consent of the governed, and it is never a good idea to let thernmarks realize the game is crooked or that there might be cleanerrngames in a kingdom or dictatorship on the other side of town.rnThe real argument is between an essentially Christian viewrnof human life as a gift from the Creator and a liberal view inrnwhich there are only rational individuals making choices.rnWhile I entirely disagree with Professor van den Haag’s philosophy,rnI fear he is all too right, that from his perspective, whichrnis the perspective of the American regime, the only alternativernto the individual’s power of life and death over himself is to investrnthe state with that power. We already know how the modernrnstate wields its ius vitae necisque from the encouragementrngiven to infanticide and euthanasia. I can imagine no worsernnightmare than to endow either a national or a world governmentrnwith the ultimate power to “protect” a human right tornlife. On this point, American Christians are suffering from arnself-inflicted blindness which makes them—Catholics andrnProtestants alike—a menace to what remains of a civilized socialrnorder.rnHuman rights, particularly the human right to life, make nornsense outside the Christian tradition. Greek and Roman pagansrnloved their children as much as any Christian, but therernwere circumstances in which they felt morally justified inrnexposing them. Christianity is almost unique in seeing the humanrnperson as a divine gift to be treated with reverence. Pleaserndo not bring up the bizarre Hindu sects that regard all life as sacred,rnbecause if killing a cow (or a cockroach) is a crime likernhomicide, then human life is no more valuable than bovine existence.rnIn a post-Christian (which is actually an anti-Christian)rnsociety, the moral language of the faith is appropriated byrnruthless humanitarians and ambitious world-controllers whornuse it to deny justice to the victims of murder and rape, to robrnthe working classes of their income, which they spend on themselvesrnand their own pet enthusiasms, and to inflict brutal warsrnand embargoes on peoples who are already suffering underrnregimes that have done a great deal worse than to deprive themrnof human rights.rnIf I am going to be tried on Christian charges, I demand to berngiven a jury of my Christian peers. But this Tribunal of yours,rnas is well known, was set up originally by Muslims and is nowrnbeing run by a very un-Christian bureaucracy that is the permanentrngovernment of the United States. Try me, if you like,rnfor treason against the New World Order, because I will notrnworship the emperor’s hat or burn incense before his statues.rnSend me to fight with wild beasts in the amphitheater or, if yournare capable of such brutality, force me to spend every eveningrnwatching reruns of made-for-TV movies on the LIFE channelrnso that I can learn sensitivity to women’s issues. Give me arnlobotomy (or send me to Disney World) to teach me how to berna good American, but do not play this post-Christian humanrnrights game which is an insult to “the dignity of every humanrnbeing” which in the new kinderchristian services we are asked tornrespect.rnAll I ask is to be persecuted openly as a Christian.rnDefendant’s brief was rejected as irrelevant and used to prove additionalrncharge of contempt. Tried on 4 ]uly 1996, he was sentencedrnin absentia to perform 20 years of labor at an AIDS hospicernin multicultural Sarajevo. His house was razed as a violationrnof the international human right to safe driving, his children wererndeclared wards of UNESCO, and his collection of seditious booksrnwas seized and burned. Defendant was last seen in Jordan, Montana,rndriving a vehicle described as “something between a largernbathing machine and a very small second-class carriage.” Allrnnational, state, and local police agencies have been instructed tornassist in his apprehension. -‘6rnThe Husbands of Feministsrnby Frederick TurnerrnThe husbands of feminists suffer in silence.rnFor them it’s a simple and saintly delightrnTo carry on shoulders bcscarred with the floggingrnTheir virgin, their queen of the night.rnThe husbands of feminists lie on the altar,rnThe last of the lovers, the cuckolds of time.rnWhile the wise and the prudent poke fun at their folly.rnAbandon the scene of the crime.rnThe husbands of feminists pass unremembered;rnThey are mystics of silence and eaters of shame.rnThe husbands of feminists burn on the anvilrnUnder the hammers of blame.rnThose husbands have taken a great vow of service,rnTo atone for the sins of some six thousand years.rnTo pay off the penance of patient Griselda,rnHistory’s brutal arrears.rnThe husbands of feminists cannot be quoted:rnMutes, disincarnate the power of the word.rnInside their minds even thoughts are aborted.rnLest something perchance should be heard.rnFor these, the wounded, the stigmatized orthodox,rnDoctrine itself were heresy now;rnUnder their habits are cinctures of torture,rnPain’s paradisical glow.rnAh husbands, ah husbands, reduced to your hundreds.rnWhere billions once carried the yoke of the may.rnHow shall you answer the wrath of the goddess.rnSo few, on that terrible day?rnO husbands of feminists, bound to the circle,rnYou are the mild lambs whose blood must be shedrnTo ransom the sins of the twenty-first century:rnYou are the wine and the bread.rnAUGUST 1996/11rnrnrn