Letters to the Editor
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Lack of Critical Thinking!
Great article! Only someone who completely lacks curiosity and critical thinking can keep on going the way Bush is. The evangelical religious right is completely blind to the mistakes they make.
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Awesome
I grew up in small town Minnesota as a Calvinist, and I haven't laughed this hard in a while. I lived in a town of 100 Dutch Calvinists, and we even went so far as to have t-shirts made that said "If you're not Dutch, you're not much." I have long since moved to the big bad Twin Cities and become agnostic like so many Lake Wobegonians before me.
I am proud to say however that my Dad, a devoted TULIP-ite, can't stand the Current Occupant or even our "I Love The Rich" Governor Pawlenty, both of whom he enthusiastically supported at one time.
This analogy was right on and HILARIOUS. Thanks Mr. Keillor!
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Smearing Calvinists???
>So, this smear on Calvinists is no more relevant than using a "Bush on a Crusade" mantra to smear modern day Catholics.
Why is it that "moderate Christians" seem so offended when liberals state the obvious? By allowing theocrats to hijack the perception of this country with regard to religion, these people did next to nothing. They stood by and let it happen. Now, after it is almost too late, there is some small attempt to raise the level of awareness with regard to the liberal religious, but it doesn't seem terribly effective.
But for some reason, they get all offended when their ox is being gored, when there has been virtually no organized effort by mainstream churches to oppose the actions of the right, who do these people attack? Liberals.
Of course, there is no effort to actually target those who are responsible for the bad pr. That would require more than whining about being misunderstood. And the whining is about as effective as the moderate religious get.
By sitting out the religious war which has been going on this country, the moderate church people now think that they are entitled to respect. Why? Just because they have sincere religious principles? Is that really a good excuse for years of inaction?
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tenuous connections
Keillor cleverly (but inelegantly) slams two different and unconnected things in this piece. Of course his criticisms about the uncritical arrogance of Bush are very true--is anyone really in doubt about that anymore? Also, Keilor's critique of TULIP Calvinism is, though an exageration, somewhat true. But there is no clear connection between them. Keilor doesn't even try to make the connection. He just juxtaposes them and assumes his audience will read causality between the lines, which from the look of these letters you have largely all done. But Bush is NOT a Calvinist. His tradition, Methodism, is about as far from Calvinism you can get and still be a protestant.
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GWB, justified sinner?
Calvinism presents such an easy target, a talent like mr Keillor would do well to retract his normally admirable barbs, and insert them - well, somewhere more congenially challenging. I suppose it is mildly encouraging that in this piece, at least, Calvinism does not provide the foil for a coming-of-age piece, with Dick Cheney as black-frock-coated village elder. Too hard to imagine him, in leisure hours, out of his orange quail-shooting gear, perhaps...
Even given the clear propensity of the various protestantisms to morph into something new, unusual & virulent under the heady influence of new world air, it needs intellect, imagination and some effort to become properly infected by Calvinism, given it's current epidemiology (hardly widespread).
There's another problem with GK's dour views regarding the Kirk, to boot. Historically, Calvinism has been consistently & fundamentally pro-democratic. Buchanan, close to Knox (and therefore, presumably, the US version of Calvinism), wrote: "The people... have the right to confer royal authority on whoever they wish". More to the point, there is a specific duty to resist tyranny; this is the precisely the thing that gave rise to tension with the Stuarts. The chosen president rules, like these, as if by divine right, or at the very least by executive privilege.
What a pity, then, there is no covenant against him.
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vondo @ 6:12: I'm not being adversarial.
I heard what you wrote and wanted to discern your fair and sincere 'gripe.'
The Institution of the Church can get a "wee-bit" pompous or a "tiny bit" self righteousness, without knowing it. To remain salaried and loyal to a 'institutional hierarchy,' must take much skill. The best job done that I know of in 'ecclesiastical' stuff would be a earth "theology" in the non-Creed vein of a "excommunicated" Mathew Fox.
I'm only a "tiny bit" theologically read. But the historian Martin E. Marty, does amaze me. I once signed up for a several day PA. Kirkridge 'treat,' to hear M.E.M. speak about the...
...O 'stranger' who wanders into towns and possesses a non-Creed, non-infatuation with church attendance....but, has a hard to pin-down, spirituality.
The enrollment was low, and because of lack-of-interest, the Talk got cancelled. Shucks. I attended a "Fellowship of Reconciliation" shop. Now, I got a Non-Violent Trainer Certificate." What can one do with THAT?
"Roll over rover. And before You get tossed a blueberry pancake, jack, say "ruff." That's right, the wars and lies make Life seem rough.
vondo with a big "V" for peace and victory at our end of a Life....
....This story (~*~) you reminded me of is true. It's too early, yet today, to accuse me of sipping Pinot (no eating the peanuts, either) Noir.
My point: I knew a Calvinistic scholar who studied at Gordon Conwell Seminary, outside of Boston) Graham H. played a guitar, and wore rumsfeld "lookin'glasses" that matched Beatles's sing-song, spectacular Guy, and his Life, too, ended in a shot...tragedy...
...I have a photo of Calvinist-versed young Graham H. holding my infant daughter from a visit (Vietnam veteran friend)at my home. Graham was in extreme debt, and the lady he loved could NOT commit her life to him because of school-loan-debt, and a general discouraged 'air' from G.H. that exuded from being downcast-poor.
Sad, but, with a Calvinistic guarantee (the Select- no-doom-or -elect-salvation?) of all the theological kook-0-huh...gets confusing.
Good 'ole GH shot his self in the head! "Why?" His mother said the memories of war tormented him...
vondo. I not versed about theology. I can't even defend my self very well when I get jailed in a savings bank...
...The crooked D.A. sure ain't fair and I question if the judge wasn't looped on Merlot mixed with Pinot Noir's....before court...
...I wanted a people-trial. No? Why? OH, Ah! Where is Guy Noir...the private eye...a Guy Noir in quest for the answers to Life's perpetual secret and endless mysteries...
...ask Guy Noir, and get the followers of the "Occupant' out of politics.
Respect to vondo.
Thanks vondo. We're all HERE to learn a "tiny bit" from each other, every day.