Over at TPM, much bemused shaking of heads at Monica Goodling’s Friday resignation, and possible Easter symbolism accruing thereto. From her letter to Gonzales: “May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America.”
And suddenly it hits me. In 2008 the seemingly moribund Republican party needs to look, for inspiration, to Corinthians, chapter 15, for spiritual mediation of the apparent contradiction between Christianist principle and cronyist practice. The GOP: “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.” (Of course, reading on from 42 to 50 complicates interpretation. Still … )
UPDATE: Oh, I just can’t resist (click for larger version)
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Belle Waring 04.07.07 at 2:51 am
Victory 08: roll the stone away
John Emerson 04.07.07 at 3:10 am
“God had blessed me” means $$$$$$$$$. People who take their own prosperity to be proof of the benevolence and power of God (or who take their own success as proof of the wonderfulness of the USA) are not to be trusted, and often are simply evil. They seem to be adept at the arts of deception and graft.
I often want to tell our Christianist friends that Christians will be judged too, but my hotline to Pat Robertson seems to have been disconnected. I feel sorry for them.
They go through life thinking that they’re exempt from judgment because they combat liberals, queers, and sluts, but when that great day arrives and they are plunged into the bottomless pit of burning sulfur and boiling oil, they’ll be completely surprised.
Ralph Luker 04.07.07 at 4:45 am
Yet, even at this early date and the Republican doldrums, I wish you could show me a single national poll in which one of the leading candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President leads one of the leading candidates for the Republican Party’s nomination for President.
Daniel Stout 04.07.07 at 5:17 am
There is a reason that the spiritually rich take a vow of poverty, and the right would do well to learn what that reason is.
bad Jim 04.07.07 at 9:21 am
Luker, here is a Zogby poll from February showing only Obama beating Giuliani or McCain, and any Democrat beating Romney.
Or, arbitrarily, this:
In a normal election, the Republicans would have nearly all the money. This time the Democrats have quite a bit more. People bet on winners.
KCinDC 04.07.07 at 4:14 pm
Aagh! Please fix the apostrophe in the graphic in “GOP ’08” (compare it to the one in “we’re”). Despite the spreading horror of Microsoft Word’s “smart” quotes, apostrophes remain apostrophes at the beginning of words (or numbers). They don’t turn into opening single quotes. I expected better from CT. Surely Kieran the TeX user is mortified.
Russell Arben Fox 04.07.07 at 6:58 pm
“Christianist”? That’s Andrew Sullivan’s label, right? Does it now have official CT cred?
dearieme 04.07.07 at 7:29 pm
Here in Britain we believe in Established Religions so strongly that we have two of the bloody things. And still we don’t gush things like “May God bless you richly” at each other.
John Emerson 04.07.07 at 7:53 pm
The established churches of Old Europe were a powerful force for atheism.
POed Lib 04.07.07 at 7:58 pm
The Repukeliscum are currently looking modestly adequate in polls. That’s only because this current crop of corrupt, incoherent losers is not well known to the public. “Yosemite Sam” Mitt has begun telling tall tales about his days shootin’ varmints. John “Not enough dead sogers for me” McCain is beating the drums for Moloch and the religious sacrifice of young men to feed the gods of war. And “Hot Lips” Rudy Guiliani is making two important decisions: How much money should the Federal goverment pay to get poor women to have abortions, and who is his wife today.
In November, none of these morons will do well.
JRosen 04.07.07 at 8:22 pm
Brothers and sisters, I —formerly a stubborn unbeliever — have had a revelation. Miserably attached to logic as I was, I was always deeply troubled by an apparent contradiction., which in my benighted attachment to Reason meant that something was wrong somewhere. I was unable to see that from a higher— that is, more Godly — perspective, it all made excellent sense.
