I came across an interesting article in a magazine I’ve not seen before, “The Conversationalist.” The title of the article, “Why do so many evangelicals continue to deny that Biden won the election?” is what drew my interest, and I think the author of this article describes better than anyone the real reason Fundamentalists and Evangelicals are—even in the face of actual facts—denying that Joe Biden won this election.
Evangelicals are convinced their ‘religious freedoms’ are under attack.
Up to this point, nobody I know is denying Evangelicals their right to their deeply held religious bigotry. However, they are trying to take that bigotry out of our political system. And this is what troubles our Fundamentalist friends: it is becoming less acceptable to practice their religious bigotry in the commons.
With Donald Trump, racism was not only acceptable, but it was also encouraged. White supremacy has never had a better ally than 45. The election of Joe Biden threatens that. Democrats—despite all their other faults, represent a part of a section of people Evangelicals fear: Black, gay, Hispanic, women, and everyone else who isn’t white… (It’s mostly Boomers who feel this way)… and has a different philosophy than the white supremacist ideology. At this moment, Republican senators, cake bakers, photographers, cops, homophobes, Evangelical leaders, and gun-nuts everywhere are doing everything they can to overturn this election.
While researching this article, I cam across a video and article I had posted earlier from Breitbart regarding a Funny or Die video on one of the homophobic religious freedom laws in North Carolina.
So let’s kick it old school. Let’s look at religious freedom in its simplest form: Playground politics.
Editor’s Note: (Just kidding, I don’t have an editor) this article has been published before under another title, but it works here as well.
Also, it’s important to note that while the complexities of the persecution ideology are multifaceted, sometimes it helps to generalize just a bit and simplify things into a nice metaphor—sort of the way Aesop did in his fables. In this case, we’ll put our fable in the context of our earliest childhood memories: the playground.
Once upon a time there was an elementary school, packed with students, most of whom looked and acted alike. They shared the same skin color, the same socioeconomic affiliations, and the same underlying beliefs. They liked the same standards, played the same games, spoke the same language, and attended the same classes. Students who were different, but could blend in, did their best to do so, careful never to reveal their differences. To that end, the mostly passed unnoticed.
However, there were those who could not camouflage themselves, either because of skin color, or gender, or patterns of speech. As a result, they had no way of blending in. So the majority forced them to sit in the back of the classroom and stay quiet. They were never allowed to challenge the teacher on actual facts that involved them, nor were they allowed to ask questions. That would be considered challenging the teacher, and that was never allowed. Nor would the teacher ever call on them or acknowledge them over other students. Their grades were kept low, even when their answers were right. While this was difficult for the outsiders, it also kept them safe.
However, once the bell rang, and recess was upon them, everything changed. On the playground, the ‘homogenizes’ roamed freely. They had their pick of the swing set, the teeter-totter, the slide, and the monkey bars. They owned all the balls: the kickball, softball, football, and basketball. They all laughed and played together, oblivious to the classmates they had ostracized.
Yet as the school year went on, something extraordinary began to happen. The non-homogenizes got tired of sitting in the back of the class. They started raising their hands in class to answer the teacher’s questions. And—horror of horrors—they got bolder on the playground. Especially in regard to balls.
Tired of being excluded from playground games, they began to do something despicable, so craven, that at first, it shocked the entire school—faculty and students alike. These non-homogenizes began to work their way onto the playground—with the intent to play alongside their homogeneous cohorts. They sat on the swings and refused to give up their seat for the homogenizes. They asked to be picked for the basketball team—all the while refusing to homogenize themselves into something they could never be in the first place.
There were as many reactions as there were students. Some thought nothing of it and welcomed the non-homogenizes into their games without a second thought. Others found it a bit startling, but after some time, they too joined in the games and played together as children do. But there was a third group of children who didn’t like seeing their homogeneous group tampered with in any way. They had always looked the same, and now they were confronted with a whole new paradigm.
At first they could still control the playground. All they had to do was take the ball so that nobody else could play with it. Or they could monopolize the playground equipment. But non-homogenizes had an agenda, and a devious one at that. They were determined to play with their friends regardless of color. This angered this third group so that they began to look for ways to keep the non-homogenizes off the playground altogether. They invoked tradition, which stated that only the homogenizes were allowed to play. When that didn’t work, they tried to take over the playground by force. They stole all the balls and called dibs on the equipment regardless of where they stood in line of fairness. The non-homogenizes were having nothing to do with non-homogeneous. They insisted that the playground was a public space and that all students had a right play there (meaning the homogeneous had to share).
In response, the third group grew violent and became bullies. They pushed the non-homogenizes off the equipment and picked fights in the middle of games. When the non-homogenizes called upon the playground attendants, at first they were ignored.
That’s when the second group of students stepped up to protect their new friends. They pushed back against the bullies. They stood between the bullies and the non-homogenizes. When the bullies tried to push the non-homogenizes off the equipment, their friends stepped in. Eventually, even the playground attendants—the “law,”—came to realize that the playground was for everybody, and they too took a stand against the bullies.
For the first time in the history of the playground, the bullies found themselves alone and no longer in control. And this time, they had no recourse. They stole the balls, but the playground supplied more. They tried to control the equipment, but the non-homogenizes started sharing. The homogenizes were losing control.
Because of this, they complained bitterly that THEY were being bullied. They had lost control of the playground and nobody was taking their side anymore. Instead, they found themselves with two choices: either get along with everyone else, or find another way to retake the playground.
Unfortunately for them, their former friends—as well as the non-homogenizes were no longer willing to cede the playground to just the homogenizes. This includes Donald Trump. Liberals wanted to play too. Since the homogenizes were not willing to share, they found themselves with no place for them on the playground.
And because of that, they found being on the playground insufferable. Therefore, they began to complain that they were being persecuted, even though, they were only asked to share. Simply to share the commons. And that was something they were unwilling to do.