Test of Freedom
Right-wingers recently have been very big on the rights to religious freedom in the public square, as well as the right to keep and bear arms in the public square. They want to be able to show their faith as publicly as possible (which for me is fine so long as it does not involve government association), and they want to be able to openly bear arms in public, even with assault rifles in situations where such weapons are clearly of no practical use.
In fact, they have become so vehement about these rights that you have churches challenging the no-political-endorsement rules during elections and conservative Christians all over claiming that there are “wars” being waged against them, wars on Christianity, wars on Christmas, etc.; in addition, you have people now attending Obama events armed to the teeth. How’s this for a combo: a pastor openly announces prayer with his congregation for Obama to die, and one of his followers then attends an Obama event bearing an assault rifle.
On the open worries that we may be looking at incipient right-wing extremist terrorism, conservatives defend these people by saying that they are simply patriotic American citizens exercising their free rights. When the government put out an alert about extremist right-wing terrorism, conservatives shouted it down as playing politics with national security (goodness knows they’d never do that!).
So a good question is, do these people really believe in these rights, or are they just interested in their own specific rights, for Christians to have the right to express their beliefs in public, or for right-wingers to bear assault rifles at Democratic political events?
Here’s a test: the next time a Republican politician holds a rally connected with a conservative Christian organization, have the crowds outside be populated with a few dozen Americans of Arab descent, bearing semi-automatic rifles and signs announcing “Muslim, American, and Proud” while also protesting the politicians at the event.
See how much the conservatives laud the freedom of public religious expression and arms-bearing then.