{"id":18498,"date":"2013-10-17T19:43:26","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T23:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=18498"},"modified":"2013-10-17T19:43:26","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T23:43:26","slug":"postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Postcards from the culture wars (10.17)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>\u201cHalf of America seems to be entirely enviable, movies, books, TV, arts, liberal democratic institutions, great centers of learning and research, gay marriage, social freedoms, etc. etc.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/?p=507\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The other half does seem to be, well, nuts<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIf you want to know\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/scottpaeth.typepad.com\/main\/2013\/10\/theology-and-the-government-shutdown.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">what the early marks of religious totalitarianism look like<\/a>, these are your indicators.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIn chambers, the ACLU alleges that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/rs\/2013\/09\/27\/mississppi-judge-ejects-sikh-from-court-for-refusing-to-remove-that-rag-from-his-head\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Judge Rimes told Singh that he wouldn\u2019t be allowed to reenter the courtroom unless he removed \u2018that rag<\/a>,\u2019 referring to his Dastar, from his head.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cImagine for a moment this kind of wholesale abuse at an Islamic-run program.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jlake.com\/2013\/10\/12\/links-link-salad-walks-along-and-wonders\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Do you think the press would forget to mention the religious connection?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2013\/10\/CW.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-18499\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2013\/10\/CW-300x190.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\"><\/a>\u201cWe have\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nextgenerasianchurch.com\/2013\/10\/13\/an-open-letter-to-the-evangelical-church-from-the-asian-american-community\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">imagined and hoped for such a different future for the church<\/a>, one in which racial harmony would not be an illusion, but a tangible reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cAm I going to alter the course by the latest utterance of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/experimentaltheology.blogspot.com\/2013\/10\/will-campbell-jesus-was-radical.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">some institutional pimp who appears to spend most of his time blow drying his hair and in his free time dismisses some of his finest teachers and scholars<\/a>, seeking to make robots and handmaidens of a once-gifted faculty?\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cEvangelicals and Tea Party Republicans share and are consumed by skepticism about climate science \u2014 to the point where\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/rs\/2013\/10\/05\/to-understand-the-shutdown-you-have-to-grasp-the-mindset-of-the-republican-base\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">they mistrust scientists before they begin to speak<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cLet me be clear: <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/sports\/2013\/10\/10\/2768481\/rick-reilly-misquoted-father-law-defend-redskins\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The racial slur \u2018redskins\u2019 is not okay with me<\/a>. It\u2019s never going to be okay with me. It\u2019s inappropriate, damaging and racist.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s probably a concept that\u2019s too much for you to handle right now, when <a href=\"http:\/\/nativeappropriations.com\/2013\/10\/open-letter-to-the-pocahotties-the-annotated-version.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">all you wanted to do was dress up as a PocaHottie for Halloween<\/a>, but it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cBut to our knowledge and based on our investigation, <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/lgbt\/2013\/10\/16\/2787201\/eager-conservative-media-demonize-transgender-youth\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">none of those things have actually happened<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThey write <a href=\"http:\/\/joemygod.blogspot.com\/2013\/09\/sen-john-mccain-defends-gays-and-pussy.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">laws to codify bigotry against people whose sexual orientation they condemn<\/a>. They throw the members of a punk rock band in jail for the crime of being provocative and vulgar and for having the audacity to protest President Putin\u2019s rule.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a good case of the church hierarchy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.religionnews.com\/2013\/10\/07\/laity-push-back-catholic-schools-fire-gay-teachers\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">undone by their highest ideals<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s not just that these culturally threatened folk embrace their politics like it\u2019s a religion. The actual religious outlook many of them espouse \u2014 whether they are conservative fundamentalist Protestants or neo-ultramontane Catholics \u2014 has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonmonthly.com\/political-animal-a\/2013_10\/constitutional_conservatism_as047387.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">imported secular political perspectives into their faith<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cOn [Oct. 14] in 1979 the first gay rights march on Washington took place, with about 100,000 demonstrators.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/7454\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">I was one of them<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt may be decent advice, and it may help to a point, but it does not deal with the heart or the source of the problem: <a href=\"http:\/\/rhrealitycheck.org\/article\/2013\/10\/17\/we-have-a-rape-problem-first-step-we-have-to-admit-it\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the boys who rape<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWhich is to say,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/rs\/2013\/09\/03\/sexual-availability-isnt-a-thing-consent-is\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">there is no such thing as \u2018sexual availability.\u2019<\/a>\u00a0There is consent, sure, but without it, a person is not available, full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.complex.com\/pop-culture\/2012\/11\/50-most-racist-political-cartoons\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The 50 Most Racist Political Cartoons<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/clotureclub.com\/tea-party-insult-generator\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tea-Party Insult Generator<\/a>: From actual insults posted on John Boehner\u2019s Facebook wall.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eric Idle on American politics; “the early marks of religious totalitarianism;” racist judges; Asian-American evangelicals speaking up; Will Campbell on Al Mohler; why ESPN’s Rick Reilly is not an honest journalist; “Tea-Party Insult Generator” uses actual insults posted on John Boehner’s Facebook page; and more …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-warfare"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Postcards from the culture wars (10.17)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eric Idle on American politics; "the early marks of religious totalitarianism;" racist judges; Asian-American evangelicals speaking up; Will Campbell on Al Mohler; why ESPN's Rick Reilly is not an honest journalist; "Tea-Party Insult Generator" uses actual insults posted on John Boehner's Facebook page; and more ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Postcards from the culture wars (10.17)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eric Idle on American politics; "the early marks of religious totalitarianism;" racist judges; Asian-American evangelicals speaking up; Will Campbell on Al Mohler; why ESPN's Rick Reilly is not an honest journalist; "Tea-Party Insult Generator" uses actual insults posted on John Boehner's Facebook page; and more ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-17T23:43:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2013\/10\/CW-300x190.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/\",\"name\":\"Postcards from the culture wars (10.17)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-17T23:43:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-17T23:43:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Eric Idle on American politics; 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hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Postcards from the culture wars (10.17)","description":"Eric Idle on American politics; \"the early marks of religious totalitarianism;\" racist judges; Asian-American evangelicals speaking up; Will Campbell on Al Mohler; why ESPN's Rick Reilly is not an honest journalist; \"Tea-Party Insult Generator\" uses actual insults posted on John Boehner's Facebook page; and more ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Postcards from the culture wars (10.17)","og_description":"Eric Idle on American politics; \"the early marks of religious totalitarianism;\" racist judges; Asian-American evangelicals speaking up; Will Campbell on Al Mohler; why ESPN's Rick Reilly is not an honest journalist; \"Tea-Party Insult Generator\" uses actual insults posted on John Boehner's Facebook page; and more ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2013-10-17T23:43:26+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2013\/10\/CW-300x190.jpg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/","name":"Postcards from the culture wars (10.17)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-10-17T23:43:26+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-17T23:43:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Eric Idle on American politics; \"the early marks of religious totalitarianism;\" racist judges; Asian-American evangelicals speaking up; Will Campbell on Al Mohler; why ESPN's Rick Reilly is not an honest journalist; \"Tea-Party Insult Generator\" uses actual insults posted on John Boehner's Facebook page; and more ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/10\/17\/postcards-from-the-culture-wars-10-17\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Postcards from the culture wars (10.17)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}