Obama's "Last Straw" Attack on American Christian Values

At midnight on December 16, 1773, dozens of colonists boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and tossed 342 crates of tea overboard in an act of political protest. While the story of the Boston Tea Party is well-known, in fact, the “tea partiers” were not protesting a tax hike, but a corporate tax break -- the Tea Act, passed by the British government in early 1773. The Tea Act wasn't about new taxes. It actually reduced the total tax on tea sold in America by the East India Company and would have allowed colonists to purchase tea at half the price paid by British consumers. But, the Tea Act did leave in place the hated three-pence-per-pound duty imposed by the Townshend Acts in 1767, and it angered colonists as another instance of taxation legislation passed by Parliament without colonial input and consent. The principle of self-governance, not the burden of higher taxes, created political opposition to the Tea Act, which was a government bailout for a company close to financial collapse, the East India Company that we would now call “too big to fail.” The Tea Act gave the East India Company a monopoly on the American tea trade, allowing it to bypass colonial merchants and undercut the price of smuggled Dutch tea, which was widely consumed in the colonies. The Tea Act directly threatened the vested commercial interests of Boston’s wealthy merchants and smugglers, such as John Hancock, but this didn't keep him from organizing the revolt. And, it was the British reaction to the Boston Tea Party, not the event itself, that rallied Americans, many of whom, like George Washington, viewed the Tea Party as an act of vandalism by radicals rather than as a patriotic action. But, the colonists became united in opposition to the measures passed by the British government in 1774 to punish Boston for the Tea Party : the port of Boston was closed until damages were paid, colonial self-government in Massachusetts was annulled, and the hated Quartering Act, under which colonists had to house the 'occupying' British army, was expanded. Colonists referred to the actions as the “Intolerable Acts,” and they led to the formation of the first Continental Congress. “Tea parties” were held in other colonies during 1774. In New York, Annapolis and Charleston, South Carolina, patriots dumped tea off ships or burned it in protest. The financial loss was significant. The "tea partiers" tossed 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor -- enough to fill 18.5 million teabags. The present-day value of the destroyed tea is estimated at $1 million. ~~~~~ Why bring up the Boston Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts? Because what one side in a dispute sees as 'the next step' can be 'the final straw' for the other side. Barack Obama has been attacking America's Christianity for eight years -- crusaders compared to ISIS beheaders; refusal to help or take in Middle Eastern Christian victims of ISIS genocide; forcing abortion funding as part of Obamacare; redefining marriage despite massive opposition from the Christian majority and demands to leave the issue to the states; forcing Christian businesses to give credence to same-sex marriage; crushing efforts of the military to recognize Christian member rights -- all this while labeling Christians "suspicious of others not like them" and easing the way for Moslem immigration and the practice of Islam : “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world -- including in my own country." ~~~~~ Dear readers, we know Moslems didn't "shape" America and so we have let pass this and many Obama remarks about America and Christianity. But, the 'last straw' fell on our Christian faith as a nation Friday when Obama tried to bury it by imposing the inappropriate use of school bathrooms by transgenders. The immediate nationwide outrage felt a lot like a new American Tea Party. The next few days, we'll consider key aspects of Obama's "last straw" assault on America and Christianity, on the Constitution and state sovereignty, on statistics and common sense.