What would Jesus do — to tell DeLay to knock it off

April 4, 2006

Somewhat unexpectedly, the common thread of the last 24 hours for [tag]Tom DeLay[/tag] is [tag]religion[/tag]. The man who’s been up to his ears in political corruption and ethical transgressions throughout his political career seems to believe that it’s not his lawyers who’ll get him through the next several months; it’s his faith. And he’s milking it for all it’s worth.

TIME: Your smiling mug shot — what made you think of that and what do you think the consequence of that has been?

DeLay: Oh, I don’t know. I said a little prayer. First of all, you only get one take. It’s a very humiliating thing, to be booked. And I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture. And my prayer was basically: “Let people see [tag]Christ[/tag] through me. And let me smile.” Now, when they took the shot, from my side, I thought it was fakiest smile I’d ever given. But through the camera, it was glowing. I mean, it had the right impact. Poor old left couldn’t use it at all. They had all kind of things planned, they’d spent a lot of money. It made me feel kind of good that all those plans went down the toilet.

It was one of the more interesting responses of DeLay’s recent interviews. You’ll notice, for example, that DeLay said he was “glowing,” not because his [tag]faith[/tag] saw him through this trying ordeal, but because the “poor old left couldn’t use” his mug shot. DeLay apparently worships at the First Church of Spite. I hear it’s a heartwarming place.

I don’t know DeLay personally, so I obviously couldn’t speak to the depths of his beliefs. But it’s nevertheless amazing to me to see DeLay hold himself out as a vessel for God who also happens to crush his opponents, lie as a matter of habit, and engage in some of the more nefarious corruption schemes we’ve seen out of Congress in quite a while.

And DeLay’s religious right cohorts love it. The appearance didn’t generate a great deal of media attention, but DeLay did two interviews first thing this morning. The first was on Fox News (natch). The second, however, was on TV preacher [tag]Pat Robertson[/tag]’s [tag]700 Club[/tag], where DeLay told Robertson and his viewers that he “fasted” before making the decision about his resignation.

Digby suggested today that DeLay could go to jail for his misconduct, but he would “just do a [tag]Chuck Colson[/tag]. It’s quite the racket these rightwing [tag]Christian[/tag]s have going.” Oddly enough, DeLay has already pulled a Chuck Colson — only in this case, DeLay found religion and then engaged in corrupt and unethical behavior, whereas Colson did it the other way around.

I guess that’s the principal difference between Republicans in the Nixon era and the Bush era — now they find God before their shameful misconduct.

now they find God before their shameful misconduct.

But in DeLay’s case, God=Greed, so it all works out.

  • On NPR they were wondering what he would be doing after politics. Not surprisingly, he will likely set up some lobbying PAC to push more neocon agendas. I want him to be an exterminator again. I bet he would be cheap, now that he is a recently disgraced public official.

  • If Tom Delay was on a mission for God, what was the mission? And why was it OK to lie to, cheat, extort, steal from, and slime anyone getting in his way? Wasn’t he reading the same commandments the rest of us were? What about that bearing false witness part? Or what about the false gods? I think I like the Blues Brothers mission better; it did less damage (only a few cop cars).

  • I think one of the underappreciated aspects of religious fundamentalism is the degree to which the belief that one is virtuous blinds one to one’s own faults. It is not exactly that the ends justify the means, it is more that, since god inspires one’s actions, the means are also inspired.

    I didn’t express that very well, but it is what leads fundamentalists to be astonishly venal and corrupt — they are doing god’s will, which renders holy everything they do.

  • Every day I see Christianity dragged through the mud and Christians attacked. I know that most people claim to be attacking the Christian right only, but lets face it, Christians and America are a laughingstock to the entire world.

    I think about Bush and the neo-cons. Most of the neo-cons are Jews and we know that the Christians are only being used by this sorry bunch. I have read enough of the liberal internet to know how much Jews hate christians and I know they would do to christians what they do to Muslims if they could.

    They must laugh everytime Christianity is attacked. If anyone says anything about them then they play the anti-semite card. I think it is time to stop attacking christians just because of Tom Delay and the vile neo-cons.

    Enough has been done to Christians, from Mel Gibson to the lowliest uneducated Southern Baptist. Enough.

    The only people who are coming out on top are the jews whether its domestically or in Iraq. Rahm Emanuel is the democrat who will determine which candidates get the nomination in the next elections and he will choose another zionist warmonger just like John Kerry while cutting loose the choice of the people just like they did to Al Gore.

    Every person who attempts to out the Jews gets the Walt treatment. Enough. Anti-semitism is what white Jews do to Palestinians and what they have planned for the entire Arab world in their quest to bring about a Greater Israel, God forbid.

    I have read the liberal internet for years and I’ve witnessed all the hatred and I refuse to be hated any longer because my familly is christian and I refuse to be silenced and I refuse to have my free speech taken away because of something that happened in europe that I had nothing to do with and over which I had no control. enough.

    You are brave enough when it comes to attacking christians. Lets see what you’ve got when it comes to going after the jews. This is where the rubber meets the road.

  • re Judy C:

    The loudest voice among Christians right now are the fundamentalist, evangelical factions. Through their paranoia, bigotry, irrationality and seemingly bottomless pit of hatred, they have made themselves a laughingstock.

  • July Canute,

    Where did you come from? You decry the neocons while referencing the “liberal internet”. This is really odd. How do you reconcile the two opposing positions.

    As for your anti-semitic rant, go sell that line somewhere else. If this denizen of the “liberal internet” may be so bold to speak for the rest of us, we dislike fundamentalism in all its stripes–whether its basis is Christianity, Islam or, yes, Judaism (or Hinduism, or Toltalitarianism, etc.). The “liberal internet” has often spoken out in support of non-fundamentalist Christian churchs.

  • These Christian fudamentalists have done so much damage to this coutry they should hang their head in shame.

  • This drives me nuts. Here’s what Hoyer, the minority whip had to say about DeLay and the 2006 election:

    “It will be a referendum on the policies that have been driven by adherence to special interests that have not served the American people…. We will very clearly draw a relationship between the politics of corruption and the politics of special interests and the policies that have been adopted.”

    What kind of crap is that? Here he has the press actually interviewing him, he actually gets quoted, and he says something that even my eyes glazed over reading – and I’m interested!!!

    This needs to be sound bite, sound bite, sound bite: “Tom DeLay surrounded himself with felons.” “Tom DeLay needs to focus on his criminal trial.” “Tom DeLay, long time associate of Jack Abramoff,” etc., etc., etc.

    Unfortunately, most of America is busy elsewhere and only catches bits and pieces. The message should be DeLay=Republican=crook, crooked and corrupt. I will step down now.

  • I don’t know Tom Delay either, but I have stared into his eyes and seen his very soul. There I saw a bug exterminator who’s become a colossal egomaniac with multiple ethics violations pretending that all the sorrows that are about to befall him originated with America’s well-known liberal-left war on Christianity.

    Regarding July C, all you have to do is glance at the linked website to see where her/his/its? sympathies lie. Let’s hear it now … a-one, a-two, a-three and “Springtime for Hitler and Germany….”

  • Y’know, I was prepared to comment about DeLay, and about “Christian” politicians generally, with the simple Biblical quotation “By their fruits ye shall know them.” As Carpetbagger points out, DeLay’s religion seems to be much taken with spiting and slighting; his Jesus, like DeLay himself, sounds like a real dick. Happily, there are and long have been other public figures, from William Jennings Bryan to Rep. John Lewis, who have taken inspiration from their faith and gone in a very different direction.

    Then I actually clicked in and read the vile anti-Semitic rant in comment #6 above. The hateful and ignorant spew there would make Pat Buchanan blush.

    I’ve long worried that the implosion of right-wing governance would lead–as so many historical disasters past, from the 15th-century plagues in Europe to Germany in the depths of the Depression, have before then–to a spike in public hatred of Jews. Forgive me, but Donald Rumsfeld, to my knowledge, is not a Jew. Dick Cheney is not a Jew. George W. Bush, who wanted a war with Iraq in the late 1990s, is certainly not a Jew.

    Many of those who opposed the war, on the other hand, were and are. Russ Feingold? Paul Wellstone? I’m proud to claim them both (and yes, I’m a Jew).

    But where there’s hate, fear and ignorance, there will always be loathing of the Jews, and a willingness to tolerate or even abet the persecution that has been their lot for thousands of years, from Babylon to Auschwitz.

  • “July Canute” runs a pro-confederate, “southern patriot” anti-semitic blog – click her name on her post.

    Just another bit of proof of what you get when too many southerners “keep it all in the family.” As Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “four generations of morons is enough.”

  • “When your family tree does not fork… you might be a redneck.”

    Jeff Foxworthy?

  • As is my wont, I did a Google search on Ms. Canute. I won’t provide the links-you can do a search of your own if you are interested-it turns out she’s a bit more complicated than the above anti-semitic rant would indicate. . She opposes the Iraq war and most Republican policies. She’s not too high on corporations either. She seems to call herself a Democrat; I think she is more of an old-fashioned populist in the style of William Jennings Byrant you said the following,

    “New York is the city of privilege. Here is the seat of the Invisible Power represented by the allied forces of finance and industry. This Invisible Government is reactionary, sinister, unscrupulous, mercenary, and sordid. It is wanting in national ideals and devoid of conscience… This kind of government must be scourged and destroyed.”

    This of course is a somewhat veiled anti-semitic statement. I guess that it is only fair that as Bush tries to bring back the ghost of McKinley some respond by reviving Bryant.

  • “Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile.”

    * Christ wouldn’t have voted against the $5.15 minimum wage, Tom – remember the bit about what you do to the least of these my brothers you do to me?
    * Christ wouldn’t spew the venomous hatred that you spew, Tom – remember the bit about loving one another?
    * Christ wouldn’t have dreamed up so many under-handed ways of laundering money, Tom – remember the bit about throwing the money-changers out of the temple?
    * Christ wouldn’t have licked the bootheels of the very rich, Tom – remember the bit about about passing through the eye of a needle?

    I can’t help but believe that there’s an advertising genius out there somewhere – not among the dolts hired by the Democrats during the last two general elections – who couldn’t make something of that prissy, kiss-ass, smiling face of Tom DeLay and his “Christian” comments. It’s too, too rich.

  • July Canute–what you doin’ talking to them carpetbaggers?!! Yo’ great great grandpappy is a rollin’ in his grave! Get back home this instant!

  • Rege,

    I don’t think you can take Stormfront as a reliable judge of whether the utterances of public figures are anti-semitic. I’m reading A Gody Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan and it makes the case that quotes like the one you’ve posted were more opposed to unfettered capitalism than anti-Semitic.

    That said, I’m not defending July C.’s comments or his/her blog. Jeez, I’d classify him/her as a liberal, and a well-read one at that, but damn … there’s just no excuse for that.

  • prm, thanks for the correction. As I was looking for reference to Bryant’s anti-semitism that was the only one I could find. That should have tipped me off. Thanks again

  • From Christian Response:
    From: “Christian Response”
    Tell Tom DeLay ‘Thank You’ For His Service: Click below to Send a Message to the Embattled Conservative Congressman!

    Take Action Now!

    This “Christian Response” e-Alert is a special message from RightMarch.com:

    ALERT: I’m sure you’ve heard the news: Congressman Tom DeLay, “The Hammer” who helped push through so many important pieces of conservative legislation, has decided not to seek re-election to the U.S. House in the fall.

    He did it for the good of the conservative movement, understanding that, if he didn’t step aside, there was a chance that a Democrat might win that seat, since they’ve been pouring MILLIONS of dollars into that race in Texas.

    When’s the last time you’ve seen the ENTIRE LEFT WING come together to gang up on one single person on the right?

    We saw it happen to President George W. Bush during the last election. If there was a vile name the Left could call him, they used it. If there was a despicable act they could perform against him, they did it. If there was a lie they could make up about him, they all agreed to say it, over and over again.

    Oh, and most of them were paid to do it by radical left-wing billionaire George Soros. Remember him?

    And every time the Left lied about President Bush, or took some action against him, or called him every nasty name in the book… the mainstream media made sure to print it, publish it, air it, and show it. The press played the part of “lapdog” to the radical leftists every chance they got, with the goal of bringing down the top conservative leader. And if they had the opportunity, they’d do it to someone else, too.

    Well, they found that “someone else” — Tom DeLay, a man who actually GOT RESULTS on Capitol Hill. And THAT is why they were out to get him.

    EVERY SINGLE ONE of the people and groups on the far Left were doing EVERYTHING THEY COULD to *destroy* this solid conservative icon. This was not some imaginary “vast left-wing conspiracy.” Not just a *few* far-left groups were attacking Congressman DeLay — EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM were. Liberal group after liberal group, Democrat after Democrat, liberal media outlet after liberal media outlet… they all lined up to destroy Tom Delay.

    He’s been a “team player” for the cause throughout it all. When a partisan District Attorney in Texas brought trumped-up phony indictments against him, Rep. DeLay stepped down as Majority Leader, and has been successfully fighting those false charges. And now, to keep that seat in Republican hands, he’s decided to resign from Congress.

