Frank Schaeffer, the son of ultra-conservative theologian Dr. Francis Schaeffer, is also the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back. In a disturbing post on Alternet, Schaeffer draws a straight line between his late father's vehement opposition to abortion and the crazies who are now disrupting townhall meetings because of the lies they've been fed about health care reform.
To the uninitiated, this linkage sounds unhinged. To me it sounds an alarm bell. I know that it taps into 30 years of slippery-slope rhetoric resulting in four abortion doctors being shot and countless acts of violence against clinics. We too began by yelling at people in our marches. In the end, our words opened a door to violent actions.
I'm not sure if the insurance-industry leaders using lobbyists to stir the pot know what they've just hooked into. Do they know that the comparisons of Obama to Hitler, and the call to break up a wholly imaginary "conspiracy" against the elderly may lead the fringe of the fringe to the next step? Is this fear of mine farfetched? I don't think so.
Schaeffer continues...
The fact that otherwise-sane people now believe that United States government is in a conspiracy with the Obama administration to kill our elderly makes sense only when seen in the context of the hysterical, Armageddonlike expectations of the religious right/pro-life movement.
When you understand the link between the hatemongers, the lobbying groups carrying water for the insurance industry and the ideology that came out of the pro-life movement, then you can you understand what is happening today in town hall meetings that are being disrupted by screaming people.
I'm very afraid he's right about all this. We know that people who murder abortion doctors believe they are acting on behalf of God. It's not a large step for them to go after pro-health reform politicians for the same reason.
Frank Schaeffer with his father (date unknown); Frank's book; Frank today
