Speaking strictly for myself, now, reading alt-right
bloggers such as Mike Cernovich of Dangerandplay.com or
listening to Sean
Hannity or running into young men in sports bars warning the Illumenati
is running the government or receiving letters from apparently well-meaning
hand-wringers who think Hillary needs "chastising" by Mr. Trump and I
need a primer on basic Christianity have worn me down. For thoughtful,
progressive Christians — and indeed, for many, many thoughtful, conservative
Christians — much of the flag-wrapped-cross jingoism of this election cycle is
not merely distasteful. It is also, essentially, apostasy.
And:
Religious scholar Peter
W. Marty, writing in the Christian Century, notes the repeated theme of
the religious right to "return" to America's greatness, to make
American great "again."
Marty questions what era these moralistic nostalgia-seekers
have in mind.
"Was it America's legacy of enslaving African peoples,
only to lynch numbers of them later? Was it the 18th century and its primitive
medicine, or the 19th century and its marginal sanitation? Perhaps [their]
cherished past exists somewhere in the past 100 years, when women still lacked
the right to vote, laborers had frighteningly few rights, the need of the
disabled went largely ignored, Agent Orange wreaked havoc and the water
boarding of terror suspects became acceptable to some top brass."
But he concludes robustly: "Nostalgia that ignores
blemishes of the past makes for shabby history."
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