    This is a man of true integrity and character — something sorely lacking in Washington, D.C. We need to THANK him for his years of service and dedication.

    TAKE ACTION: Rep. DeLay got it right when he said, “The point is, the other side has figured out how to win and defeat the conservative movement. And that is to go after people, personally charge them with frivolous charges, and link that up with all these do-gooder organizations funded by George Soros, and then get the national media on their side. That whole syndicate that they have going on right now is for one purpose and one purpose only, and that’s to destroy the conservative movement. It is to destroy conservative leaders, and not just in elected office, but leading.”

    HE’S EXACTLY RIGHT. As conservative author and movement founder Paul Weyrich has written, Rep. DeLay had a “large target” on his back, BECAUSE OF his success in defeating the liberal agenda. “What has really gotten DeLay in such trouble these days are two public statements,” wrote Weyrich. “First, [he] said he was ‘dedicated to ending the practice of abortion as we know it.’ And second, DeLay said the federal courts must be reined in.”

    So what’s the big deal there? Plenty of other lawmakers have said similar things… but the difference is that DeLay MEANT IT — and he was actually in a position to do something about it. The people and groups on the far Left knew this… so they were determined to STOP him before he destroyed their “ideological playground.”

    Well, they haven’t stopped him. Yes, he won’t be in Congress any longer — but there’s NO doubt that now he’ll be a leader in other ways, moving the conservative agenda forward at a pace that will make the Left wish they had just left him alone in the House!

    Let’s THANK Rep. DeLay for what he’s done for the conservative movement — and for America. Click below NOW to send a FREE message directly to his office (scroll down that page and click on “Compose Your Own Letter” and click “Next Step”):

    http://www.capwiz.com/sicminc/mail/?id=576&type=CO&state=TX

    Also, if you’d like your message to be even more personal, you can select the “Extra Impact” option to have your letter quickly and inexpensively printed and hand-delivered directly to Congressman DeLay’s office!

    NOTE: Be sure to forward this Alert to everyone you know who wants to know how they can thank this conservative hero who’s been under attack by all of the forces of the radical Left. Thank you!

    Sincerely,

    William Greene, President
    RightMarch.com

  • The War on Christians is taking on a new meaning for me after Delay crawled up on the cross with stolen money and broken trust. Here is a breed of con-man Christian that is a blight on our society .These bums are the ones waging the war on real Christians. They want to destroy and exploit their own religion’s reputation as they have diminished the stature of their own country. An irony.. the former exterminator is actually an infestation.

  • I have two thoghts on the comments here.
    To July C.
    Get over it!
    Christians are not being persecuted in the US. I am a christian. I worship freely, talk about my religion, monetarily support it, am not “branded” (physically marked), jailed or had my places of worship closed by a government.
    If you think you are persecuted, go to China, Iraq or Iran.
    Christians, when they support criminals and criminal behavior, liers, cheaters, support the death penalty and war, yet abhor abortion( and OK killing providers) need to explain their “christianity” to others.
    I’m really wondering how some people can call some people christians at all.
    The above letter form W. Greene is a perfect example. How did they miss all the corruption surrounding DeLay and this administration?
    And please…. Tom DeLay ganged up on?

    And the second comment. I thought I had heard all the spin imaginable from the right.
    Defending Delay takes the prize. I feel like I’m on the Twilight Zone sometimes, when I hear republicans try and justify something. Up is down, in is out and the spin goes on and on……

  • More evidence that patriotism is not always the last refuge of scoundrels or politicians. Like his buddy Tom, Jack Ambramoff also professes to be deeply religious. Apparently great outward displays of piety are sufficient to scrub one’s conscience of a lifestyle of ethical turpitude. No bother that continually dropping one’s religious beliefs when confronted with charges of dishonesty, law breaking, etc trivializes one’s God … apparently no big deal if you’ve got one big ego … Tom “let people see Christ through me” Delay.

  • I think Bill Maher got it right the other day (with a little humor thrown in of course):

    “The Christian Right are now officially the party of paranoia: secularists are attacking Christmas, gays are attacking marriage, liberals are attacking values, white girls are being abducted at an alarming rate. You know if you’re going to be that paranoid all the time, just get high.

