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Right Wing Christian Jihadis: Homegrown Terrorists
With the death of uber-theocrat Jerry Falwell, the right-wing Christian Jihadis have come out of the woodwork yet again.
You may recall back in the early to mid nineties that the Clinton presidency and Newt Gingrich's reactionary "Contract with America" stirred up the hornet's nest of right wing "militias", a fear of "black helicopters" and gave a boost to militant anti-governmental rhetoric.
Perhaps most memorably, G. Gordon Liddy--the convicted Watergate criminal, lauded by the conservatives--famously advised his frothy-mouthed listeners to shoot federal agents and "aim for the head."
- August 26, 1994 - Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests." ... "They've got a big target on there, ATF. Don't shoot at that, because they've got a vest on underneath that. Head shots, head shots.... Kill the sons of bitches.
- September 15, 1994 - If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insists upon a firefight, give them a firefight. Just remember, they're wearing flak jackets and you're better off shooting for the head.
Similarly, the neolithic, reactionary Senator from North Carolina, Jesse Helms, advised President Clinton to wear a flak jacket when he visited North Carolina: "Who will rid me of this meddlesome president?" Helms menacingly inquired of his constituents. Interestingly, Falwell thought so much of Helms that he named a "School" of "Government" at "Liberty" "University" after him: the Helms School of Government.
This type of rhetoric--let's call it what it is: traitorous--reached a fever pitch by April 1995, when Christian jihadis Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and the as-yet unidentified additional conspirators drove their rental van filled with explosives homemade from fertilizer and diesel fuel, to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City one morning and detonated their IED, killing dozens of innocent men, women and yes, children.
The ruins of the building remain to this day as a poignant monument to the destructive power of right-wing hatred, conservative politics gone mad and Christian principles turned on their head. Who would Jesus have bombed that day in April, 1995?
Former president Bill Clinton perhaps put it best: "There is nothing patriotic about hating your country, or pretending that you can love your country but despise your government."
Today, we once again hear news of right wing terrorism. Students from Jerry Falwell's "Liberty" "University" in Lynchburg, VA, plotted to bomb a small group of demonstrators at Fallwell's funeral. I guess wooden bullets, tear gas and clubbing isn't quite satisfying enough for these conservative, right wing Christians. One of the suspects is a soldier, who travelled from Georgia for the sole and exclusive purpose of carrying out these attacks.
While I hope for a court martial, it appears that Falwell gave the man a scholarship.
Let's hope and pray that we will never again need to erect one of these:
