a long running theological debate on whether Revelation refers to events that have passed or events that are yet to come.