CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES STAND UNITED IN SILENCE

     This week, just after an Israeli missile strike leveled a Baptist hospital in Gaza, the Regime followed up by dropping a bunker-buster bomb on the oldest Orthodox Church in Gaza. The numbers of casualties are high, but unknown since a lot of Christians are buried beneath the rubble and Israeli embargoes of electricity and  jabos strafing the relief workers has hindered rescue efforts. There hasn't been much commentary over any of this in the so-called Christian or Conservative media, other than to shift the blame onto the Arabs and double-down on unquestioning support for Israel. Republicans in the Senate passed by a unanimous vote with the Democrats a resolution backing the Junta's commitment to back Israel's aggression, and House GOP members (despite not having a Speaker) introduced the GAZA Act, which would prohibit Palestinian refugees from immigrating to the US---a measure which presumably includes Palestinian Christians. Israel, like the GOP's good buddies in Ukraine, have had a recent history of persecuting Christians; but I suppose the Christian Conservative attitude towards such things is that it's their own fault for not having been born in the US. 

     I suppose that silence from our side shouldn't be surprising. After all, we're talking about a segment of the population that recently met forced lockdowns of churches (several imposed by Republican governors) either by rolling over or encouraging them. We're talking about an 'opposition' which after five decades of complete inaction on legal abortion still can't muster more than a dozen or so Ruby-Red States to ban the procedure. Fewer than that still enforce Federal marijuana laws, and despite two-thirds of States having laws defining marriage as an exclusively heterosexual union---enough to ratify a Constitutional Amendment---not one Red State has challenged homo marriage. In fact, about a quarter of our Conservative leadership sided with the Democrats again to make homo 'marriage' an official national law. 

   After the 2nd Bush Administration invaded Iraq, the Provisional Government there begged for US protection of indigenous churches which were being attacked by extremists. Bush refused; although American missionary churches funded by Christian Conservatives who supported Bush got such protection. Every attempt from that time forward to give Christians an immigration status as victims of religious persecution has been blocked. Even Christians actually fleeing Soviet-style Regimes like Venezuela end up getting loaded on cattle-cars and dumped on freezing city streets by Republican Governors. Leftist States like California persecute Christian charities for not promoting abortion and homosexuality; Conservative States persecute Christian charities for helping other Christians escape persecution. There wasn't a lot of outcry from Conservative Christians over any of this either.

    Readers outside the US may have trouble understanding these apparent contradictions, but here it's fairly clear. Religion and Politics in the United States are not about traditions or values: they are commodities to be packaged, marketed, and sold. When massive amounts of cash are funneled into both from countries like Israel and Ukraine (while countries like Iran and Russia are prohibited from doing so), it's fairly obvious whose side the marketing shylocks are going to take. 

   Speaking for myself, I support a wholesale ban on all foreign lobbying. If these countries want a say in American politics, all they have to do is ratify the US Constitution and petition Congress for Statehood, like the rest of us did. Then they'd have two Senators and seats in House like everybody else---and actually be entitled to US Military protection. However, under our current system, it's much easier for Corporate Interests to launder money through these offshore sites, which gets shifted back to lobbying firms who hire marketing agencies to glorify these same leaders and portray them as defenders of the Common Man. It always comes down to the most cost-effective option with these people: fairness and justice, not so much.

   In this regard, there's really practically no effectual difference between Christian Conservatives and Secular Liberals. The packaging may be different, but that's as deep as it goes. 

    Such is the case, and such will continue to be so until the American public starts waking up to the fact that that there's no 'Red' or 'Blue' solution to any of these problems; no political messiah is coming to save them from themselves; and that our problem is a spiritual one. We've come to this point because selfishness, envy, and opportunism have been put before the principles that underlie a society of free men. Until that change happens, Christians abroad will go on being slaughtered, while we at home work harder for less, and the Oligarchy and their henchmen go on laughing all the way to the bank.