To start with, have a look at the following testimony from pastor Steven Anderson (made in April 2009) about being brutally assaulted by the police.
It caught my eye at the time (thanks Jason Kuznicki) and I posted it on Facebook, keen to see developments.
Boy did I get some. Now, if you read almost anything in the American blogosphere, you’ll have seen that this same Steven Anderson’s hateful rants have been making the rounds just in the last few days (thanks Pandagon)
Here are some choice quotes:
The sodomites are recruiters and you know who they are after? Your children. They are being recruited by the sodomites. They are being molested by the sodomites. They recruit through rape, they recruit through molestation, they recruit through violation.
…
Our country is run by faggots. You know who was the man who was the architect of the bailout? His name is Barney Frank, he is a pedophile
…
God Hates Barack Obama, I hate Barack Obama. I hate Him. God wants me to Hate Barack Obama.
…
When I go to bed tonight, Steven L. Anderson is going to pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell.
Ok, so there’s no need to point out just how vile this man is. Although I think that, like Fred Phelps, he performs a useful service in forcing some of the most extreme people to moderate themselves (since he’s so much more extreme than them). The interesting question — that came after my aha moment, realising he was the same man I saw 4 months ago — is this: given what we know of this man, does this change the credibility of his original story, and if so, to what extent?
At the one extreme, you could say it changes everything. This man appears to have a fractally wrong worldview — one that is so skewed he probably can’t be relied on for anything major. Especially something that has political implications, especially for someone whose worldview is more likely to have paranoid, conspiratorial anti-government streaks.
On the other hand, you could say that to believe him less would be to deny the common humanity present in us all. Isn’t it just demonising political opponents, or even declaring them as “beyond the pale”? Doesn’t this have something in common with this pastor’s own vile spewage — or at least in the tendency for people to dehumanise those on views that are polar opposites to their own?
I must admit I’m a bit town between those 2 ends. I agree that we can’t take away all his credibility just because some views of his are insane. People are very good at compartmentalising different thoughts so one rotten apple should not be assumed to spoil the bunch entirely. But I really do believe his video a little less now — if only for the reason that his belief that the entire world wants to desperately impose perversion and murder on Christians must be colouring his perceptions of his life somehow. And this must surely include an encounter with law enforcement.
There appears to be no reason to doubt that he was assaulted by police. And I’d be surprised if it turns out to be anything but excessive force. But I don’t think it necessarily went quite like he reported. Am I just dehumanising him?
7 comments ↓
You know what, after your report on the sort of things he said, I don’t care if his testimony is accurate or not. I think it’s hilarious to imagine him being tased multiple times while his head is ground into the road. He deserves nothing less.
Now, I can get into as much [justified] schadenfreude as the next person. However there’s no hilarity or satisfaction here for me — not in the way there would have been if say he worked himself into a hateful frenzy preaching death from the pulpit and fell off the podium sustaining injuries. That I think would be actually hilarious!
Yes. Yes it would.
I don’t derive satisfaction by seeing someone being beaten up (if he was, that is…) for reasons unrelated to his opinions. If the police did that (*if*) that’s bad. Did they actually know he was this religious fundamentalist bigot? Probably not.
Now if he’s looking for sympathy with this video, if he’s making that up, he doesn’t have my support. I watched the video of him preaching against homosexuals here and all I can say is that he is pathetic. One rational explanation for his behaviour is that he himself wishes to have sex with a man but feels guilty about it. So he tries to convince everybody else it’s wrong. He must be, himself, a “sodomite”–to use his own words.
If someone is the sort of person that deserves a kicking, does it matter why he got said kicking? Is there not a kind of natural justice in that he seems to get away with acting like a bigot, but gets his arse whipped for something else?
Or is it perhaps that him getting a kicking is not justice under any circumstances?
Just food for thought…
Alan — if you think it’s natural justice then shouldn’t you support the government issuing court orders beating people up for saying bigoted things?
Takis — there’s a popular association between homophobia and repressed homosexuality. While it must statistically be true in some cases, we don’t have much reason to believe it’s the reason behind most homophobes (I think the association’s a bit of a case of pop psychology).
Personally, I explain his behaviour with a [paraphrased] quote from the Simpsons.
Homer: Why is that elephant headbutting that elephant’s side?
Gameskeeper: Well, some elephants have had a very troubled life and have been mistreated and they lash out at others. Then again, some are just jerks…Stop that Mr Simpson! [Zooms out to Homer headbutting the side of the gameskeeper]
“Alan — if you think it’s natural justice then shouldn’t you support the government issuing court orders beating people up for saying bigoted things?”
That’s not entirely without merit.
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