Today’s Reading List – July 11, 2007
Much as it pains me, I must rise to the defense of Hillary Clinton here. A story of this type would just be better left unwritten.
I was referring to the NYTimes profile of HRC's religiousity. As if on cue, mere moments after I hit the post button, Cal Thomas made my point for me. Thomas rather indelicately attacks HRC's particular brand of Christian faith:
About the accuracy of Scripture, Sen. Clinton serves up theological mush: "The whole Bible gives you a glimpse of God and God's desire for a personal relationship (good, so far), but we can't possibly understand every way God is communicating with us. I've always felt that people who try to shoehorn in their cultural and social understandings of the time into the Bible might be actually missing the larger point."
That is precisely the point of liberal Christianity, to which Sen. Clinton subscribes.
Thomas justifies his trip to theonerdville this way:
The quality and depth of one's relationship with God should be personal and beyond the judgment of others, unless one is running for president and chooses to talk about it as part of a campaign plan to win the election.
Which should be an object lesson for Governor Romney. Please recall that yesterday we also linked to a USNEWS piece in which Romney claims to be considering addressing The Question in some fashion. In so doing he would be granting permission for this kind of discussion about what is the "true" gospel, and if Thomas' piece is hard-hitting, imagine what such a piece about Mormon doctrine would be like? Not pretty, not pretty at all.
In the original NYTimes piece, Clinton is attempting to explain her religiousity because it is, as the piece opens with, under attack from some circles. As I said yesterday, Clinton's faith should not be under attack, but it is important to note that all she really accomplished with her defense is to take the discussion in a direction that it just has no business going. Should the discussion contiunue on these lines, Geraghty's "distraction" that we also discussed, and largely dismissed, yesterday would become a genuine and problematic reality.
Thomas, who should know better, only makes the downward spiral accelerate.
You know, this makes me wonder if HRC is not trying to force Romney into a corner – "I showed you mine, you show me yours" – knowing that to the average creedal Christian she'll come out looking a lot better, even with criticisms like Thomas'.
Speaking of yesterday…
I have attempted to contact the Guiliani campaign reagrding the bigoted, not to mention tasteless, video uncovered by K-Lo at The Corner. To date, no response. I find that troubling.
And, A Closing Wisecrack…
It's official, I don't belong to a "real" church. I guess Lowell and I really are in the same boat now – which should be very instructive.
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