Follow the Blood Trail

The internet rag American Stinker (1) is at it again. Normally, if I'm writing about the kooks on the far right zombie hand of the dial, I write a brief, dismissive and/or furiously satirical piece at the other site, if for nothing else than to blow off steam. But this piece was frustrating for different reasons. And for those reasons, I thought it best to write an actual, serious bl0ggue about it.

Mister Perfesser Robert Huff* follows his hero, the self-serving malignant David Horowitz (a troll that has been touting his past-life as a 'radical liberal activist' since the day when every single person on the Left exhausted their patience with his conniving, back-stabbing ways and Horowitz found he could make more money by 'exposing them' - pretty nifty trick) in making connections that aren't really there in an attempt to smear the images of innocent people for political purposes. Huff puffs about Shane Claiborne, darling of the Evangelical center, actually. But he also aligns him with other characters, chief among them Dr. John Perkins (elder statesman of reconciliation and the Beloved Community, a hero to non-racist Evangelicals for being our sole historical bodily connection to the Civil Rights movement, the visionary responsible for the Christian Community Development Association's ethos and doctrine). But he never mentions anything at all positive about the actions of Perkins - never clues in his obviously clueless audience as to the identity of Claiborne's co-author. Huff only makes this dubious association with a man he dubiously associates with dubious associators of dubious associations with dubious people and/or purposes. The soul-sucking vacuum is obvious - and intentional. And, for what I can only assume are ivory-political purposes, he throws in a dig at the naivety of his school for forcing its freshmen to absorb the the librul Christian Left propaganda.**

When I got my bachelors, the only credit math classes I signed up for were Linear Equations and Logic. Huff must not be so advanced in these fields that he's pushing forward a new type of logic. Or, he's just another separatist fundamentalist that got a job at an Evangelical school.

My money's on the second. According to Huff, Dr. Perkins and the entire Christian Left*** are guilty by association with Claiborne. Claiborne is guilty for having gone to Iraq with Iraq Peace Team^ for a few weeks during this occupational war. The Iraq Peace Team is guilty for being a joint venture of Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams. Christian Peacemaker Teams is guilty for talking with and working with Palestinians. Teh nerff! Spazz!! And those ingrates at VitW hate America so much that they went to Iraq, got kidnapped and then had the gall to blame the American and British governments for creating the desperation in the country that led to their imprisonment.

Of course, this is some weird thinking, but it's not new. Peacemakers are always accused of creating violence, by the very fact that they expose the violence of the oppressive system. Israel, Britain and the US can do tremendous violence against Iraqis, Palestinians. They can completely destroy their homes, take over their countries, displace them, remove their access to jobs, clean water, and the land they've owned for generations and generations. They can introduce civil strife, tie their hands, force them into desperate and violent retaliatory measurements. This is not new for empire-building, nor for the United States (take how we treated our indigenous populations, for instance). But the second someone questions these actions, the moment she takes an action to openly demonstrate the evil that is being brushed under the carpet, she is labeled a traitor and a violent, dangerous radical.

However, the real victims of the American Thinker's article isn't the Christian left, the Iraq Peace Teams, or even everybody's favorite evangelical monastic, Shane Claiborne. Neither is it the much-revered Saint (and the only living connection between the largely white Evangelical church and the Civil Rights movement it sat out) Dr. John Perkins or his school's curriculum. The real nasties, according to The Perfesser, are the Palestinian and Iraqi people who dare question American dominance and imperialism.

Not only are they guilty of being ingrates (and dark-skinned), but anyone who associates with someone who associates with someone who associates with them are, of course, tainted...

(1) Credit for photoshop and altered name belong to the fine folks at Sadly, No. Should have made this clear yesterday.

*Google crashed when I tried to search his name. Just sayin'...

**Yes, I'm reading between the lines. I make no excuses for doing so. If he's going in with such a naked agenda, I'd like to call him out on it. Or he can explain how I'm wrong. In which case, he'll have to repudiatedly refutions on his whole piece.

***A rather new name - complete with a Facebook page - that may be bigger and more diverse than can be possibly contained within Huff's use of the term, or anyone else's. But, in basic, it seems to be a somewhat reactionary movement against the political conservatism that has largely taken over at least the Evangelical super-movement. It parallels, in some ways, the post-Conservatives and Hipster Christian generational shifts.

^ From the Voices in the Wilderness page:

Voices in the Wilderness organized Iraq Peace Team delegations to live alongside ordinary Iraqis during the massive bombardment of Operation Shock and Awe. Convinced that “where you stand determines what you see and how you live,” VitW continues its efforts to educate people in the United States and abroad about the consequences of US militarism. Our current campaign focuses on the need to “spotlight Iraq.” By telling the truth about this war, we hope to help prevent future wars. Further, we seek to connect with and educate ourselves about people who live in other countries threatened by US war.