Via Glenn, more nonsense from Michael Hirsh:
When Jefferson, in his letter of May 5, 1817, condemned the “den of the priesthood” and “protestant popedom” represented by Massachusetts’ state-supported church, he was speaking for both of them–the North and South poles of the revolution. Yet John McCain, even with the GOP nomination in hand, would never dare repeat his brave but politically foolhardy condemnation of the religious right in 2000 as “agents of intolerance.” Why?
Probably because the secularism question was decided centuries ago and there’s no good reason in today’s world to tread all over what people hold sacred; there’s no Church of Massachusetts, but maybe we should found one just so Hirsh has a real argument with modern relevance instead of being forced to pummel a moldy 1800s strawman. It’s pretty hard to imagine Jefferson condemning a voluntary prayer in a public school.
Hirsh, of course, has a different explanation.
Because we have become an intolerant nation, and that’s what gets you elected.
Ah yes, tolerance. That’s an interesting word. In the first use of the of term, it actually meant the Enlightenment revelation that can be summed up as “Hey, maybe Jesus doesn’t want us to violently persecute anyone who believes a slightly different version of Christianity.” Later, it evolved to represent the ideal that no beliefs should be violently persecuted. Now, apparently, it means never expressing a belief that might be viewed as judgmental of someone else’s behavior. Judge not, lest ye be labeled intolerant by Newsweek and John McCain! Free speech? Let he who is without sin cast the first adjective.
I don’t agree with most of what the religious Right says about sexuality, but I don’t have to vilify their beliefs by pretending they’re bigots rather than just mistaken, or insist that morality demands they stop speaking what they believe. I’m just “tolerant” that way, I guess.
Anyways, it turns out, according to the media elitist, that this is all because we’re not elitist enough anymore:
Another expert on the mores of the South, author Michael Lind, notes this change is also attributable to the rise of the mass media and the eclipsing of the patrician culture that produced both Adams amd [sic] Jefferson.
See? You let the plebs start thinking for themselves and everything goes to hell. Why, Newsweek can’t even afford a spellcheck anymore! The times we live in.
{ 6 comments }
Great post.
What I found amusing about the article is that Hirsch obsesses on an American idol contestant being voted off the show after singing <i>Jesus Christ, Superstar!</i>, claiming that act doomed her in this new, Southern-douminated society. It never occurred to him she was voted off because her performance was so bad…
J.A. Eddy’s last blog post..Decisions Made
I think it is true that the south is increasing in its influence, culturally and financially. I don’t view that as a bad thing on balance. It was an inevitability once financial growth became the norm in that region.
Well done, Dave. What an idiotic concept — that America is less tolerant today, in religious matters, than in Jefferson’s time! You have to really ignore history and culture to be able to make such a statement.
Ron Coleman’s last blog post..Votes don’t grow on trees
At the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, there were parts of the U.S. where you could go to jail for publicly declaring that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God. Actual jail time. And no one even considered that this was a violation of the 1st amendment because they thought it was about political speech and not much else.
The times, how they change.
At the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, there were parts of the U.S. where you could go to jail for publicly declaring that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God. Actual jail time. And no one even considered that this was a violation of the 1st amendment because they thought that was about political speech and lack of a state-sponsored religion by the Federal government, and not much else.
The times, how they change.
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