The same day a convert to Islam attacked the Canadian Parliament and killed a soldier at the National Canadian War Memorial, USA Today published an editorial in it’s Wednesday print edition warning about the real threat: Christian extremists.
“Christian extremists pose threat,” was the headline of college professor Mary Zeiss Stange’s op-ed, which first appeared online Monday evening. But it’s the subheadline that’s particularly ironic: “Islamists may draw our attention, but we need to keep an eye on [Cliven] Bundy and his ilk.” (RELATED: Shooting ‘Obviously Inspired By Radical Ideology,’ Likely ISIS)
The impetus for the op-ed appears to be a recent campaign ad created by rancher Cliven Bundy, most famous for his armed stand-off with federal officials earlier this year. In the video, Bundy endorses a local African-American third-party candidate, and challenges Attorney General Eric Holder to a debate on issues of race.
Stange opined that Bundy was a threat to America, citing a survey of law enforcement. “[T]he report cited the sovereign citizen movement — Bundy’s law-defying, government-denying crowd — as the most potent U.S. terrorist threat: more threatening than Islamist jihadists, who along with militia/patriots, racist skinheads and neo-Nazis rounded out the top five.”
“Contrary to the popular opinion that radical Islam is the primary threat to homeland security, Christianity provides the other four groups with their extremist rationale,” she continues. “All are in one way or another affiliated with the Christian Identity movement, a hodgepodge of anarchist and white supremacist politics dedicated to white Christian activism.”
NewsBusters notes that Stange is not simply a one-off contributor: “She is one of about 33 people on its Board of Contributors, absurdly giving her a status equal to credible commentators like Jonathan Turley, Jonah Goldberg, Kirsten Powers, and Michael Medved.”
Stange is also a professor of religion and the director of religion program at Skidmore College. On an entirely unrelated note, Skidmore was recently voted the number one pot-smoking school by the Princeton Review.
[h/t Newsbusters]