Tim: Sorry to hear that Milbank misquoted you. (If it’s any consolation, you have company–and since the Post issued a correction that time, I assume they will do the same this time.) But the notion that liberals are waging a “war against Christians”–the theme, or at least title, of the conference that Milbank covered and that you spoke at–strikes me as deeply mistaken. They don’t think they’re waging war against Christians, and many of them think of themselves as Christians. Even if you grant the premise that social liberals aren’t “true” Christians, which I don’t grant, the most you could say is that some people, including some people who mistakenly think of themselves as Christians, are inadvertently waging a metaphorical war against Christians. By the time you’ve qualified the thesis enough to bring it in the ballpark of truth, you don’t have much of a thesis left.

And there’s at least one other problem. Tom DeLay brought up the injustice of abortion on demand. That is, as his own words suggest, an injustice to unborn children. Christians who object to abortion should not think of themselves as its victims. At its best, the pro-life movement is a struggle for civil rights–primarily the civil rights of unborn children; not the supposed civil right of conservative Christians to see their policy views prevail.