How Not to Be a Dick, Religious Dicks Edition

I’m sure that by now, most of you have heard that a Hindu chaplain delivered the opening prayer in the US senate on July 12. This, of course, has driven some Christian jerks into a whirling, frothing frenzy.

Trailer Park Feminist at Feministe reports a One News Now poll reflecting the tantrum, in which 53% of respondents say that the prayer “proves the U.S. is no longer a Christian nation.”

TPF also quotes one of the Christian whiners, who says of Hinduism: ” “This is not a religion that has produced great things in the world,” he observes. “You look at India, you look at Nepal — there’s persecution going in both of those countries that is gendered by the religious belief that is present there, and Hindu dominates in both of those countries.”

TPF deftly fisks his remarks: “But not the Christians-hating-on-Hindus type of religious persecution, oh no,” she points out. “He’s talking about the bad kind of religious persecution. You know, the kind that doesn’t involve Christians.”

Taking a different tack, John Scalzi of the Whatever helpfully addresses the situation by weighing in with some practical advice for people who find themselves afflicted with a persistent case of religious dickishness. He writes:

Look, this one is simple: Some people really and truly believe that what Jesus wants is for them to be dicks to everyone who isn’t their particular, mushy-headed stripe of Christian. And if it’s what Jesus wants, then it can’t be wrong. Now, I’m entirely sure that in their minds they can come up with a better explanation for their activities than “Jesus wants me to be a dick” — they may actually be able to find some internal calculus that has them being a dick out of love for us godless idolaters and saving our worthless heathen souls, even — but the rest of us can call it for what it is. And also, of course, when these Dicks for Jesus try to offer up some alternate explanation for their behavior, I think it’s fair to remind them of a number of things:

1. Whatever the rationale, they’re being dicks.

2. At no point in the Bible does Jesus say “be a dick in My name.”

3. Lots of other Christians seem to get through life without feeling called upon to be a dick in the service of Christ.

4. Indeed, when many of these Christians discover to their dismay that they’ve been a dick about something, they will frequently fall to their knees and say, “Forgive me, Lord, for I have been a total dick.”

5. And He does.

6. That’s a hint.

UPDATE: A you-tube link to the Jesus-dick-generated disturbance, swiped from Pharyngula.