    “And the worst part is, the people bitching loudest about being persecuted for their Christianity, aren’t Christians at all. They’re demagogues and conmen and scolds. And the only thing they worship is power. If you believe Jesus ever had a good word for war, or torture, or taxcuts for the rich, or raping the earth, or refusing water to dying migrants, then you might as well believe bunnies lay painted eggs. And Jesus never said a word about gay marriage. He was much too busy hanging out with 12 guys.

    “Now, I know George Bush says Jesus Christ changed his heart. But believe me, Dick Cheney changed it back. You know the only thing Bush has in common with Jesus is they both went into their father’s business and got crucified for it. Thomas Jefferson called the type of Christian who trumpets his own belief in the divinity of Jesus rather than the morality of Jesus ‘pseudo-Christians’ and that’s who’s running our country today. And since they thrive so much on turning water into whining and get off on their endless pretend persecution, this Easter season, let’s give them what they want. Let’s go to the zoo, get some lions and feed them Tom Delay.”

  • Wow, I came here to post a word of thanks to Steve for a great post.

    But then I was overtaken by July in Post #6 actually saying that what we need is attacks on Jews. I have feared that this was driving at least some of the promoters of the so-called “war on Christmas” and “war on Christians” movement.

    I went to July Canutes websites and she/he does believe that

    Jews run the United States government with their money

    http://thesouthernjournal.blogspot.com/2006/04/what-surprise.html#links

    Recent posts at http://thesouthernjournal.blogspot.com/ have nice titles like “THE JEWISH CANCER ON AMERICA” and ” HISTORY OF JEWS BEING SLAUGHTERED AND CHASED OUT”

    Scary
    .
    .

  • Aren’t Christians *embarrassed* of this guy?

    I don’t get it. I don’t like it when members of groups I belong to do stupid things. It embarasses me by association, and I don’t like it one bit.

    i.e., I hate to see wingnuts wrap themselves in the flag. I don’t like to be embarassed to be an American. Nobody does. Or when white people do stupid shit, or when Democrats go all wimpy and corporate… I just wince.

    Aren’t Christians disgusted with this guy wrapping himself in Jeebus in order to justify his theiving and sleazery? What is up with that?

  • Tom Delay doesn’t spook me too much. What does bother me are all the GOP congressmen who allowed this guy to become their leader. How such a little man with big ambitions could have such sway in Washington. Or is that George Bush I am thinking about. Same package. Beware the man who thinks he is doing the will of god.

  • Why is it ok to attack Christians as you are doing here but it is evil to attack Jews? I want to understand the difference. Thank you.

    You are propagandized to behave in that way whether you know it or not.

    You attack me because I am from the south but the fact is we are the decendents of the founding Fathers and we value traditional American philosophy and are not interested in bringing Mexican culture or any other to replace our own. The liberals have convinced you we are evil but we are America and whatever bigotry remains in the South cannot begin to hold a candle to the hatred of the liberals. Besides the south is the least educated and most poverty stricken region of the nation. Those in the northeast have real power on the other hand so how can anyone think that christians on the right are running anything. They are being used as scapegoats for the ones who are actually running our country into the ground.

    Whatever you are being told of Christian beliefs these are the same beliefs that have been held for over 200 years and they never destroyed America and there was never a problem until Zionism became our reason for existance.

    My family has been in this country since the 1700s and I think I have a vested interest in what happens and I am as entitled to persue my political interests as anyone else and I don’t happen to think Jews and Isarel and what they are doing are in my interest nor the interests of America.

    Do you think the liberals should run the Democratic party? I don’t. I think they are literally driving people out of our party with their hatred and bigotry against christians and American culture. They are arrogant enough to think they have a right to remake America in their own image. Liberals should be marginalized to the left of the Democratic party and the conservatives at the DLC to the right and heartland Democrats should run our party. Rham Emanuel is the Democratic elite who will determine who gets the nominations in future elections. Will he foist another John Kerry off on us? Where will that leave us?

    In the meantime you might want to read this article and put into context my concern over the constant attacks against Christians. I doubt that you can accuse the people at the National Humanities Institute of being petty anti-semites. Anti-semitism is what white Jews are doing to Palestinians and what the neo-cons have planned for the entire Arab world using our money and our government.

    http://www.nhinet.org/ryn18-1.htm

    You might also read this one about The Day of the Jackel

    http://malakandsky.blogspot.com/

    If you take Christians out of the equation no policy changes. If you take Jewish money and power out of government then there is a chance that our policy toward Israel will change as it should.

