In the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks, President Bush and other conservatives
were often heard to claim that Islamic terrorists attack the United States "because they hate
our freedom". While their perspective was widely criticized for being overly simplistic
and ignorant of the real motivations of terrorists, some conservative Christians took it even
further. Not only did they concur with this - they actually endorsed it. To them, these
acts of terrorism were simply the natural consequence of America being too liberal and
angering Islamic extremists with our excess of freedom. On this point, both the Christian
conservatives and the Muslim terrorists are in full agreement: our nation is exercising
its freedom in a way that they don't like. This affords them the opportunity to shift
the blame to anyone they disagree with, and claim that these overly liberated Americans
are responsible for provoking the terrorists with their freedom. This remarkable stance
began to take shape almost immediately following 9/11. Less than a week after the attacks,
televangelist Jerry Falwell appeared on The 700 Club to say, "what we saw on Tuesday,
as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact - if, in fact - God continues to lift
the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve." "I really
believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians
who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American
Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face
and say, you helped this happen." From Jerry Falwell's point of view, these attacks were
actually permitted by God as a righteous and deserved punishment of America for allowing
liberal values to exist within its borders. And if this was an act of God, then clearly
He's right, and we're in the wrong. Anyone who doesn't follow the Reverend's version
of Christianity is literally at fault for bringing down God's wrath in the form of 19
hijackers. Of course, Falwell was universally condemned and forced to apologize for his
outrageous statements. But does that mean this incredible mindset was quashed for good?
Don't bet on it. The view that liberals and their freedom are to blame for inciting terrorism
against that very freedom has appeared time and time again in the years following September
11th. In 2004, prison minister Chuck Colson claimed that America is enabling terrorists
by making them angry with our civil rights. In Christianity Today, Colson said, "When
we tolerate trash on television, permit pornography to invade our homes via the internet, and
allow babies to be killed at the point of birth, we are inflaming radical Islam. Radical
Islamists were surely watching in July when the Senate voted on procedural grounds to
do away with the Federal Marriage Amendment. This is like handing moral weapons of mass
destruction to those who use America's decadence to recruit more snipers and hijackers and
suicide bombers." Yes, simply for exercising our rights in ways that terrorists don't like,
we are the ones at fault for the decision of terrorists to attack us for having those
rights. From the perspective of a good Christian Watergate felon, it makes perfect sense - why
shouldn't people despise us for being gay and having abortions? In 2007, conservative
author Dinesh D'Souza gave such attitudes even greater exposure by writing an entire
book founded on this premise. Resurrecting Jerry Falwell's remarks after 9/11, he asks,
"What impact did the abortionists, the feminists, the homosexual activists and the secularists
have on the Islamic radicals who conspired to blow up the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon? Unfortunately this crucial question got buried, and virtually no one has raised
it publicly." In the introduction to "The Enemy at Home", D'Souza writes, "I am saying
that the cultural left and its allies in Congress, the media, Hollywood, the nonprofit sector
and the universities are the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that
is erupting from the Islamic world. The Muslims who carried out the 9/11 attacks were the
product of this visceral rage - some of it based on legitimate concerns, some of it based
on wrongful prejudice - but all of it fueled and encouraged by the cultural left. Thus
without the cultural left, 9/11 would not have happened." "...the cultural left has
fostered a decadent American culture that angers and repulses traditional societies,
especially those in the Islamic world, that are being overwhelmed with this culture."
Yet again, a Christian conservative singles out our freedom and our culture for being
so offensive that religious extremists could not help but attack us. The responsibility
of terrorists for judging us as disgusting and deserving of death barely rates a mention
- it's hardly objectionable to someone who agrees with their assessment of the so-called
"cultural left". Again and again, far-right Christians have placed the blame with American
freedoms instead of religious extremists. In January of this year, Virginia Delegate
Bob Marshall opposed the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, claiming that US alliances with
other countries would be jeopardized by having gay soldiers fighting alongside anti-gay Muslim
troops. Not once did it occur to him that the problem lies with their prejudice, rather
than our tolerance. Recently, anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera spoke out against a gay rights
event hosted at the US embassy in Pakistan. LaBarbera stated, "The Obama administration
is making a huge mistake by promoting homosexuality in this in-your-face kind of manner, which
is now igniting the ire of Muslims across the world. It gives Muslims one more reason
to oppose and hate the United States." Of course, he never thought to question whether
rage and hatred are an appropriate response to gay rights. After all, why would he? Rage
against gay rights is exactly what he wants. Perhaps the most vivid articulation of this
argument came from the Archdiocese of Guam in 2009. In a letter opposing a bill to allow
civil unions, the archbishop stated, "Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage
that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture. That is why they repress such behavior by
death. Their culture is anything but one of self-absorption. It may be brutal at times,
but any culture that is able to produce wave after wave of suicide bombers (women as well
as men) is a culture that at least knows how to value self-sacrifice." "It makes no sense
for the U. S. Government to send our boys to fight Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan,
while at the same time it embraces the social policies embodied in Bill 185 (as President
Obama has done). Such policies only furnish further arguments for the fundamentalists
in their efforts to gain more recruits for the war against the 'Great Satan.'" As the
archbishop sees it, America is sorely lacking in the virtue displayed by Islamic extremists
when they execute gay people and inspire suicide bombings. If only our nation could be so selfless!
What's clear from all of this madness is that Christian conservatives are not above the
appeasement of terrorists when they believe they share one another's values. The notion
that we should remake ourselves in the image desired by extremists, and thus "defeat" them
with our obedience to their demands, would normally be seen as laughable. But where their
views happen to intersect, conservative Christians will silently align themselves with these
terrorists and brandish them as a threat against us if we don't do what they say. Whenever
it suits their goals, they see no problem with blaming Americans rather than those who
would attack us. Just like the Islamic terrorists they warn us about, they'll gladly ignore
our civil rights if they get in the way of their religious values. Yes, we do have an
enemy at home after all. If terrorists really do hate us for our freedom, these Christians
are right behind them.