Forced Baptism. Blood Libel. Sarah Palin's Militant Christianity.

I have a new essay up on CNN today reacting to Sarah Palin's "forced baptism" remarks. In it, I link her most recent comment and her use of "blood libel" back in 2011 (after the Giffords shooting) to the history such words invoke (or evoke, depending on intention).

One thing that startles me is that so many people respond to Palin's line using the word "joke." She's not laughing. The crowd doesn't laugh. They cheer their appreciation. I see no evidence that this is a joke; rather, it's a tell, a reveal of her worldview.

Lots of people (there are links in the piece) are worried about the blasphemy here. I'm not. For me, this is about militant Christianity and its perils.

I'm an historian. While people of faith such as the National Religious Campaign against Torture are concerned about blasphemy, I worry about history. When powerful Christians such as Palin start speaking about forced baptism to a cheering throng, they evoke, intentionally or not, some of the worst episodes in Christian history. Here's one.

 On Valentine's Day 1349, the citizens of Strasbourg, Germany, rose up against the Jewish population of their city. The Chronicle of Mathias of Neuenburg describes it as follows:

"And so, on the following Saturday (February 14), the Jews were conducted to the cemetery to be burnt in a specifically prepared house. And 200 of them were completely stripped of their clothes by the mob, who found a lot of money in them. But the few who chose baptism were spared, and many beautiful women were persuaded to accept baptism, and many children were baptized after they were snatched from mothers who refused this invitation. All the rest were burnt, and many were killed as they leaped out of the fire."

This is just one of the many examples of forced baptism of Jews and Muslims under threat of massacre. Notice the specifics. The Jews were forced into a building, stripped, robbed and burned alive. Their only pathway out was through baptism and rape. As parents died, babies were taken from their mothers to be baptized.

So there's the brutal history that her rhetoric evokes. It doesn't matter to me whether she knows it, though I know she comes from an apocalyptic religious tradition that believes we are in the last days, whatever her personal belief.

Writing this piece was a little scary. I try to write with empathy for my subjects, even Jenny McCarthy and those who believe her. I try to explain the world from inside my subject's world view, to point out problems, but never to directly call out.

This, however, is the best call out I can muster, based in history, written in anger, published with some fear for the personal consequences (I really don't want thousands of pro-Palin hate emails), and more fear for the divisions of my country.

And if you think it would be best just to ignore her, I agree. But look at the tens of thousands of cheering fans, sure they are on her side in the us-v-them existential binary that she creates with her work. They aren't ignoring her.

We can't either.

More to come on this as needed in the next few days, especially on American apocalypticism from the right wing.

American Theodicy

Theodicy is the theological practice of trying to make sense of why bad things happen to good people. It was coined by the famous German polymath Leibniz, but was a common practice throughout the history of medieval thought as well in various ways. I am working on an essay on the topic of American theodicy. Here are some examples I'm currently considering. There are countless more.

1. Michelle Bachmann:

It’s no secret that our nation may very well be experiencing the hand of judgment. It’s no secret that we all are concerned that our nation may be in a time of decline. If that is in fact so, what is the answer? The answer is what we are doing here today: humbling ourselves before an almighty God, crying out to an almighty God, saying not of ourselves but you, would you save us oh God? We repent of our sins, we turn away from them, we seek you, we seek your ways. That’s something that we’re doing today, that we did on the National Day of Prayer, it’s something that we have chosen to do as well on another landmark day later this year on September 11. Our nation has seen judgment not once but twice on September 11. That’s why we’re going to have ‘9/11 Pray’ on that day. Is there anything better that we can do on that day rather than to humble ourselves and to pray to an almighty God?

2. Michelle Bachmann

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending," Bachmann said in Sarasota on Sunday

Bachmann's campaign said she was just joking.

3. Family Research Council

The scourge presently upon our nation - wars, devastating weather, acts of terrorism, confusion and failure among our government leaders, spiritual confusion in many of our churches, decimation of the family, economic decline, government oppression, advancing socialism, government promoted and protected abortion, homosexualized politics, etc., are all the fruits and consequences of individual and collective sin and a departure from the God of the Bible.

The Apostle Paul warned us plainly that God's righteous wrath is the result of willful disobedience: "all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness... envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them" (Romans 1:14-32). Unfortunately, all these evils are now woven into our popular culture. The church has not been as bright and salty as we've needed to be. But a tremendous opportunity lies ahead of us, if we will but humble ourselves and pray!

 4. Pat Robertson

I was reading, yesterday, a book that was very interesting about what God has to say in the Old Testament about those who shed innocent blood. And he used the term that those who do this, "the land will vomit you out." That -- you look at your -- you look at the book of Leviticus and see what it says there. And this author of this said, "well 'vomit out' means you are not able to defend yourself." But have we found we are unable somehow to defend ourselves against some of the attacks that are coming against us, either by terrorists or now by natural disaster? Could they be connected in some way? And he goes down the list of the things that God says will cause a nation to lose its possession, and to be vomited out.

The link goes to other examples of this kind of rhetoric in the context of Katrina.

5. (updated) James Dobson

I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition.  Believe me, that is going to have consequences too.
And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us.  I think that's what's going on.

Updates - Fall, 2013:

"Ex-transgender" speaker Grace Harley:

Moments later, Harvey said that Obama has “homosexual orientation tendencies,” proving that we are in the Last Days: “The spirit will not dwell with us too much longer because we truly are in the End Times. Any time you have the head of a country with homosexual orientation tendencies, and I say that because Jesus said, ‘if you look at a woman with lust you have committed adultery,’ if you have the heart of the homosexual in your heart and your mind then you are without even committing the act, you are there. We have countries, or America—it’s devastating what’s going on.”

And Michele Bachmann again:

"the U.S.'s funding of al Qaeda in Syria] happened and as of today the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists, now what this says to me, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in God’s end times history. Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand. When we see up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were told this; these days would be as the days of Noah.”