If you have not yet heard, a Philadelphia case filed against anti-gay protesters is getting national attention. Michael Marcavage, the founder of the Lansdowne, Pa., based fundamentalist Christian group Repent America, was arrested last fall along with several other protesters at OutFest 2004, a Philadelphia gay-rights event. They allegedly interrupted the event outside of the official protest area with bullhorns and denunciations of homosexuality.
What is most revealing is not the protesters' conduct or ideas or the arrest itself, but the discussion that has followed it, particularly the claims that Christians are under siege, oppressed for their religious beliefs. Joe Murray, a lawyer with one Christian group that is defending Marcavage and the other protesters, went as far as to say, "Jim Crow has been resurrected in Philadelphia, and instead of being targeted at African Americans, he is targeting Christians."
Excuse me?
OK, perhaps it's not entirely clear that the anti-gay protesters should have been brought up on felony charges instead of the misdemeanor charges that are more typical in cases of civil disobedience on either end of the political spectrum. After all, free speech does mean free speech for all. However, the acts of one zealous persecuter pale in comparison to the discrimination written into laws across this country.
To provide a few examples, you cannot be fired at will because you are a Christian. Just being Christian does not deny you the right to marry the person whom you love. Openly expressing one's Christianity does not disqualify you from serving your country in its armed forces. Being a Christian does not bar you from lovingly adopting a child into your home. In so many places in America, the same is not true for gays and lesbians.
Repent America even has two entrances to its Web site, one for "Christians" and another for "All Others"; you can see for yourself what greeting "Others" are treated too. If the "separate but equal" doctrine is being revived in our country, it is not to target Christians, who by the way compose more than three-quarters of our national population.
However, ignoring this demographic fact, the religious right sees threats everywhere to American Christianity. In their world, liberals' only mission in life is to remove the Ten Commandments from local courthouses and destroy Christmas as we know it. I'm somewhat confused as to how not having the Ten Commandments posted in public buildings will suddenly cause mass amnesia as to their multi-millennial existence, or how saying "Happy Holidays" is a renunciation of Christmas, but that's just me.
The radical right is not content to just protest these old standbys of liberal connivery; they're also always finding new outrages to protest.
For example, conservative evangelical leader James Dobson has identified Spongebob Squarepants as the newest in a long line of children's television characters threatening American civilization as we know it. Mr. Squarepants, apparently, made a guest appearance in a short film designed to promote tolerance towards gays and lesbians, among others. And as if promoting tolerance wasn't bad enough, Spongebob also holds hands with sidekick Patrick and watches the fictional television program "The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy."
The Spongebob and Repent America controversies represent a siege mentality that is a prominent feature of the conservative movement at large. College conservatives claim they are under fire from liberal academics (Oh no, there are Democrats in the English Department! Who knew?), and the Ann Coulters of the world fill their pockets by repeatedly claiming that liberals are all treasonous ne'er-do-wells.
Never mind that the right controls all three branches of the federal government and lesser offices across the country too numerous to count; it is conservatives who are under attack in America today, or so they would have us believe. This siege mentality is extraordinarily powerful, for it can mobilize conservative foot soldiers to action as little else can -- we all saw its results last November.
In truth, Michael Marcavage's actions are not particularly new or original -- in fact, a photograph of him holding signs at another protest has appeared in The Daily Pennsylvanian -- and neither is the siege mentality that he and his supporters are seeking to promote. But if not new, this attitude is highly effective. So while we liberals may dislike and even sometimes mock the conservative movement, if we dismiss them as insignificant, we do so only at our own peril.
Kevin Collins is a junior Political Science major from Milwaukee. ...And Justice For All appears on Tuesdays.
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