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« Representative Clyburn isn't really the story here | Main | I'm glad someone noticed »

January 26, 2004

Religion in public life (or not)

This excerpt doesn't quite put across the idea the editorial intends to express.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Intolerance spans the religious divide

By Cathy Young, 1/26/2004

YOU KNOW HOW sometimes when you listen to two opponents in a debate or two warring soon-to-be-ex-spouses, each side does such an awful job of self-presentation that the more you listen to one party, the more you sympathize with the other? That seems to be happening right now in the war over religion in public life. Last week, I expressed my dismay over the notion that insufficient religiosity is, in 21st century America, a disqualification from high political office (we're voting for president, not pontiff).

Now, here comes Salon.com, one of the finest magazines on the Web, with an article titled "How Satan Is Propping Up Bush's War on Terror." The piece, by Salon editor Andrew O'Hehir, is based on an interview with Penn State University professor Bill Ellis, author of a new book on Satanism in popular culture. Ellis, writes O'Hehir, "says he understands exactly why so many Americans believe that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were working together, despite the lack of any factual evidence." The key, he claims, lies in the popularity of evangelical Christianity, which sees the devil as a real, ever-present and ever-scheming entity.

In O'Hehir's (and Ellis's) view, the same fundamentalists who can fall for a satirical story claiming that the evil influence of the Harry Potter books is driving millions of schoolchildren into Satanic covens can also easily believe in an "axis of evil." For a "born-again believer," Ellis is quoted as saying, there is no doubt that "the person who is giving the orders to bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and the leader of Iran and the leader of North Korea is, of course, Satan."

Never mind that the phrase "axis of evil" was coined not by "our born-again president" (as O'Hehir refers to President Bush), but by a speechwriter, David Frum, who happens to be Jewish. Never mind that plenty of Americans who are not evangelical Christians supported the war in Iraq or that the war's most ardent champions in the media included Andrew Sullivan, a Catholic critical of religious fundamentalism, and Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken atheist.

Posted by P6 at January 26, 2004 09:35 AM
Trackback URL: http://www.niggerati.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/130
Comments

The author of this piece is wrong about who coined "axis of evil." Frum wrote "axis of hatred," and it was Bush himself who revised it to "evil." Just sayin'.

Posted by QuickSauce at January 26, 2004 07:47 PM

Funny, Frum never corrects anyone that says he coined the phrase. Saw him on Maher last nite and he got credit not less than twice. In fact, he said he didn't choose which nations comprised the Axis, Bush did. One would think he would make a correction if one were necessary.

Posted by ronn at January 26, 2004 11:12 PM

More interesting than whether Frum jumped or was pushed is Frum's assertion to John Ibbitson in the Feb. 26 Toronto Globe and Mail that the phrase he coined was not "axis of evil," but "axis of hate," and that someone changed "hate" to "evil." In a Feb. 10 column, Novak reported that it was White House chief speechwriter Michael Gerson who made the change. That would lend credence to Time magazine's version of events, which is that Frum and Gerson coined "axis of evil." In the Globe and Mail interview, Frum now says, "I think it was actually the president" who scratched out "hate" and scribbled in "evil." Is this a gracious fib? Quite possibly.

Posted by T.N. at January 28, 2004 11:03 AM