Letters to the Editor
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Like the article,
but I disagree with this conclusion:
The 2006 midterm purge of congressional Republicans and the accompanying surge of anti-Bush sentiment...have diminished the odds that Patrick Henry students will make an immediate impact on the political landscape.
On the contrary, I think the shape-shifting that Rosin describes will make Patrick Henry graduates even more likely to have an impact on the political landscape. They'll be the new moderates, the people that the 30 percenters look to when they're looking for new candidates who can sell themselves successfully to right-leaning independents. The right wing may look like they're reeling right now, but they won't be down long, and these types will be at the forefront of their next revival.
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Religiously Incorrect
Why, I wonder, are religious dogmatists of all stripes seemingly entitled to an intellectually coddled existence that prevents 'decent' people from questioning, berating, and ridiculing their absurd beliefs?
Just because someone claims a religious basis for talking snakes, evil apples, magical stones, or other fairy tales does NOT, in my opinion, entitle them to my respect. So you believe that Anne Frank is in hell while her Nazi executioner, who may have found christ on his deathbed, is in heaven? You believe that the crusaders, who were merciless slaughterers of thousands of innocent civilians, could have possibly made it to that blissful, magical place in the sky? Well, then you are just a pathetic dogmatist with an irrational, disgusting, and outright repulisve belief system. You get the same respect as a Branch Davidian, a Haley's Comet Suicide Cult participant, and a "Moon is Made of Cheese" believer ....NONE.
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Give me liberty, or give me a break...
A few things jumped out at me in this review...
to upend the conventional wisdom that seizing worldly power requires compromising spiritual principles. He doesn't want "adapters who bend to the will of the mainstream," Rosin asserts, but "shape-shifters who can move between two worlds with their essential natures intact."
1) Conventional wisdom? How about them contravening biblical wisdom -- "render unto caesar the things that are caesar's..." -- by trying to seize worldly power, they are entirely compromising whatever spiritual principles they claim to hold.
You can be a good Christian, or a good politician, but not both at once. And let's not pretend otherwise -- the politician embodies the worldly; only in America do people think they can have it both ways -- pious AND corrupt; holy AND venal; righteous AND ruthless; sacred AND profane -- that's exactly why the Founding Fathers wanted a separation of church and state, not the unification of it. On one hand, you end up with a corrupt, autocratic official Church resulting in a morally bankrupt religion; on the other hand, you end up with a zealous, theocratic State ala Oliver Cromwell, lining up society's heretics and executing them;
2) Shape-shifters, eh? Creepy way to put it, makes me think they're breeding elite little lycanthropes at Patrick Henry College, or else pod people. The real moral of their story is that, Christianist or not, it's nice to be an elite in America -- clearly these little Pharisees are being groomed to wield the lash, not feel the brunt of it. Nice to see the GOP tending to their next generation of theocrats, schooling the little shape-shifters in the art of rulership ("honest AND deceitful," "merciful AND cruel");
3) I hate that they named themselves after Patrick Henry, who was an anti-federalist and who would be aghast at the drive for concentrated, unchallenged state power that is at the heart of the reactionary movement -- Henry was instrumental in pressing for the adoption of the Bill of Rights, that pesky little document that the GOP considers a stumbling block to its drive for unchecked power.
Even though the GOP is reeling at the moment, their ongoing ideological crusade (see also "Culture War") to take over the government and the country will continue, even when they're out of power. If anything, that'll do miracles for them, by removing the burden of administration, accountability, and responsibility from them, will let them focus on fire and brimstone and shape-shifting their next platform to hoodwink new generations.
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You GO!, mrfocus!
There's nobody--and I mean nobody--at Salon speaking up for the poor persecuted unreligious. It's as if Joan Walsh is running a camp meeting, isn't it?
(Really--I may be in agreement with your religious [or irreligious] beliefs [or non-beliefs] but non-believers' claims of persecution at the hands of the religious elite are getting old and rhetorically shopworn.)
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So depressing
I am a collateral descendant of Patrick Henry. He was a cousin to the man I am actually descended from. I am really disgusted that this man's name is being defamed by the Christianist totalitarians. I must also, unfortunately, post anonymously since I am in a position that could be compromised if employers figured out who I am. I have, after all, given away my last name.
Mrfocus has written the following:
Just because someone claims a religious basis for talking snakes, evil apples, magical stones, or other fairy tales does NOT, in my opinion, entitle them to my respect. So you believe that Anne Frank is in hell while her Nazi executioner, who may have found christ on his deathbed, is in heaven? You believe that the crusaders, who were merciless slaughterers of thousands of innocent civilians, could have possibly made it to that blissful, magical place in the sky? Well, then you are just a pathetic dogmatist with an irrational, disgusting, and outright repulisve belief system. You get the same respect as a Branch Davidian, a Haley's Comet Suicide Cult participant, and a "Moon is Made of Cheese" believer ....NONE.
The only problem with this particular attitude is its blindness to history. These Christianists have been laying the groundwork to take over the country for over a quarter of a century. If they succeed, such ideas as you have just espoused could easily lead to dire consequences for you and your family. And, even more importantly, such an attitude can help enable them to power.
What to do? Take these people very seriously, and work to prevent them from taking power. Dismissing them only makes their job easier.