In a Washington Post article on the "spiritual struggle" of Democrats (about which more later), Jim VandeHei quotes the DLC's Ed Kilgore on the importance of religious language:
"Natural use of scriptural language and allegories connects with people of faith," Kilgore said.
A week earlier, L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in occupied Iraq, provided a fine example of how not to do this. In response to the latest audio tape purportedly carrying a message in the voice of Saddam Hussein, Bremer said:
"This is a voice from the wilderness here."
Bremer apparently meant this to be dismissive. But the allusion, for those who have ears to hear, is to the third chapter of Luke, who is in turn quoting the prophet Isaiah:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Luke applied Isaiah's description to John the Baptizer, whom he portrayed as a messenger and forerunner of the coming Messianic kingdom.
It is, to say the least, a bit odd to hear this phrase echoed in a reference to Saddam Hussein.
This minor gaffe is of little consequence. As goof-ups go, it doesn't rank anywhere near as high as, say, Bremer's disastrous disbanding of the Iraqi army. But it's probably best if the official in charge of the American occupation of Iraq would refrain from portraying that nation's former tyrant as a prophetic voice for justice.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In