Welcome to Tea Party Christianity

[Essence]

Warning: this will break your heart.

Hate comes to Orange County (

)

[TheCrazyMango]

Wow. This is probably the second most dissapointing thing ive seen this week.

[killybob]

there seems to be a theme this week for videos of crazy protesters all of whom i want to shoot in the face.

[OldTrees]

Title is misleading.
There is nothing inherent in the Tea Party movement, Christianity nor the intersection of those ideologies that would necessitate anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim behavior.
What these individuals are doing is wrong but it is not something that you can try to smear on either the Tea Party or Christian Ideologies.
The title implies that you think that Tea Party Christians would feel this way.

[killybob]

don't come down too hard. the protesters were part of A tea party, just not THE tea party.

[OldTrees]

don't come down too hard. the protesters were part of A tea party, just not THE tea party.

Yes but my point is that they did what they did for reasons other than being Tea Party Christians.
Rather it appears that it is the more common false association between Muslims and Radical Islamists that was the motive behind the protests.

[Daxx]

There is nothing inherent in the Tea Party movement, Christianity nor the intersection of those ideologies that would necessitate anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim behavior.
What these individuals are doing is wrong but it is not something that you can try to smear on either the Tea Party or Christian Ideologies.
The title implies that you think that Tea Party Christians would feel this way.

You say that, but the Tea Party is filled with white, Christian, conservative, racists/homophobes/xenophobes. This is no secret even outside the US. It's all part of the central narrative of Christian conservative middle America, fed by Fox and talk radio - big government is bad, DEY TERK OUR JERBS anti-immigration hate, islamophobia driven by war propaganda, and irrational fear of anything that can be tangentially linked to the word "socialism".

Whilst "Christianity" as a concept is not intrinsically linked to racism or xenophobia, the fact that major churches in the US champion conservative causes and even promote the idea of American Exceptionalism doesn't make them blameless. And the Tea Party has long moved on from its libertarian origins after being hijacked by Fox.

[Essence]

It's simple: they call themselves Christians and Tea Partiers.  They WANT to be representative of those groups...so, I'm honoring their wishes.  If they want to treat perfectly innocent Muslims as though all Muslisms are members of the worst kind of Islan, I'm happy to apply the golden rule and treat them like they treat others.

[Kamietsu]

Idiocy runs rampant through every street, no matter where you go. I think it's more a shame of how they think they aren't spreading hate, or racism, or being terrorists themselves. Sometimes I think there should be exceptions to who can protest and what they can protest.

[OldTrees]

There is nothing inherent in the Tea Party movement, Christianity nor the intersection of those ideologies that would necessitate anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim behavior.
What these individuals are doing is wrong but it is not something that you can try to smear on either the Tea Party or Christian Ideologies.
The title implies that you think that Tea Party Christians would feel this way.

You say that, but the Tea Party is filled with white, Christian, conservative, racists/homophobes/xenophobes. This is no secret even outside the US. It's all part of the central narrative of Christian conservative middle America, fed by Fox and talk radio - big government is bad, DEY TERK OUR JERBS anti-immigration hate, islamophobia driven by war propaganda, and irrational fear of anything that can be tangentially linked to the word "socialism".

Whilst "Christianity" as a concept is not intrinsically linked to racism or xenophobia, the fact that major churches in the US champion conservative causes and even promote the idea of American Exceptionalism doesn't make them blameless. And the Tea Party has long moved on from its libertarian origins after being hijacked by Fox.

Classifying any group by the radical fringes is unfair to the group. (as seen and condemned in the video)
Classifying any group by the vocal fringes is unfair to the group. (as seen and condemned in the video)
Some of those stereotypical accusations are based in the group identity [underlined and italisied above] but not all.

[Daxx]

Of course tarring the whole group with the same brush is sloppy thinking. But it's not inaccurate to generalise a group based on trivially establishable common features if you acknowledge that you're generalising. The overwhelming majority of teabaggers are white. The overwhelming majority are Christians. The overwhelming majority are conservatives. The overwhelming majority get their information from Fox or other conservative sources. Islamophobia is rife across the entire US, not just the tea party, as is the attendant racism.

If anything, looking at the original libertarian membership who are/were more progressive is taking the uncharacteristic extreme of the group, not the other way around. Social Conservative influences have dominated the discourse and promotion of the Tea Party since it entered the mainstream consciousness, and as a result it's not just the public perception that's changed.

But we're mixing politics with our religious discussion now. We should probably turn towards religion some time soon or I'll have to move the thread.

[jmizzle7]

I would have given some constructive feedback, but the video has been removed from YouTube.