So, a New Jersey school needs to run a terror prep drill. Okay, sounds good. Can you guess who the make-believe villains in the drill were?BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP — The scenario has played out in real life across America: Gunfire echoes through a school and students are held hostage.
But police, faculty and staff lived out their own make-believe version yesterday of just such a tragedy at Burlington Township High School, complete with Kevlar-clad officers, armed suspects and students portraying the wounded and dead.
The purpose of the drill was to test the reactions of police, faculty and administration.
“You perform as you practice,” Superintendent Chris Manno said prior to the exercise. “We need to practice under conditions as real as possible in order to evaluate our procedures and plans so that they're as effective as possible.”
The mock terror attack involved two irate men armed with handguns who invaded the high school through the front door. They pretended to shoot several students in the hallway and then barricaded themselves in the media center with 10 student hostages.
Two Burlington Township police detectives portrayed the gunmen. Investigators described them as members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the “New Crusaders” who don't believe in separation of church and state. The mock gunmen went to the school seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class.
During the 2004 Presidential campaign, one of my friends was so pre-occupied by the "inevitability" of a Christian theocracy being imposed in America, she literally could not understand why I would vote for Bush, since it was clear to her that he intended to usher in a fundamentalist religious state.
Yeah, right. I have noticed that all the women of my acquaintance are now wearing burkas; holy communion is being forced down the throats of unrepentant leftists; and there has been a dramatic decline in sexually explicit material everywhere in favor of chocolate and Obama Jesuses; which of course just demonstrate how disgustingly oppressive the Christian religion has become within our culture.
Why, last week I was forced to enter a church --and they lured unsuspecting innocent children inside too (they were having a bake sale).
You might be asking yourself, "What in heaven's name are these people thinking?" --at least if you have any sense whatsoever. How can anyone make sense of a belief that is so bizarre, ridiculous and completely out of touch with reality?
Even as Bush is well into the 6th of 8 years as President, this delusion is actively being maintained in all sorts of ways and those who share in it cannot be shaken from their fundamental belief. Clearly something very powerful is happening in the [unconscious] minds of these people; and that something is emotionally-driven and completely imnpervious to facts or reason. A little self-reflection might help, but the entire purpose of this particular delusion is to enable the person having it to maintain a certain degree of obliviousness and unrepentent ignorance.
President Bush has repeatedly reassured people about his personal faith and his practice of religion is not different in any respect from previous presidents. At a news conference back in 2005 he responded when asked about his faith:
...I think faith is a personal issue. And I take great strength from my faith. But I don't condemn somebody in the political process because they may not agree with me on religion.
The great thing about America is that you should be allowed to worship any way you want. And if you chose not to worship, you're equally as patriotic as somebody who does worship. And if you choose to worship, you're equally American if you're a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim.
And that's the wonderful thing about our country and that's the way it should be.
But straight speaking like this does not reassure those convinced that Christian sharia is about to be implemented. Bush is now in the 6th year of his Presidency. When is this supposed theocratic state going to be declared? When will the religious police be deployed to monitor the innocent citizens of America?
The hysteria about this topic is to my mind unbelievable. And, since I am a psychiatrist, when I observe an over-the-top emotional reaction to something that is all out of proportion to the reality, I begin to look for a psychological explanation.
Displacement --as I explained just recently in a post--is a psychological defense mechanism where there is a separation of emotion from its real object, and then redirection of that ofen intense emotion (i.e., fear, terror, anxiety) toward something less threatening.
When was the last time you heard of a Christian fundamentalist nation? When was the last time that Christianity killed non-believers and tortured those who ran afoul of the religious laws?
If you answered, "the middle ages"--you are correct.
Why not that long ago, there was a peaceful transition of power in the only christian theocracy in the world--the Vatican. Not a single person was killed or tortured. When some minor outrage is perpetrated on Christians, the Christian "street" does not go postal and demand death to the unbelievers.
All the hysterics on this issue come from the foaming mouths of the presumably educated intellectual elite of this country, who are expected to be in possession of critical thinking skills (otherwise why do we call them intellectuals?--but that is for another post).
Indeed, it is interesting to observe that while these intellectuals and academics and cultural leaders are the source of many-if not all--of the most absurd charges against Christianity, middle America is much more rational and tolerant toward religious expression in general and have their heads on a lot straighter than many professors and artistes who are not at all abashed when their members spew forth the most incredible foolishness (clinically referred to as paranoid-infested BS).
Yet....there is a religion-- now, today-- that does encourages its adherents to kill non-believers. A religion that relegates women to second class citizenship and makes their sexuality a sin punishable by death. There is a religion practiced today that qualifies as an oppressive totalitarian theocracy in a number of countries; and its religious leaders regularly give permission to its beleivers to kill Jews and Christians (and even leftists).
Devoted believers of this religion piloted airplanes into American buildings, killing thousands. They would do it again if they get the chance. Devoted believers in this religion behead people who disagree with them; and can easily be convinced to blow themselves up in order to kill people they don't like. There is a religion that today is DEMANDING special privileges continuously and expects that everyone bow down to their obvious superiority.
And there is a religion that openly and forthrightly has informed the world that they will submit to it -- or else. One of their number on this blog, who calls himself "American Muslim" regularly harangues commenters with, "Embrace Islam and live in peace in submission to the will of Almighty Allah (swt).Your grandchildren will be Muslim.Allahu akbar!" and other such inanities that demonstrate a complete lack of both intelligence and critical thinking capability.
Now, if you are as smart as a 5th grader (you don't have to be much smarter actually than a first grader) then which of the two religions described above should you conclude is the real threat to freedom in America ?
The one that is capable of separating church from state and advocates peaceful solutions to problems that has existed within our democratic system for the last 200 plus years? Or the one that demands special privileges and openly advocates jihad and death to America? Come on. You can figure this out if you work at it!
However comforting it may be to believe that Christianity is the religion that poses a threat to freedom and democracy, reality must intrude on such infantile fantasies. As these cleverly uninsightful people "bravely" confront the straw man/religion they have set up, the real danger will slip in unnoticed and without hindrance.
It's just that they won't have to face it because they have retreated to that place in the mind where they are safe and clueless.
When do you suppose the "secular humanists" and leftists will organize a conference to discuss the threat that Islam poses to their political freedoms? Don't hold your breath.
Suffice it to say that these incredibly neurotic people need to grow up, face reality, and deal with the anxiety, helplessness, fear and dread they are determined to avoid. Only then will they be able to focus on the real religious danger that threatens this country and civilization as a whole.
As psychological defense mechanisms go, displacement is a nice neurotic one that--for the user anyway--keeps all that distressing psychological conflict at bay. The rest of us, however, must continue to live and deal with the reality they are denying.
The image that comes to mind is that of a lifeguard attempting to rescue a drowning person,; but the person drowning is so frightened and irrational as they hysterically thrash about that they end up thwarting all attempts to save them; and, even worse, their hysteria threatens to drag their rescuer down to the depths with them.
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