The issue of marriage equality has not gone away, nor have the threats of dire consequences, just as the debates over white privilege and racism continue past Charleston. My first question on seeing the above headline (the addition of the Confederate flags is mine) regarding the equal marriage decision was, "which terrorists?" Sandy Rios's (of the American Family Association) broadcast June 29 prophesied America's impending doom. (Right Wing Watch, People for the American Way, received by this diarist July 10; Diarist Allen McW also wrote about this broadcast July 4, 2015) The reasons why these apocalyptic announcements have become so sadly commonplace range from the wingnut hypothesis to a serious blow to the evangelical world view. The issue is broader than religion, sexual orientation or, as it happens, race. (Wait! There is a connection other than proximity of occurence that is not meant to diminish either part of the comparison.) The White House lit in rainbow colors the evening of the SCOTUS decision seems to be the overt iconoclasm, a cognitive dissonance for the religious right: the symbol of US government--and home of an African American President--is ablaze with the symbol of God's promise, the rainbow, the rallying emblem of LGBTQ rights, and a sign of a covenant that God would no longer punish by floods. (Seems to me there have been plenty of floods that have cost lives, but never mind.) The rainbow cannot be both/and; it must be either/or. The consequences of this ultimate blasphemy, “an unbelievable affront to God,” are dire. To use God's symbol "for a sign of sexual behavior that is ungodly, unallowed" means that "the terror threat against this nation has gone up exponentially.” Hello? More beneath the seal of the Apocalypse.
I should point out than an equally outrageous juspxtaposition was Rev. Pinckney's casket beneath the Confederate flag flying full staff. But back to Ms. Rios's prophecy, which is not just about God smiting, but witholding protection to America for such a vile insult. This is still news: The Fourth of July and the higher terrorist (of the unbelievers' kind) alert may be past, but it is still Ramadan, a fast that Muslims use so they can “murder people.” Beleaguered Evangelical American Christians continue to believe they will enter a time of terrible persecution that literally goes all over the map.
like believers in Iran and Syria or first-century Rome, pagan Rome, China most recently, Russia before the breakup of the Soviet Union. We are entering a time of living in a hostile culture.The threat is both from the outside (terrorism of the ISIS variety) and inside, from their own world view of America. Religious right legal activist Michael Farris, who joined Rios later in the broadcast, lamented,
I really feel like I’m a stranger living in a strange land. They’ve stolen America from us, and they’ve stolen our heritage and they’ve stolen everything by a five-to-four vote.Christians in America claim the identity of centuries of Christians before them (outside), and will live persecuted by an American culture "stolen" from them (inside) that used to be their heritage. (Where have I heard this word lately? Oh, yes, the weeping and wailing about taking down the Confederate flag.) Sadly, LGBTQ people as well as African Americans have lived as "strangers in a strange land" for a long time while the Christian right has ruled. All are now, with this terrible reversal of values, supposedly under greater threat from terrorists; God will no longer bless America, as Americans sing on July 4. However, the threat most likely will not be from ISIS, and will not be to the Christian right. Just as there have been church burnings since Charieston, there have been attacks against gays subsequent to the SCOTUS decision, and it would appear to be white domestic terrorists backed by Biblical justifications doing the smiting. As Kos diarist AllenMcw reported, there were three violent attacks against LGBTQ people during and following a Seattle Pride parade on June 28, one day before Rios's broadcast. These assaults have been determined "hate crimes." That God is smiting those 'guilty' of wanting marriage equality with the human hands of hate would not bother Ms Rios or Mr. Farris; they're not the "terrorists" of the prophecy. But they are: as the white supremacist background of Dylann Roof has proven, white domestic terrorism was alive and well in Charleston. When the apocalytic threats started being made against gays, there would not be, some thought, as easy an identifier of victims of crimes against gays as victims of attacks against race. And lest the parallel might be considered simplistic or even offensive, think again. In one case a respected African American church was invaded; in the other, a sacrosanct religious institution seems to be threatened, a threat and offense against God so vast that American culture would never be the same. In both cases, flags have become emblematic of the conflict. African Americans' outrage against the Confederate flag will never be heard as clearly as white defense of heritage, as long as Congress can stoop so low as even to have a debate about its flying on US grounds, at the symbol of American government, the United States Capitol. The Christian Right's attacks on rainbows on the White House seems to pale in comparison, yet the consequences are argued to be even more globally threatening to a culture used to being in power. Who are the terrorists? Those who knowingly or not speak the dominant discourse of White Christian heterosexual (just the right's version?) privilege. We all need to examine our privilege or entitlement as it relates to the serious threats against inclusion. After all, don't the colors of the rainbow, when combined, make white?