American Taliban

Rolling Stone recently featured an article entitled "Teenage Holy War" about 45-year-old Christian youth crusader Ron Luce. There's a lot of material in the article that's cause for concern, but this scene positively sent a shiver down my spine.

Luce ends his rallies with an illustration from the Book of Judges: the story of a man who, after he gives over his concubine to be gang-raped, kills the disgraced woman and cuts her into twelve pieces, then sends one to each of the tribes of Israel as a reminder of what happens to the ungodly. For a finale, Luce or one of his junior pastors dissects a mannequin labeled "with the sins of secularism and then - to the cheer "Cut up the concubine!" -- sends his assistants into the crowd to distribute the pieces.

In Cleveland, one sensible fourteen-year-old boy snorted at the sight of a girl hugging her prize, a naked male torso labeled PORN. "Imagine carrying that home," he whispered. Thousands of kids had envisioned it; they shrieked for the prize of the head. Such teens are likely prospects to join the 800 interns who pay $7,800 a year, plus mission fees, to attend Luce's Honor Academy.

Why is it that these extremists call themselves Christians but frequently reach for the Old Testament's grimmer, more anti-human segments to support their points? [cc: Fred Phelps] Don't they recognize that, whatever little we know about Jesus Christ, we do know that he clearly repudiated Old Testament law? And that when presented with a prostitute, traditions says his response was to tell the surrounding crowd, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"?

How can these guys claim to be Christians, when they're clearly ignoring Christ's teachings and reaching for the most decrepit teachings to support their blood lust?

4000 kids attended that single rally.

Here's the whole Rolling Stone article.

Related:

Did you know there was a narrowly averted terrorist attack on American soil within the last couple of weeks? No? That's because when religious extremists attempt to blow up buildings in the United States, we don't refer to them as terrorists if they're just Christians trying to blow up abortion clinics. Nonetheless, such acts clearly meet the definition of terrorism.