Christians and thugs chase Jewish family out of town

If you haven’t yet heard of the Jewish family run out of a Delaware town because they complained that the school district had been promoting Christianity too aggressively, well now you have. You should also know about successful attempts to intimidate the family, including publishing their home address on a website in a threatening manner. This is becoming a favorite tactic of the hate-filled right. It was used against the NYT reporters who did the puff piece on Rumsfeld’s vacation home (for which they got permission from Rumsfeld himself and which the secret service has said does not pose any kind of security threat).

Now it could just be that the Internet is putting me more in touch with the bigotry and Christianist ridiculousness that already exists in this country. But the subjective impression I’m getting is that this kind of stuff is on the rise. It seems like we’re at the beginning of some kind of slow-motion kristallnacht. I don’t think I can defuse the hate that inspires these kinds of actions. But I can at least warn people about what’s going on. And once again, Christians who aren’t bigoted Dominionists should be highly alarmed that their religion is co-opting the apparatus of the state and turning both into forces of prejudice and hate. (Fortunately, some are.)

And this was Delaware, for cryin’ out loud. All they were asking is that the public schools be a little more secular, the way the law says they should be.