Of course we've seen the Rick Perry ad, entitled "Strong," where the Texas Governor believed something was wrong in the country when "gays can serve openly in the military" while children aren't allowed to pray in school or celebrate Christmas.
It's typical cultural war stuff done by a candidate who is desperately appealing to his Christianist base. Andrew Sullivan has his usual impeccable commentary on it.
That is not why I write this.
I'm concerned with how some of us on the left reacting to it. There is a nasty tendency among us to use the nonsense utter by Christianists and expand it to a vitriolic condemnation of all religion, often accompanied with jest in the tone of "look at those freaks."
Consider this video:
I don't think those on the left who engage in this realize the kind of damage that reaction results in. I believe that one can be a devout Christian and a liberal at the same time. Yet often I think that such Christians wind up with the GOP and Conservatism because they are left with the impression, based upon the left wing response to religious right rhetoric, that the left consists of people who hate religion and hold religious people in contempt.
A better response from the left would a video done in earnest where a person dressed in the same way as Perry would have looked in the camera and said something like this:
"I'm not ashamed to love Religious Liberty
"As Americans, we may or may not sit in the pews on Sunday, but we all know that we have the right to express or not express our religious conviction. It is a right given by the founders. It belongs to me as an American. Rick Perry's opinion on faith is neither warranted, nor necessary, nor means anything to me.
"One of the great things about being an American is Religious Liberty. It has made us strong. And it continues to make us strong today.
"I'm a proud American and I approve this message."
tyler,
ReplyDeletethis is Blake and as you know i am jesus christ returning and all that jazz including a bunch that will be revealed over time....
you are the reincarnation of St. Augustine, so you also have a bob dylan song written after you, so.... cool.
anyway after the apocalypse i wanna get you published... i'm gonna have infinit resources to play with i'd figure.. but whatever... i wanna contribute to good rock and roll history, and i want you to do it. i've been getting into the band as of late...
the "revealing" of "the apocalypse" is that i was just trying to teach westerners eastern religion. jesus is actually "ajita maitreya" by eastern figuring and by my extensive mystical experiences (which include several lightning strikes including some really "fly" ones in New Orleans) i will become a full-fledged eagle-scout buddha in the year 2074 and will die moments after in contrast to the life and death of sakyamuni buddha in india, back in 'nam...
so in conclusion, i've been reading your work on-line and am impressed and enamored you've become a local history prof - and implore you to stay as sharp as a razor...
your mission, shall you choose to accept it will involve being paid to go interview rock and roll heroes in order to write rock and roll history... although in a lot of ways you may be better off just becoming a professor with self-respect (and a secret stash of the band vinyl) and not fuck with the lester bangs auto-suicide route.... maybe i'll just give you free tickets to the show and get your student loans forgiven...
please start to accept and prepare for the post-revealing of the identity of the return of the creatures ghost /CHRIST times... the other night in Viroqua, WI my telekinetic presence knocked out power to the whole town and jim witnessed me being struck by lightning in a starry cloudless sky several time in-sync (lol) with key points in our drunken all -night discussion and fun time...
in the words of hunter S....
"things are gonna get weird....."