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    *            Michael R. Burhans - Out Of My Mind            *
    *                 A Weekly Electronic Column                *
    *                       August 3, 1994                      *
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                            The New Crusade
                                  Or
                  Fetal Fanatics Feel Freedom to Fire


     PENSACOLA FLORIDA DOCTOR MURDERED BY PRO-LIFE LEADER, 
screamed the headlines.  Wait a minute, didn't we do that story 
last year?  The fanatic forces of the right-wing Christian 
Fascisti have struck again, murdering both a Doctor and an old 
man who drove him.  In the process they also shot an old woman 
in the arm and breast.  What reason did they give for two 
murders and an attempted murder?  That they are "pro-life".  
Rev. Paul Hill, head of an organization called "Defensive 
Action" has been calling for more than a year, quite publicly, 
and to cheering crowds of "pro-life" fans for the wholesale 
murder of Doctors and women who get abortions.  Along with the 
Catholic run group "Justifiable Homicide" (Which enjoys 
tax-exempt status in the US!) are but the vocal point men for 
the rise of a new Christian Crusade. Faced with the loss of 
political power under a Democratic presidency the Christian 
political leaders have decided that terrorism is the new tool 
to use in an attempt to turn the United States into an 
officially Christian Nation.  They would do for us, what 
Shi'ite Islam has done for Iran.  Bombings, toxic chemical 
spills, harassing phone calls, broken windows and murders 
related to abortion clinics and their workers are on the rise 
all across the nation.  In city after city fundamentalist 
Christians are found to be in control of the groups when they 
are caught, yet to many the danger remains unseen.

     Christians have every right to be Christians, freedom of 
religion is one of the most important cornerstones of this 
nation (Though the Christians in power have forbade many 
religions from freely practicing in this nation). They also 
have every right, indeed the duty to exercise their rights and 
be active in politics.  What they do not have the right to do, 
however, is force the rest of us to live by their religious 
beliefs.  They do not have the right to kill us because our 
beliefs are not theirs.  They do not have the right to demand 
special laws to make us observe their religious dogma.  They do 
not have the power to forcibly convert us under threat of 
government action.  Yet this is what they clearly are trying to 
do.

     Across the nation organized campaigns to deny people 
rights because they violate one obscure religious command or 
another are being bankrolled out of church coffers, and 
organized by members of the clergy.  In their dream state the 
press is controlled to avoid heresy and obscenity.  
Christianity is the official state religion. Every aspect of 
life will be rigidly controlled, an aggressive policy of prison 
building will be needed to put all the gays, atheists, and 
those who had premarital sex in.

     You think I am perhaps a bit extreme?  No doubt the first 
people that started to warn of the past Crusades and 
Inquisitions were viewed as extremists too.  The fact is we are 
dealing with a group of Christian Supremacists, little 
different than other groups of White Supremacists, Islamic 
Supremacists or other "Master Race" philosophies.  This one is 
particularly dangerous for the reason that they believe they 
are acting as agents of god and as such can commit no wrong, 
and who more dangerously believe that becoming martyrs is a 
highly desirable fate.  With the power of faith fueling the 
fires of fanaticism, explosions of wholesale violence lurk just 
under the surface.  Epithets hurled from pulpits all over the 
nation have prepped thousands to merely wait for the new leader 
that will rise and bring this power into the streets.  For that 
is all that is needed to take these small organized brush-fire 
groups and turn them into a nationwide conflagration.

     Those of us who are value freedom, and especially those of 
us who are not Christians need to be on our guard.  We need to 
stop this take-over of our government by stealth candidates who 
hide their ultra right wing Christian ties to become more 
electable.  We need to expose these groups for the violent 
extremists they are.  We need to show the great mass of 
Christians what their donated dollars are being spent on.  We 
need to demand that federal, state, and local law enforcement 
agencies keep tabs on these terrorist sects, and place those 
who plan violence in jail where they belong.  We need to stand 
up and shout that freedom of religion isn't only for Christians.



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     *(c)1994 Michael R. Burhans\24th Century Society Publishing*
     *Permission for unaltered reproduction and dissemination is*
     *granted as long as it is not for profit & with this notice*
     *        Internet-michael.burhans@wolverine.com            *
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                Michael R. Burhans