Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
I point the finger in their face and say “You helped this happen.”*
More instances of ugly Christianism have broken out this week. First there’s the case of Mikey Weinstein. Weinstein has been an ardent opponent of the efforts of the “Theocracy NOW!” crowd to turn the military academies (especially the Air Force Academy) into an arm of the Religious Right. Because of this, Weinstein has been subjected to the occasional ugly word and idle threat. Two weeks ago, those threats took a very nasty turn, as vandals inscribed a swastika and a cross on his front porch in magic marker. But that’s not all.
Weinstein is also involved in a case in flood-ravaged Iowa City where a disabled Jewish veteran is suing the VA over blatant proselytizing by VA employees during a recent hospital stay. At about the same time as the vandalization of the Weinstein house, the plaintiff, David Akiva Miller, was accosted by random strangers and blamed for the recent floods.
In an e-mail to Israel e-News, Miller wrote:
The man said something to the lady I couldn’t quite make out, and they turned around and stepped back towards me. The man said to me, “You’re that Jewish fella that’s been stirring up trouble over at the Veterans Hospital, aren’t ya?” (Okay, I’ll admit I kind of stick out in Iowa City with my long beard, kippah and tzit tzit.) I said, “Excuse me?” And he said, “It’s because of folks like you that we got this flood.” (emphasis mine)
Ugh. It’s getting ugly out there**. But don’t you dare compare conservative Christians to Muslim extremists.
* Cf.
