Onward Christian So(u)ldiers

Music: Fields of the Nephilim: Dawnrazor Last night on the evening news a NBC reporter told the story of a ten year old boy who was detained by the police for attempting to trespass an invisible line separating Terri Schiavo's deathbed from the throng of evangelical Christians. Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged woman who has been kept alive for over fifteen years on life support, recently had her feeding tube removed by order of numerous courts. Most scientists and doctors who have been affiliated with the case have testified that the person formerly known as "Terri Shiavo" is not Terri Shiavo, but rather a mindless animal just two blinks shy of a vegetative state.

Bible in hand (the King James version, unquestionably), the father of the trespassing boy noted he was very proud of his son for standing up for Jesus. He just wanted to bring her a cup of water, he said. He marveled at the empathy of his son, who was obviously upset that Shiavo "was thirsty."

The righteousness of evangelical fascism never ceases to disgust me; the young man, worked up into a religious fantasy, obviously knew such a gesture would return such loving recognition. Of course, for him (and his father), the gesture has nothing to do with Terri Shaivo at all. Rather, it's about someone's right to tell me and others who think differently that we are going to hell.

I also think it's terribly distressing that the real issue here is the Pauline/Cartesian doctrine of the soul, usually veiled in "the sanctity" or "sacredness" of life lingo, but no one mentions that. Despite its status as the number one headline on newspapers and television for almost two weeks now (seconded only by the bizarre circus orbiting Michael Jackson), not one reporter has mentioned the "soul." This hot fuss concerns weather or not spirit inhabits the bodies of flesh and blood human beings; some clearly believe Shaivo's soul is somehow trapped in an ailing, mindless human body, that her soul desperately wants to hang out with the peeps a little longer. Apparently life is suffering (certainly the Pope thinks so).

Soul-speak is dangerous because souls are odorless and invisible. Claiming to have one that is "saved" allows you to condemn the blemished souls of others. Indeed, claiming to harbor a more enlightened soul gives you license to kill those bodies harboring the evil spirits, the so-called terrorists.

Evangelicalism is exploding, and the longer this president is in power, the more I think those of us who are deemed soulless are fucked. Regardless, may this damaged human being, worthy of the dignity of death, rest in peace.