    Rather than playing the anti-semite card why don’t you explain to me how I’m wrong and be specific. I am willing to change my mind. I base my opinions upon facts and I do not look for ancedotes to prop up some dogma.

  • July,

    Two things, cracker.

    First, I live in a Civil War “border” state that has adopted a southern mentality. I hate to tell you this but the racist, ignorant redneck stereotype fits you and your ilk to a T. And frankly, Southern States have only themselves to blame for being “the least educated and most poverty stricken region of the nation.” You vote Republican. And before that you voted racist redneck Dixiecrat. You deserve what you get.

    Second, the Civil War is over. You lost. Get over it. And anti-semitic nationalism fell out of favor after World War II. Again, you lost. Get over it.

    No one is interested in your neo-Confederate, Jewish conspiracy spouting, anti-immigrant drivel. There are other sites for that. Go find them.

  • Now I understand why some “christian” denominations don’t recognize others as “christian.”

    J.Canute is not a Christian, in my opinion. The “liberals” are far more in line with Jesus’s philosophy.

    Nothing stated in J.Canute’s posts bears any resembence to the Christianity that I am familiar with.

    Hey, J. how do you square your beliefs with the Sermon on the Mount?

  • Jesus would do to Tom DeLay and the Reich as he did to the Saddusees, Pharisees, and Scribes of Old Jerusalem—because that’s just what those guys are. Consider the following:

    Both groups pretend to be “very” religious…but they’ve demonstrated a knack for being both unmerciful and unloving to anyone who doesn’t follow in lockstep to their extremist, literal dogmatisms….

    Both groups fed on the egomanic need to have others witness their pompous, zealous yammering….

    Both groups could be compared by Jesus as “Tombs that had been painted to look very beautiful on the outside, but within—where it really, REALLY counts—they’re just graves, filled with the bones of the dead….”

    Both groups have no problem with attacking messengers who say things other that what they want to hear….

    Both groups exhibit excessive pridefulness in public, are substantially materialistic in nature, and always insist of getting the best seats in the houses of worship….

    In the end, the simple truth of the matter is: If Jesus walked into this “pit of vipers” (DeLay and his ilk) today, he’d be crucified again. Because, his message simply isn’t what the Reich wants to hear….

    Oh, and July: This isn’t about “attacking Christians.” This is about a portion of our country’s population that’s decided it’s okay to peddle stupidity, criminal behavior, incompetence, greed, overt dishonesty, class profiling, and hate—by wrapping it in a flag and calling it ‘christianity” (note the little “c” here). So get over it, and stop acting like a nattering little twit….

  • I am not a christian. I gave up believing in Jewish myth and legend a long time ago whether it is what they spout today or the bible.

    Since I represent the redneck stereotype could you please explain to me the differences between attempting to get Christians out of government and attempting to get Jews out? My Mama and Daddy were cousins so please keep it simple.

    1. Why is one ok but the other is wrong?

    2. Since we are called Crackers, rednecks and hillbillies could you explain how that is not stereotyping and bigotry?

    3. Who told you that we should not remember our shared history The Civil War, the United States holocaust, but we must remember their history?

    4. Why should the history of a war not be taught or remembered by those who “lost” it? Please explain.

    5. Please explain how my beliefs and opinions are neo-confederate?

    6. Would you be more tolerent of my opinions if I told you that my family suffered through Reconstruction? I can show you photos and dead bodies and lost family land which we never got back.

    7. If I told you that Christians have historically been persecuted and that you are saying the same things about them that evil people said in the past when christians were slaughtered then would you stop calling Christians names and tell other people that they are anti-Christian if they criticize the christian right?

    Thank you.

  • Excerpt from article about the neo-con philospher Leo Strauss from National Humanities Institute.

    http://www.nhinet.org/ryn18-1.htm

    Here we find one of the reasons for the attraction of Strauss’s celebrated rejection of “historicism.” What seems to the superficial reader to be part of a defense of traditional “higher values” actually amounts to a discrediting of those parts of the old Western civilization that stand in the way of the new elite. By making respect for history and “convention” seem philosophically disreputable and even nefarious, Strauss disputes the right of lingering traditional elites to rule. To the extent that he nevertheless manages to appeal to representatives of the old order, he is, in effect, teaching them to despise themselves. To Straussians who are fully alert to the anti-traditional aim of anti-historicism, it is undoubtedly a source of both amusement and contempt that many putative defenders of tradition seem not to suspect what is happening but are happily contributing to the destruction of their own culture.

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