Are we about to enter another period akin to the infamous Salem witch trials in the name of supporting ‘anti-Christian bias’? It certainly seems possible. As you may recall, the Salem witch trials took place during the late 17th century when roughly 200 people were accused of being ‘witches’, i.e. possessed by the devil. Of those accused, thirty people were found guilty and nineteen were ultimately executed by hanging – fourteen men and five women.
Years after the trials, the accusers, who were mostly teenage girls, admitted they had fabricated their charges. The convictions of all the victims were subsequently reversed. Of course, that is little consolation for those who had been unjustly executed!
The Trump administration, and particularly the Department of State, has opened the door for another barbarous period in our history. According to the AP, the State Department, at the direction of the Trump administration has issued a directive to employees to report incidents of ‘anti-Christian bias.’ There is no hard evidence of any such bias happening, however, the Department issued directions on what may constitute such bias and has told employees they may make such reports anonymously.
“Examples of potential violations include formal or informal actions taken against a person because they requested religious accommodation “from taking mandatory vaccines or observing religious holidays ” and “mistreatment for refusing to participate in events and activities that promoted themes inconsistent with or hostile to one’s religious beliefs, including policies or practices related to preferred personal pronouns,” according to the cable. Others include “mistreatment for opposing displays of flags, banners or other paraphernalia on or in government facilities because of religious objection or for opposing official media content due to religious objections, forcing employees to remove personal displays of religious faith or conscience, whether as part of clothing/accessories items on desks or in personal workspace,” the cable said.”1
Note that this directive does not say anything about ‘anti-religious bias,’ ‘anti-Muslim bias,’ anti-Jewish bias,’ or bias against any other religious group other than Christians. I’m not sure how this is even legal but given that Pam Bondi will interpret the Constitution however Trump tells her to, it is unlikely this will be challenged. However, it does raise a few interesting questions.
What will happen in cases where people who are supposedly Christian refuse to work with colleagues who are gay or Muslim because associating with those people is ‘against their Christian beliefs’? If the State Department tells the Christian zealots they must work with their colleagues, is this ‘anti-Christian bias’ that will result in sanctions of some sort. Or will the State Department be forced to fire or reassign the gay and Muslim colleagues?
Or what about the scenario in which a highly qualified gay person, Muslim or atheist person is promoted to a position that a person who purports to be a Christian competed for and lost. Will there be anonymous accusations of anti-Christian bias submitted against these individuals just like accusations against the witches of Salem?
Certainly not all Christians are zealots and will view this Trumpian policy for what it is, just another way to pander to a certain group of people whose votes he needs to continue his reign of terror. However, there are Christians who will view this as a license to push their zealotry into their workplace and use their ‘faith’ to discriminate and harm those who do not share their beliefs. The Salem witch trials eventually came to an end but not before many lives had been damaged and destroyed. How long will the ‘anti-Christian bias’ witch hunt take to run its course and how many lives will be destroyed in the process?
The ugliness and cruelty of this administration is beginning to make Medusa look like a beauty pageant winner who graduated from charm school.
