High Horses Couldn't Drag Me Away

I got schooled last week.  I posted about the President's National Prayer Breakfast speech, and boy, did I learn a lot.

I learned that the point of the section of the speech where he mentioned that many religions have been, and are, twisted by some to support violence is offensive to some.  Yes, talking about facts is offensive.  “The most offensive I've ever heard.”  “Verbal rape.” 

I learned that when you point out that facts are facts, people will disagree with you, and provide their own facts.  They may be untrue, and they may be irrelevant to the subject at hand, but dammit, they know they're right!

I learned that there are courses in Spiritual Warfare.  Now, since those courses apparently don't teach much about the Crusades, I doubt they are at accredited schools.  And I'm not impressed by them.  Of course, maybe I'm misinterpreting that subject- maybe they're not learning about the Crusades at all. Maybe “Spiritual Warfare” is more, erm, practical, learning voodoo techniques and witchcraft to fight others supernaturally.  And since the same people who threw that “qualification” around as if it meant something also made fun of evolution, it's apparent their scientific as well as historical knowledge is lacking.  And then there was their grammar...  That's a topic for a whole 'nother post.  Let's just say that we all make mistakes, but if I can barely figure out what you are trying to say I'm apt to assume that your thoughts are as disorganized as your sentences.

I learned a lot.  What I learned pretty much proved the President's point- that some get “on their high horse” and simply do not think their co-religionists can do any wrong.  It also proved my point- that people were getting upset for no reason.  Or rather, that their reasons were ridiculous.

Look, if you get upset when people bring up history, you won't like this page.  That's not all I talk about, but I love it, I think it's important to understanding pretty much everything, and work it into conversations about, well, pretty much everything. 

Understanding history is vital to understanding the present, and to making informed decisions about the future.  Personal history, societal history, whatever- you need to understand it.  Not live in it, but be aware of it, and with accurate recollection.  And we can debate what was more important, and sometimes what actually happened, but in many cases there is no room for debate.

If you don't know that the Bible was used to support slavery in the US, or racial discrimination, or that many Christian Germans supported the Nazis and some Nazi leaders were devout Christians... Or if you ignore the whole history of Christian persecution of Jews...  If you don't know all this you're ignorant, in the most basic definition of the term.  And if you just don't accept it, you're delusional.  All of that happened.  And that's not Christian-bashing, and it's not America-bashing to say certain awful things happened in U.S. history.  That's just the facts.  That's history.  Reality.  If you ignore it, just as if you ignore any bad thing, it'll come back to get you.  History repeats itself mainly because people ignore, or forget about, the past, and pretend it didn't happen, and don't learn its lessons.  We can move forward as a country, as a species, when we learn from our past.

The word “ignorance” was thrown around a lot, mainly by me, because it fit so many commenters (and fits so many conservatives.)  People hate hearing that they're ignorant.  I think they assume it means stupid, which it doesn't.  Well, not quite- the willful ignorance I see so much of is pretty much the same as stupidity.  But hey, I'm ignorant about plenty.  I'll admit it.  But I know quite a bit about history, and will correct you if you're wrong, or ignorant.

Another thing that bothered them, I think, is that they see any criticism as an attack, and any admission of wrongdoing as defeat.  Listen: If your patriotism, or your faith, is weak enough that it is threatened by criticism- or not even criticism, just the acknowledgment of imperfection, then it, and you, have an issue. The problem is not with the facts, or who is pointing them out.  It's with your head.

I think, in the end, they were getting upset about an imaginary issue.  They thought Obama was bashing the U.S., or Christians.  Which is of course a ridiculous thing to think about a Christian President of the U.S., but what do you expect? They misinterpret what he says all the time (cf: “you didn't build it.")  It's fine to get upset about real things.  But getting bent out of shape over something that wasn't even said or implied?  That's stupid.  Not ignorant.  Stupid.