Just stirring up some local shit

This was to be a comment within a tiny disagreement going on with some NOLA bloggers. It just kept getting longer and longer, so I didn't want to clog anyone's comment section with it.

The dialogue was started with a little rant from jeffrey at Library Chronicles about the Hornets Faith and Family Night at the New Orleans Arena. There was a response from Drive-By Blogger. The following is a response to the latter in defense of the former. And it all started with this:



To get the full story, you'll probably have to read all of it. Sorry about that.

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D-BB:
You said,

It is chic to be anti Christian but it is not chic to hate Jews, blacks, Arabs, gays or NPR.

I'm going to leave blacks and gays out of it because race and sexuality aren't (usually) religions. As far as I know one still chooses their religion. Maybe I'm just not as chic as I think, because I can't stand NPR, so I'll leave that out, too.

No invoking the Constitution, either. Jeffrey's post didn't try to prohibit the free exercise of any religion. He just didn't agree with the Hornets attaching religious propaganda to a basketball game. If anyone wants to try and hit him with freedom of speech, there really isn't anything there, either. One does not have to treat any religion or anyone's speech with any respect whatsoever. One simply has to refrain from suppressing either.

As far as hating the Jews and Muslims:

I thought it was OK to hate Muslims. Wasn't that the point of attacking Obama's middle name? Then, you know, the Jews just want to be left alone. They aren't out there trying to push their religion (I'm sorry, "values") into law like a lot of Christians and Muslims. Unless you're in New York, California or Florida, it's difficult to find a Jewish person that really inspires hatred. Not to mention there just aren't enough visible or outspoken Muslims or Jews for anyone to really get the hate on. I also don't know of any Muslim or Jewish bands, crappy or otherwise, to ridicule.

The event may have been called Faith and Family night instead of Christian Night because one couldn't call it "Christian Night" so as not to explicitly exclude anyone of another religion (or their money), but we all know what "faith" means. Everybody knows that whenever somebody in the United States says the word "faith", they mean "Christian faith" or, more specifically, "Protestant faith".

Even you. You stated,

It was Faith and Family Night you dumb fucking douche bag. Not “Christian Night”!

It's interesting that you totally ignored your earlier statement,

It was a night for all Christians of every faith, creed, color and sexual oralentation to come together...

Chalk it up to misspeaking if you'd like, but I see it as subconscious assumption of the point in my previous paragraph.

Add to that the Christian persecution complex (War on Christmas, anyone?) and the general disdain that the most visible and media savvy Christian apologists (Worldnet, One News Now, AFA, Bill Donohue and CHUCK FUCKING NORRIS! REALLY?!) have for anything not Christian. So we're seeing a backlash. Big deal.

Think of it as a market correction. There's been a general upward Christian trend in the US for a few hundred years. It's been a great value investment. The last 20 years or so has seen a definite bubble, though, especially in the fundamentalist sectors. A crash was almost certain, but, as usual, few were prepared for it and a lot of investors with Christian holdings have started to panic unnecessarily. There's been a lot of call for bailouts and new legislation to prop up Christianity, but that won't help in the long run. Just hold on to the steady and reliable performers while letting the more volatile corporations self-destruct. Trust me, it will work out better for everyone. You may even want to diversify. Check out some of the industry's other options. They've been around for longer than you might realize. Historically, these smaller players have not really been recognized as strong positions and have struggled a lot. In recent years, though, most have shown steady growth, are now severely undervalued and set to make a strong push.

Aside from that: In N.O., one isn't used to seeing this kind of thing. We're usually a live and let live city. To see this kind of thing start to insinuate itself into our culture is a little scary. Sure, Shinn's done a lot here. It's no secret, though, that he'd bolt to OK if he could. (I think the Yellow Blog has some links about that). And now he's putting a (Protestant) religious stamp on a very public event in a decidedly "Catholic, but not really" city. It's enough to draw some negative attention and even a little ire. This should not be unexpected.

BTW, there's no liberal asshole here. I'm a conservative Republican as well as an atheist. Trust me when I tell you that it pains me to agree with jeffrey on anything.

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jeffrey has already defended himself quite ably in a post you should read before commenting:

It would be quite a stretch to conflate my antipathy toward some crappy band playing the Jesus angle or towards George Shinn's appropriation of Christian imagery to sell his new-agey self-help/business management literature (or his basketball team for that matter) with some sort of blind disrespect for individual religious freedom.

I just wanted to hit it from a "respect for religion" angle.

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I have to seriously recognize Doug from New Method, the band that got caught up in this, for having some perspective on the whole thing. I just thought that was cool.