Friday, January 30, 2015

Let’s Also Talk about Christianism and Christianists

“Islamic fundamentalists” have largely disappeared from most of mainline Western media discourse, only to be replaced by “Islamists.” A search on the online Free Dictionary takes you to “Islamism,” whose primary definition is given as the following: “An Islamic revivalist movement, often characterized by moral conservatism, literalism, and the attempt to implement Islamic values in all spheres of life.” In practice, “Islamist” usually appears in a negative context, such as terrorists—Islamist terrorists—and their supporters actual and potential, Wahhabis (whose influence on the former is seen as definitive), and opponents of liberal forces in Islamic societies. Where they are seen in a positive light by the Western media, they are usually qualified with the word “moderate.” By comparison, a search for “Christianist” in the Free Dictionary redirects to Christianism, whose primary definition is: “TheChristian religion. Christian movements characterized by moral conservatism, literalism, and the attempt to implement Christian values in all spheres of life.” Examples: evangelicals, conservative Catholics.

By this definition, Christians who bomb abortion clinics and assault people working there should be called “Christianist terrorists.” I have determined that football players and other athletes who attribute any great fortune of theirs (but not misfortunes, Heaven forbid) to “God” are not necessarily Christians, given their typical lifestyle outside of their chosen sport. Instead, I believe that they should be Christian shamanists. Indeed, this is not limited to the playing field. Given the frequent invocation of “God” (and we all know which god is being invoked here) in political discourse, including the Pledge of Allegiance and most official pronouncements by the President, the United States can rightly be called the Christian shamanist nation.

Next question: Jewists.

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