You’ll be pleased to know that Bob Jones University is not above political spin. A week after publishing a letter to Bush in which Jones called his election a “reprieve from the agenda of paganism,” the school wants us to know Jones didn’t really mean to offend all Kerry voters, only a handful of us.
Jonathan Pait, a spokesman for the university, said the letter was placed on the school’s Web site because Jones had read it to students in chapel and many told their parents about it. He said Thursday that Jones had not received a response from the White House.
Pait said it would be a misreading of the letter to think that “everyone who voted for the Democrats is a pagan” or that “if you voted for John Kerry you are a despiser of Christ.”
“For example, there are those who voted for John Kerry because they opposed the war in Iraq,” Pait said. “Dr. Jones did not intend to paint everyone with that broad a brush.”
Oh, I see; we’re all being a little sensitive. When Jones wrote that Bush’s rivals were advancing an “agenda of paganism,” he only meant some of us really mean ones. When Jones said the president “owe[s] the liberals nothing,” because we “despise [Bush’s] Christ,” we’re misinterpreting language that could obviously have several meanings, some of which must be complementary.
Still no official response from the White House about the BJU letter. I can’t imagine why not.