Joe Klein: Hoist by His Own Petard

Time magazine’s Joe Klein has been under fire in the liberal blogosphere for deriding “left-wing extremists” without naming names — or, in the case of Atrios, naming names without providing evidence.  Early on in the brouhaha, Klein was challenged to back up his claims, and he responded by drawing up lists of some of the beliefs that he thinks constitute extremism on both the left and the right.

These lists contain a juicy contradiction on religion.  In laying out the criteria for extreme lefties, Klein assails those who “dismissively mock people of faith, especially those who are opposed to abortion and gay marriage.”  Then in his list of the attributes of right-wing extremists, Klein proceeds to do exactly that, condemning people who:

• Believe there are inferior religions
• Believe… that Israel is absolutely wonderful, and that when it achieves full dominion over its Biblical lands — especially Judea and Samaria — a great battle will be fought and Jesus will descend from the clouds
• Believe that homosexuals are condemned to hell
• Don’t believe in evolution but do believe in social Darwinism

Notice not just the assertions, but also the tone.  Isn’t Klein “dismissively mocking” people who hold religious beliefs that, truth be told, are not uncommon?  Thus, isn’t Klein behaving a lot like the left-wing extremists he derides?

Surely, tens (if not hundreds) of millions of Americans believe Christianity is the one truth faith — and, therefore, that “there are inferior religions.”  Millions of Americans also accept the book of Revelation as a strict and literal prediction of future events, believe God created our planet in seven days, and see homosexuality as a truly egregious sin.  Agree or not, these views abound.

Is this wide swath of America really “extremist”?  If so, what meaning does “extremist” even have?  And either way, is Klein’s contemptuous tone really necessary?

For a couple of years now, there has been a debate between liberal bloggers and people like Jim Wallis over whether there really is a “secular left” worth criticizing.  Looks like Joe Klein has unwittingly but clearly put himself in that category.  And liberal bloggers have been happy to nail him for it.

Kudos to Matt Yglesias for being, as far as I know, the first to identify Klein’s slander against millions of religious voters.  Kudos also to Atrios for supporting Matt on the point that religious exclusivity really only becomes a political concern when it’s a pretext for exclusivity in public policy, and to Pastor Dan for pointing out that while Klein is wrong to dismiss conservative religious folks as extremists, there aren’t as many of them as is commonly believed.

Update: The first version of this post had the word “Hoisted” rather than “Hoist” in the title.  I thought both were OK, but after reading comment number #1 below and doing a quick Google search, I gather that one is right and one is wrong!

Later update: Atrios links here and makes a fair point: Christians who consider their religion to be the “one true faith” are actually more intolerant than so-called “militant” atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins who proselytize their unbelief.  Many of those Christians, after all, think the atheists are consigned to eternal damnation; the atheists just think the Christians are morons. 

I agree that both sides are intolerant in their way.  That’s not a value judgment on either side; it’s just the truth.  But if we’re going to offer a calculus by which to measure intolerance, tone surely must factor in.  And though Dawkins, et al, don’t think conservative Christians are going to hell, they sure provide a stiff dose of nastiness in the here and now.

Of course, people of faith can get nasty, too.   I’d much rather deal with the supposed intolerance of a fair-minded atheist than spend 10 seconds locked in a room with, say, Bill Donohue, the Energizer bunny of bile.  Maybe Dawkins and Donohue can settle things on Celebrity Deathmatch while the rest of us try to carve out decent lives for ourselves in the real world.