First, they get in the mandatory 'No True Christian/Scotsman' dealie: Not a Christian. Not atall atall.
While the mainstream media attempts to paint Anders Behring Breivik, the terrorist bomber and shooter who killed over 76 people in Oslo last week, as a “fundamentalist Christian,” a 1,500 page document he wrote reveals not only that he did not consider himself a Christian believer, but that he was a mason, held such anti-Christian views as supporting abortion for disabled babies, and that he also hired a prostitute prior to his killing rampage.
Eeeeek! No true Christian would ever hire a prostitute!
Then there's this:
Relevant to pro-life supporters, Breivik says that he supports abortion in cases of rape, and “if the baby has mental or physical disabilities.” (pg 1179)
Man, they had to wade through a lot of crackpottery (as P.Z. Myers styles it) to get to something fetus fetishists could disagree with.
Because even more relevant to 'pro-life' supporters, Breivik is like, totally, absolutely on board with the fetus fetishists.
No contraception. No sex education. No abortion. No education or careers for women.
Yo! 'Prolifers'! He's one of yours. Deal with it.
9 comments:
I've heard most of it was a cut and paste from other rightwing extremist manifestos. Once you eliminate those, there might not be much remaining.
I'm bitterly amused by the idea they're saying he's not one of theirs because he wasn't extreme *enough* for their tastes regarding abortions.
I also like the fact they disdain Christian Freemasons as not real Christians. That would come as a surprise to the Christians who make up the bulk of the Masons, (and almost exclusively in rural North America from settler days onward) but hey, way to remind people the only True Christian is the one on your side of the many schisms on how to crack your egg open.
Nevermind that anyone who talks up Masons and Templars in the same Chosen tones has me wondering if the Norwegian terrorist swallowed the "Holy Blood Holy Grail" mythology hook, line and sinker.
Reading my way through the Manifesto now.
Some of it is apparently lifted from the Unabomber manifesto, with enemies replaced.
Coren lied about Breivik being pro-gay, by the way. B. hates the very notion of homosexuality--says gay marriage comes from pushing feminism, for example.
DAMMIT! I somehow just deleted a thoughtful comment from Luna.
So sorry.
Luna, please redo if you've got the energy.
Actually, Dr Dawg, I had read that much of that manifesto is a patch work quitl of sorts--copy & paste job from many of his 'heroes' & 'mentors'.
Trying to re-create what I said before. :)
The no true scotsman fallacy isn't being employed with no true Christian because being a scotsman is something that one is born to and can't ever change. But Christianity is a set of beliefs. Cast those off, and one is no longer a Christian. It seems to me that by disavowing the central beliefs of Christianity, Breivik needs to hand in his Christian card.
And the devil is in the details, so to speak. I mean, one can disagree on various little points of Christianity and what it is to be Christian, but still be Christian (e.g. I'm pro-choice and believe there is no sin in being gay). But the core beliefs? How do you turn your back on "Love God and Love thy neighbour" and still get to call yourself Christian?
That being said, plenty of atrocities are committed by Christians in the name of God. It's what the commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain" is about, not randomly saying "JESUS CHRIST!" Using God's name to uphold one's vanity is a terrible sin, and yet it's committed regularly by Christians (and other fundamentalists).
It seems to me that Christianity as a whole has been entirely too tolerant of abuse committed by its members. It's narcissism in the extreme. We are the only ones who really matter. Everyone else is condemned to hell. When one of our fellow Christians commits a crime like this, it's part of our narcissism to say that he's not one our ours. Because that would require too much introspection. And there is simply too much crap in our midst. We're not willing to wade through it. At least not most of us. Some of us are trying our damnedest to clean out the shit and mud.
So while I don't think that it's a case of fallacious reasoning, and understand the feeling of wanting to disown the guy, I also think this would be a good opportunity for Christians to indulge in some introspection. Unfortunately, I think the narcissism is too entrenched.
Thank you, Luna. I'm so glad you re-created the comment.
We can get pretty snarky about all kinds of religion here. You remind us that there are people who actually try to walk the walk.
Happy to. And thanks. I'm trying to live it, but sometimes, holy crows I fail, but I keep trying.
The saner versions of religion seem to recognize that humans are inherently fuck-ups and make provision for the inevitability. ;-)
LOL! Yeah, there's an awful lot of that in the Bible. Seems to get badly misinterpreted, unfortunately. :)
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