CNN - Texas woman says God told her to kill sons

Re-read this horrible story, then compare it to what happened a few years back when a Japanese mother out in California walked into the sea with her two young children to commit suicide. Virtually everyone in this country (and rightfully so) condemned that custom as horrific.

Or look at 9-11 and numerous other atrocities committed by devout Muslims -- see Honest Intellectuals must Shed Spiritual Turbans  -- most people (and reasonably so) believe that Islam should be held culpable (at least to some extent) for the many atrocities committed by devout Muslims the globe over.

BUT (loch and begorra!) it's safe to say that (as with Andrea Yates and many other similar cases) fundamentalist Christianity will not -- at least by most here in this country -- be held even one iotum responsible in this whole fiasco, not even by those very same Americans who would (understandably) condemn a Japanese custom and (deservedly) Islam for aforementioned tragedies.

I sent out the "Turbans" article on my default lists a few days back, and I received a number of positive e-mails about it.  Guess what, though?  Only one of those who praised Wurraq's insight in that article has had ANYTHING to say about this story and its parallels.  (And that fellow is a fellow rationalist!)

What's sauce for the goose is, I guess, not sauce for the gander.

We find it acceptable (and well we should) when families of People's Temple victims sue what is left of Jim Jones' cult.  We applaud (and rightfully so) when black mothers sue the Klu Klux Klan for having spread its message of hate and for having created murderers as a result.  We concur (and wholeheartedly) when family members of 9-11 victims sue the very Saudis who financed Al Qaeda and other hate groups.  Why, then, should churches here in the good ol' U.S. of A. be held to any different standard?

We're not talking "gentle Jesus, meek and mild" here, folks.  We're talking Abraham and Isaac.  We're talking Jepthah's daughter.  Some brave souls would even argue that we're talking the Atonement itself here.  The Judeo-Christian tradition is replete with stories of divinely ordained genocide, cruel and unusual punishment, and, yes, infanticide.

Now, couple these gruesome tales with a strong belief in ongoing divine revelation (the Assemblies of God believes in this kind of revelation), the priesthood of all believers (the AoG teaches this), dark Satanic forces (another common belief), etc., etc. and -- pretty soon, before you know it -- you have a heady mixture of some damn dangerous ideas -- ideas that are highly volatile catalysts for someone already prone to strong suggestion.

It's safe to assume that Ann Coulter and Cal Thomas and John Leo and other darlings of the Religious Wrong will, if asked, rise to "true" Christianity's defense while continuing to condemn Islam for horrors perpetuated by Muslims.  The hypocrisy will be overwhelming and the silence deafening.

Just watch -- the media will handle this whole affair with kid gloves lest they offend the hellfire and brimstone, gurgling glossolalians who have already given us such dubious figures as Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and John Ashcroft.

Yes, the media will tread carefully to avoid giving umbrage to the parent religion (fundamentalist Christianity), and to most Americans in general.  The truth will be nicely sugar coated, and the pink elephant in the middle of the living room deemed a mere coffee table worthy of our admiration.

In a typically maudlin and thoroughly disingenuous attempt at paying the requisite homage, "true" Judaism and Christianity will be proclaimed religions of peace and long-suffering and virtue, and the story of Abraham and Isaac will be promptly and conveniently forgotten.  The grim tale of the daughter of Jepthah will be swept under the carpet.  And few if any will dare bring up the bloody Atonement as yet another example of "divinely ordained" infanticide in the Bible.

No, suddenly, the media and the American public will start blaming mental illness, or demon possession, or some hitherto unheard of maternal disorder, or, oh, hell, I dunno, jumping rocks, or WHATEVER -- anything to let religion in general and fundamentalist Christianity in particular off the hook in this horrible, senseless tragedy.

And that may be the even greater tragedy in the long run.

© 2003 by the author.  Used by permission.