Monday, February 27, 2006

Kinder and gentler zealots

In today's USA today, Michael Medved, who has become a sort of modern-day Know-Nothing (for those who haven't heard of them, they were a real political movement at one time) wrote about the Religious Rat's surprising forebearance in not violently protesting "Brokeback Mountain". He sees it as a sign of grace and maturity on their part. His point of reference was, of course, the Muslim riots over cartoons.

As a civil libertarian, I can only hope that Medved is right, that the Christian movement is softening its hysterical attempts to demonize and restrict behavior it considers immoral. Ironically, Medved himself remains one of the most hysterical and, frankly, confused, commentators on our culture and its supposed degradation. He has been in the forefront of those who would blame, for example, heavy metal rock for teen murder rampages. Yet, with breathtaking hypocrisy, he is silent on the young woman who cut off her baby’s arms while reciting biblical scripture.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So are you saying that the bible made that woman kill her kid? Isn't that going a little far?

February 28, 2006 1:50 PM  
Blogger Carlos Zapato said...

Read it again. What I'm pointing out is how ridiculous it is to blame rock music for people committing murder. Or sexy movies for the breakdown of the nuclear family. The right wing rants continually about personal responsibility, but when their kids get stoned and pregnant, they turn around and blame Ozzie Osbourne. It is as logical as blaming infanticide on the Bible (though I would point out, the Bible does seem to say we should be willing to kill our own kids out of love for God).

February 28, 2006 1:57 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping