Conservative Christians in panic mode

The dying right: Why Christian fundamentalists are in panic mode

The religious right knows that time is running out—and that makes them even more dangerous

By CJ WerlemanLike a cornered animal, which turns instinctively to confront pursuing predators, the Christian Right, knowing it represents the views of an ever shrinking number of Americans, is engaged in an existential fight to the death. Veto or no veto, Arizona’s anti-gay bill is just another of its many efforts to transform America’s secular democracy into a tyrannical theocracy.

The Christian Right’s dirty little secret is they are acutely aware that changing demographics are running against them. While they may believe the earth is a mere few thousand years old, they’re not complete idiots. They can read polls, and the data tells them this: millennials are abandoning religious belief. According to a recent Pew survey, one in four Americans born after 1981 hold no religious belief, which is nearly double the national rate of atheism. Other studies confirm this trend, including a recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute showing more than half of non-religious Millennials have abandoned their childhood faith.

With this in mind, the nation’s radical religious fundamentalists see an ever-shrinking window to impose their Bronze Age worldview on the gay, atheist, liberal, immigrant, heathen, and science book-reading masses. The American Taliban is as deeply troubled by the thoughts of a gay man “sneaking a peak” of a heterosexual man in an NFL locker room as much as they’re freaked out over seeing Cam and Mitchell, the gay couple on “Modern Family,” adopt an Asian child. For the intellectual infants of the American species, progressive culture is nothing more than a 24/7 infomercial for gay sex and abortion. That frightens our unfriendly theocrats because biblical fundamentalists are more concerned with the goings on in the bedrooms of others than they are within the guilt-ridden, sexless confines of their own.

Brian Beutler writes that measures like Arizona’s SB1062 bill have emerged in a number of states out of “a wellspring of conservative panic about the country’s abrupt legal and cultural evolution into a society that’s broadly tolerant of gay people.” He adds, “Rather than deny the shift, or stop at trying to reverse it in legislatures, the courts and at ballot boxes, conservatives are instead attempting to erect a legal architecture that will wall them off from the growing portion of American society that supports equal rights for gay people.”Some examples of the conservative Chrisitan freakout:

The religious right’s 5 most demented persecution fantasies

Anti-Christian oppression takes many forms, apparently: Hipsters. Paperwork. Johnny Weir's wardrobe.

By Amanda MarcotteYou could call it chutzpah, except they’d probably claim that word oppresses them: Conservative Christian film production companies are making not one, but two movies this year called Persecuted, to promote the myth that conservative Christians have reason to fear they are being oppressed by an evil, secularist government. At least one of them is set in the Soviet Union (clearly analogized to the modern United States), but the other is a stretch that puts even the goofiest science fiction to shame, featuring an imaginary American government that requires religious broadcasters to “present all religious points of view when presenting their own point of view.” ( There are over 4,000 religions, easily, in the world, to give you an idea of how little thought went into this script.)

It’s easy to laugh at how ridiculous these fantasies of persecution are, but what other choice do they have? Attempts to create real-life examples of anti-Christian or anti-conservative oppression are, if anything, even more laughable than the lurid attempts to come up with hypotheticals. Indeed, looking over conservative complaints about persecution, either against Christians or just against conservatives, one gets the distinct impression that what oppresses them the most is other people having basic human rights or just doing their own thing without asking conservative permission.For those who still aren't clear on the religious freedom issue, here's an explanation:

A Quick Explanation of “Religious Freedom” for These Conservatives Who Seem Unable to Understand What it Means

By Allen CliftonFreedom of religion, as per our First Amendment, gives a private citizen the right to practice whatever religion they like during their personal time. If someone wants to attend church 7 days a week, read the Bible every single day, pray at every meal and send their kids to a religious school–they’re absolutely free to do so!

However, a business is not allowed the freedom of religion. While an individual might have a friend come over and pay them $5 per hour to do some work around their house, a business is required to adhere to certain labor laws which mandate that they pay workers a minimum of $7.25 per hour.

See, when you decide to open a business, your business doesn’t operate under the same Constitutional protections that an individual has.

As an individual, you can hang a Nazi flag inside your home and never once associate with someone who’s of a different race than you are. But as a business, to discriminate against a customer based on race is illegal.Comment:  For more on conservative Christians, see Conservative Christian Persecution Fantasies and Satanic Statue Shows Christian Hypocrisy.