I see The Houn has declared women equal to men. Who might have guessed that this pundit of poppycock was also a radical? Next thing we know, he'll be arguing that genocide is indecent.
Seriously, could he have picked a less controversial topic?
While I'm sure I could put together a more nuanced, thorough, and and honest explication on the Biblical view of gender equality, I would rather just say that I believe men and women are equal and feel Ezra Klein's self-satisfaction wash down my throat. Then again, I'm not especially interested in getting my back patted by a bunch of smug, vomit-licking liberals, so I'm not going to say anything about it.
This post will be fairly short. I don't like politics. Not even a little bit. So it's no surprise that I hate the use of something I cherish (religion) to bolster pet political positions. The Christian Right is an easy target, but they're only the most vocal and publicly unlikeable culprits. As far as appeals to religion go, Ed Kilgore's asinine assertion that Jesus was a "blatant redistributionist" is easily as egregious and irresponsible as anything ever said by Sarah Palin. Both sides do it, and both sides believe they are right to do it, because both sides house a great number of well-meaning, qualified, intelligent fools. Whether using Jesus as an example of good American citizenship, a working-class champion, or some quasi-divine bon mot generator, appeals to his authority work. Like Gandhi and MLK, Jesus is conveniently quotable, and rattling off a phrase from John's Gospel will win all the same points.
I wish my position was more intellectual, but in truth it's as visceral as can be. The first amendment doesn't inspire any strong loyalty in me. I believe in Church/State separation, but that feeling springs only out of my deep feelings for religion. The Bible, the Gospels, the name of Jesus - these things carry real, sacred weight with me. They always will, even if my faith finally disintegrates one day. Politics sully most things, but there is something truly corrosive and profane about the interplay between politics and religion. It hurts to hear the name of Jesus spoken at a campaign rally. The more they say the name, the less they mean it. To rip on Johnny Cash, "they say they want the kingdom, but they don't want God in it." As a rule, any time a politician or pundit begins a sentence with "Jesus said," it's best to tune out.
Trying to put Jesus in the context of contemporary American politics misses the entire point of Jesus. Whatever Jesus meant when he said, "the kingdom of God is at hand," it had nothing to do with November.
