Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Taking Things Personally
The delightful column to which I am about to link you is not my find; that honor belongs to the Farmer, who is busy tending to more earthly matters, (of the daily bread, production of variety), and thus asked if I might wish to blog upon it.
The intriguing title of the column by Tom Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post is "A girl gave Rove a bloody nose," which refers to a story Mr. Rove told as part of a commencement talk he gave at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Mr. Blackburn gives us the AP version of that story:
Mr. Blackburn then goes on to comment:
Mr. Blackburn takes what Mr. Rove was doing personally, and in the process of explaining why, gives us a stirring defense of the separation of state and religion.
Read the whole thing here, you'll be glad you did.
While we are speaking of a certain evangelical, fundamentalist approach to the Bible, the one that tends to fetishize the Book of Revelations, let me recommend for any of you who haven't had a chance to follow-up the other copious recommendations you've probably encountered during you're travels in blogovia, Fred Clark's brilliant "Left Behind" series at The Slacktivist, which, with wit and brilliance analyzes the Tim LaHaye ultra bestseller novels which spin out narratives of modern life in which the Rapture is an ever present reality: Fred's work is not only important to understanding the world view of a highly influential portion of the evangelical community, but is also invaluable if, like myself, you were ever traumatized by a too early exposure to "Revelations," (in my case, a neighboring family close to my family, genuinely lovely people who wished to spread the "good news" of how one could be included in the Rapture, but which had the opposite effect on me when informed that it was not certain that all of my family would be included and I realized that I preferred, in that case, to be left behind), an outcome you can insure by patterning your life after any of the "bad" characters in the Left Behind series. Here's a hint: If you read Corrente, you probably don't have to worry; you'll be here for the apocalypse.
Fred also has an interesting "take" on the Rick Perlstein Village Voice article previously blogged by Atrios, so interesting that Perlstein visited to add his own comment to it
While you're there, check out this sharply worded post about Bishop Michael Sheridan of the Colorado Roman Catholic Diocese; I doubt that any secularist would dare be as cutting as a religionist like Fred feels free to be. And don't miss this lovely, and somewhat surprising, I'll admit, post about C.S. Lewis's view of theocracy.
The intriguing title of the column by Tom Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post is "A girl gave Rove a bloody nose," which refers to a story Mr. Rove told as part of a commencement talk he gave at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Mr. Blackburn gives us the AP version of that story:
"At the age of 9, I put a Nixon bumper sticker on my wire basket in the front of my bicycle. Unfortunately, the little Catholic girl down the street was a couple of years and about 20 pounds on me. She was for Kennedy. When she saw me on my bike with my bumper sticker for Nixon, she put me on the ground, flattened me out and gave me a bloody nose."
Mr. Blackburn then goes on to comment:
That's supposed to be a cute story about the man who enjoys being called "Bush's brain" bleeding for Republican Richard Nixon at the age of 9. But why did his assailant have to be a Catholic? Is the implication supposed to be that no one else would stick up for a Catholic running for president? It is, despite the plain historical fact that John F. Kennedy wouldn't have been elected if his votes came only from Catholics.
But Mr. Rove's bully had to be a Catholic, not a generic American. She was undoubtedly Irish, which would make her a brawler, although Mr. Rove didn't spell it out. With that audience, he didn't have to; the Liberty graduates could fill in the blank.
The point I take from the story -- even though Mr. Rove didn't intend it -- is that at a tender age, Mr. Rove was attracted to the kind of politician who leaves office one step ahead of the impeachment posse. For that point, the girl didn't have to be Catholic. For Mr. Rove's intended point, though, she had to be Catholic because the politics he preaches and practices is "us against them," and there weren't likely to be many Catholic "thems" in the Liberty audience.
Mr. Blackburn takes what Mr. Rove was doing personally, and in the process of explaining why, gives us a stirring defense of the separation of state and religion.
Read the whole thing here, you'll be glad you did.
While we are speaking of a certain evangelical, fundamentalist approach to the Bible, the one that tends to fetishize the Book of Revelations, let me recommend for any of you who haven't had a chance to follow-up the other copious recommendations you've probably encountered during you're travels in blogovia, Fred Clark's brilliant "Left Behind" series at The Slacktivist, which, with wit and brilliance analyzes the Tim LaHaye ultra bestseller novels which spin out narratives of modern life in which the Rapture is an ever present reality: Fred's work is not only important to understanding the world view of a highly influential portion of the evangelical community, but is also invaluable if, like myself, you were ever traumatized by a too early exposure to "Revelations," (in my case, a neighboring family close to my family, genuinely lovely people who wished to spread the "good news" of how one could be included in the Rapture, but which had the opposite effect on me when informed that it was not certain that all of my family would be included and I realized that I preferred, in that case, to be left behind), an outcome you can insure by patterning your life after any of the "bad" characters in the Left Behind series. Here's a hint: If you read Corrente, you probably don't have to worry; you'll be here for the apocalypse.
Fred also has an interesting "take" on the Rick Perlstein Village Voice article previously blogged by Atrios, so interesting that Perlstein visited to add his own comment to it
While you're there, check out this sharply worded post about Bishop Michael Sheridan of the Colorado Roman Catholic Diocese; I doubt that any secularist would dare be as cutting as a religionist like Fred feels free to be. And don't miss this lovely, and somewhat surprising, I'll admit, post about C.S. Lewis's view of theocracy.
