Shooting Christians as a PC crime

Monday, September 20, 1999

Its time we faced up to it, killing those who believe in Christ is becoming something of a global sport.

I'm writing this on a Thursday, the day after Floyd did his no show, our President flies home to be with his people during the big hurricane, and seven Christians, most of them kids, are murdered inside the sanctuary of their church.

The dead kids seem to rank a distant third as far as most of the main stream media is concerned.

The other local paper here in Asheville North Carolina ditched the dead Christians on page three. Floyd got the front of the sheet, with three stories. The other story on the front page was about a new chief for the local Cherokee Indians.

Going down to the basement I prowled through copies of newspapers dating back several months. The shooting in the Jewish center in LA, an incident where there was a lone fatality at another location, pulled the front page and was still front page news several days later.

Columbine was all over the front page for a week. The non-fatal shooting a couple weeks after Columbine at a school near Atlanta got the front page as well.

You might recall the so called bombing incident at an abortion clinic back early in the spring here in Asheville, a bomb that was not much more than an oversized firecracker and no one was hurt. I read about that one while I was in Germany leading a student tour and came home to a pile of glaring headlines.

Seven Christians are murdered in a church. . .that's a no news item for most of the media.

You see it just doesn't fit the profile of what they want. If it had been a white gunman mowing down a church filled with another ethnic group, or detonated a bomb while the children are at choir practice, thus demonstrating the so called inherent racism of America, that would be news for years to come.

If he had burst into a gay bar, screaming homophobic taunts before opening fire, there'd be non stop live coverage and a protest march to stamp out hatred.

If he had shot up an abortion clinic there'd be hell to pay and four hundred FBI agents hot on his trail.

If he had done it with an assault rifle, rather than a legally purchased gun, that would have advanced the cause for gun control and then been front page news.

If he had been part of a Serbian militia gunning down Moslems, rather than a Moslem militia murdering Catholics in East Timor our fearless President would be sending in the cruise missiles even as I write this.

All of the scenarios I suggested above happened. All of them received screaming headlines, tearful reporting, Presidential declarations of outrage, and calls for more laws.

All of the scenarios were heinous crimes. All of them should be punished, all of them should be examined for what they imply about our society.

I doubt if the murder of seven Christians, however, will generate the same heat, the same reaction, the same calls for legislation.

There'll be no cries for special protection for Christians, in fact there'll be, if anything, veiled whispers that somehow Christians are asking for it because it is we who are so intolerant. It is time for us to wake up. Any of you who have ever had close dealings with the dominant media know that they set the true benchmark for bias and when it comes to issues of Christian faith, Christian teachings, and the Judeo-Christian values upon which this nation was created the dominate media is our enemy.

That is why this story in Forth Worth will die away. That is why the truth about Columbine High, that it was a deliberate hunting down of Christian students by two sick animals is now a lost part of that story.

Priests and nuns of my faith are, at this moment, dying brutal deaths in East Timor at the hands of Moslem fanatics, but that is far away, a place hard to find on the map, just like Sudan. Then, of course, there's our good friend China where persecution of Christians is something of a national sport, an act sanctioned by our President, for after all who can say bad things about a country that spent tens of millions to get him reelected.

There has been a call by some conservative Christians to "abandon" the secular world of politics, of political activism, and the media. That is insane.

Rather it is time to strike back. I believe that the one thing leftists, their fellow travelers, and the dominate media are truly terrified of is us.

Yes, us.

We are, in fact, the largest single "self aware" group in this country.

We cross lines of gender and race no matter how hard the dominate media tries to divide us off against each other. We are poor, middle class, and the rich. We share a common identity as Protestants, Catholics, and Jews as well, and that common identity is that we have a faith in a higher ideal, a set of beliefs that in many cases runs counter to the mindless drivel, propaganda, and outright filth that pours out of the sewers of Washington, New York, and Hollywood.

That is why they will downplay and eventually ignore the massacre at Fort Worth. That is why they are afraid of us and why, at every step they attempt to marginalize us, to tell us to be quiet, to be somehow ashamed of our beliefs and to back away.

You see, if we ever figured out just how strong we really are. . . .we could take over this country and reform it.

Dr. William R. Forstchen is a professor of history at Montreat College in North Carolina and a columnist for the Asheville Tribune where this column was first published.