It does us no good to ignore what is going on in this obscure little corner of the Pacific Northwest. It does us no good to refuse to hold to account the politics that led to this, and the politicians who sought to profit from it. It does us no good to deny that there is a substantial constituency for armed sedition in this country, and to deny the necessity of delegitimizing that constituency in our politics, and the first step in that process is to face it and to call it what it is.
As someone who has been talking for a long time about the near- and outright-sedition preached in Southern Baptist churches all across the country, I’m grateful that somebody with as large a megaphone as Pierce is finally drawing attention to it. I have not been kidding, or indulging in hyperbole, when I’ve said that the evangelical right is going to get worse, and probably violent, as the continued evolution of society forces them to the margins.