October 7, 2009, here on slacktivist:Â Inevitable
Observe Christianity Today, the moderate mainstream of evangelical America. Draw a point to represent that perspective. Now observe Dr. James Dobson, broadcasting his right-wing nuttiness on more than a thousand radio stations. Draw another point there. (Those two points aren’t that close together, but we’re not concerned here with distance as much as with direction.) Dobson’s ultimatum led Sen. John McCain to select abdicated Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin quickly became a revered spokesperson for Christian conservatives. So draw a third point there for Sarah Palin.
Now we have three points, so now we can be sure. Get a ruler and connect the dots. Start with CT and keep going past Dobson, past Palin, and see where it takes you. This is the trajectory. This is the direction in which things are headed. Dobson looks like a parody of CT and Palin looks like a parody of Dobson, but these aren’t parodies, simply slightly more extreme, exaggerated forms of the same ideas, further down the line.
And if one continues along that same line, then one eventually has to try to rewrite the Bible. It may be a bit surprising that the folks at Conservapedia are so enthusiastically transparent about the project — that they have so few qualms about editing, redacting and altering their alleged scripture so that it no longer condemns their ideology and their idol. But it’s not surprising that they’ve come to this point.
This point is on the line and following that line leads, inescapably, to this point. It was unavoidable.
So I want to take a closer look at this project. It’s ridiculous and extreme and brazenly blasphemous and colossally illiterate, but this is the future of the religious right. This is what’s next. Don’t think of it as a point further out along an ideological spectrum, think of it as a point further along in the inevitable chronology of American evangelicalism.
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