I heard just now from an Episcopal
priest in Oregon who was displeased with my latest Dallas Morning News
column. He displays the kind of thoughtful Christian analysis that keeps the Democratic Party winning
election after election. He writes:
Dear Rod,
If it weren’t that (1) a copy of your article “Cultural conservatives
actually represent the norm” appeared on a fascist Christian website called
Virtuosity, and (2) that you are in Dallas, Texas, I would have thought you
had lost your critical thinking skills, a.k.a “losing your mind.” But, I
feel better now to realize from where you speak: the land of the biggest
kooks and nuts on the right, the home of G.W. Bush, our Bible-believing
president, and god only knows how many other crackpots.
Yes, the people you glorify, the so-called “norm” folks may have been
shuttled to the polls this election by the Karl Roves and Dick Cheneys, but
you folks will not win this cultural battle. Common sense, critical
thinking, the demise of Christianity in this world, and the other
reactionary notions that you pull off will, for a time, rule the headlines,
but Buster, the gains made, as you relate the figures, in the last forty
years are going to win the day, and radical humanism and radical
humanitarianism will triumph. Just look how far we have come with abortion
and gay rights, especially the right to marry a member of the same gender if
one wishes to do so.
Get a life, pal, and look at the Sun!
Among the manifold delights of this epistle: a Christian priest using
“Bible-believing” as a pejorative modifier, and looking forward to “the
demise of Christianity in this world.” You really can’t make this stuff up.