Captain Cassidy

It’s not uncommon to see Christians point to 1945-1960 (loosely, “the 1950s”) as some kind of Good Ole Days that were wrecked by mean ole liberals who hate fun. The mythology these Christians believe is that people were much happier back then and that society was much safer and more law-abiding because everyone “knew their place.” Such Christians feel that modern society is making people unhappy–and public spaces more unsafe–because now everything’s all jumbled up and confused. But one book puts the lie to that illusion.

One weird bit of right-wing fundagelical Christianity is their growing obsession with survivalist-style food hoarding. In this new trend, the worlds of apocalyptic fantasizing, awful food, eagerness to gloat, and sheer financial greed collide–and the results aren’t appetizing.

Last year we covered the scandal erupting around the Duggar family when eldest son Josh turned out to be a child sex abuser. Things aren’t getting much better for the parents or their son–but in a way, these developments are kinda good news for the rest of us.

People in thrall to a broken system often believe that if they follow the system’s rules, they’ll be safe from victimization. You’ve likely heard the rationalizations: if you don’t want trouble, then simply show respect to those in authority. Don’t cause waves and you won’t go aground on rocks. Those people who were hurt must have done something wrong, but if you don’t do anything wrong then you’re safe.

Australia, like most countries do, holds a census every so often to figure out how their population is changing over time. One of their census questions asks about respondents’ religious affiliation. And that is the beginning of a story that seems too weird to be true–a story that tells us one reason why the concept of church and state separation is so important.

Today I’ll show you some of the things that particular bunch of Christians do that drive home their awfulness. And I don’t mean the low-hanging fruit like “bless your heart,” gloating about hell, or the eternally-creeptastic “Daddy God” blithering. Rather, I mean the more subtle nastiness that they think is terribly clever but actually backfires on them–the stuff that totally mortifies their kinder, more compassionate Christian brethren (who are a lot more like us than they may realize).

Christians’ bigotry has cost them countless adherents as well–adherents who take with them when they leave an inestimable amount of money, time, and support. Today I want to set our phasers to “deep-fat fry” and show you exactly why their newest tactic regarding LGBTQ outreach is nothing but a smokescreen meant to disguise how unpersuasive their essential message is.