Christian fundamentalists have recently turned up the volume on their claims of being persecuted. It is a strange claim for a group that, on the other hand, also claims to hold such power and influence in government. If, in fact, the religious right is being persecuted, it's well deserved and about time. For all who hold non-Evangelical views and have been loudly sentenced to hell by the Bible thumpers, the desire to create a back lash has started, and it will only get stronger and more blatant. After almost two decades now of the fundamentalist assault on American society and government, in which they have tried to impose a theocracy on us all, people are finally fed up and are fighting back. Probably the most damaging backlash is in the comedy. The most recent is the country gospel song widely circulated on the web and entitled "God Will F*^% You Up." The song pokes fun at hell fire fundamentalism with the message: "O sinner do not stray from the straight and narrow way or God will surely F*^% you up." The song comes on the heels of the national phenomenon of 25 year old Bobby Henderson's "Pastafarianism." The tongue-in-cheek religion, initiated to make fun of dogmatic "Intelligent Design" adherents, holds that the universe was created by a "Flying Spaghetti Monster" (FSM). The spoof first surfaced when Henderson wrote a letter insisting that the Kansas schools teach children that the FSM created the universe. It became an over night internet phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of readers. Growing in popularity is the comedic Landover Baptist Church website that, among other things, makes fun of the Evangelical "Former Homosexual" ministries with it's own "Former Negro Ministry." There also some very serious backlash developments. A flood of books fighting back against fundamentalist politics and apocalyptic-based world diplomacy are surfacing. They include books such as Killing for Life:The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics by Carol Mason, and A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America by Michael Barkun. Some are backing away from being closely identified with the more radical Evangelical causes. After a federal judge ruled that "Intelligent Design" is religion posing as science and can't be taught as science in public school, some political leaders, including some fundamentalist-hugging Republicans began to distance themselves from the issue. Some Republicans were also surprised by the backlash against Congress becoming involved in the Teri Schiavo case. Supporters of peace in the middle east have expressed dismay at Evangelical efforts to subvert the road map to peace there in the interest of propelling the area toward what they believe is the ultimate final battle at Armageddon and the second coming of Christ. Some of us who grew up fundamentalist and know them well are convinced Evangelical Christians won't be happy with America until we are all "born again, filled with the Holy Ghost, and speaking in the heavenly unknown language of glossolalia." They also won't be happy until every one of us is linked up with some "prayer partner" who keeps tabs on our comings and goings, and reports us to God and the Pastor if we stray from the straight and narrow. We have all been persecuted by fundamentalist religious fanatics long enough and they are now going to be on the receiving end of ridicule for awhile because of it. They should all be as good a sports about it as we have all been for 20 years.