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As parochial, exclusionary, and yes, racist as they often were, the southern preachers of my youth also preached peace, self-reliance, steadfastness in the right whether the cameras were rolling or not, and above all, charity.
The Jews I knew didn't all carry violins, and weren't all doctors and lawyers, but they believed in universal education, fair pay for working men, justice for all citizens, and duty to the community. They built hospitals, libraries, and academies or music and art, supported and were even martyred in the cause of civil rights and of labor, and taught me things no one else could or would teach me at the time.
How did John Hagee and Joseph Lieberman come to represent these two traditions? The answer is that they don't. The hell they're from is real enough, yet a fair analysis of how its gates happen to be open as wide as they are in the present day is, whether we like it or not, an indictment of us all.
Thanks again, Glenn, for trying to shine a bit of light on what we're actually being asked to sanctify.