This was the crux of it: Christians most vociferous in their devotion to Jesus seemed to blatantly ignore some of His most unequivocal teachings. I couldn’t reconcile his talk about rich men, camels, and needle’s eyes, talk of treasures that moths corrupt, etc., in short, His concern for the poor and down-trodden with what seemed to me an unholy zeal on the part of so many of His professed followers with obtaining wealth, and more wealth. I even had — God forgive me for such an un-American sentiment — trouble understanding why millionaires, billionaires, and gazillionaires seemed so intent on becoming even richer than they are. After all, how much can one person spend? What was the point? Like Jake Gittes in “Chinatownâ€, I wanted to know: Why do they do it?
Well now I know, and I apologize for all the bad things I’ve thought and said about there blessed folks.. These people are not hypocrites…far from it! They are perhaps the most self-sacrificing Christians of all. Indeed, Jesus’ word on the rich man getting into heaven is the heart of the matter: By appropriating all that wealth and thus lightening the worldly burden of the poor, they are helping to insure salvation, eternal bliss, and all that wonderful stuff for those whom they might seem to be oppressing. Marvelous! These saviors have even taken over the government to help them in this philanthropy, ingeniously shifting the tax burden so as to keep as much as possible of that sinful stuff (money) away from those who would inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, taking it on themselves and thereby risking their own eternal souls.
All praise to them! Hallelujah! Gloria in Excelsis! Light candles and say prayers. Make a joyful noise. After all, the less I have here, the more I’m going to get later. How’s that for an investment strategy? Talk about an ownership society! And if I can believe St. Paul (and why not?) part of the payoff will be that while I listen to the celestial choirs I’ll get to see Paris Hilton and Rupert Murdoch and the executives of Enron and Halliburton roast over a slow fire. They may even have Maseratis in heaven, for the poor only of course. Talk about miracles.
kb_man 04.07.07 at 8:52 pm
Here in Britain we believe in Established Religions so strongly that we have two of the bloody things. And still we don’t gush things like “May God bless you richly†at each other.
______________
Most of us Americans, at least the sane ones, don’t gush things like that either.
In FRAUD we Trust 04.07.07 at 9:06 pm
One nation under FRAUD
Vance Maverick 04.07.07 at 9:09 pm
In the computer software industry, “smart” means “It automatically handles some cases I happened to think of.”
KCinDC 04.07.07 at 9:33 pm
“… and mishandles some cases I didn’t think of.”
za 04.07.07 at 10:22 pm
even you’re missing it.
“May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America.†??!?!!?!?
Alberto Gonzales doesn’t serve the American people. He serves George W. Bush. That’s the main problem with his administration. He hires only people who will serve him. Fuck the Constitution. Fuck the will of the people. George is supreme.
John Holbo 04.08.07 at 12:07 am
Russell, Sullivan uses ‘christianist’ but I don’t really associate it with him exclusively. It’s been in currency longer than he’s been assiduously circulating it (or perhaps my memory is bad.)
Tiffany of Sigma Mu Capito 04.08.07 at 12:19 am
The Sisters of Shelley say fie on you for mocking that good-est godliest Monica Goodling.
Just like the very bestest Republican Congressperson ever from West Virginia, our inspirational leader Shelley Moore Capito, Ms. Goodling loves America’s Top Lawyer. So should you!
Glen Tomkins 04.08.07 at 1:48 am
Seek not the living among the dead.
Nell 04.08.07 at 1:35 pm
On ‘Christianist’: It’s not original with Andrew Sullivan.
There’s obviously a need for a word that distinguishes Christians, a term for a religious persuasion which covers a wide spectrum of denominations and people of all kinds of political beliefs, from the political movement that uses a very narrow, actually heretical, mostly fundamentalist Protestant-derived version of Christianity to win political power for its adherents.
Tristero at Hullaballoo has used the term for years. He’s done several good posts for Blog Against Theocracy, in which he makes the distinction above (first of four here).
For a variety of reasons, other terms that have been suggested and used are not adequate: ‘Evangelicals’ is a term with a specific doctrinal meaning; new leadership among the evangelical churches has, thankfully, recently reclaimed the term by broadening their areas of religious and social concern to include healong the environment and ending torture. ‘Fundamentalist’ also fails to cover the political dimension of the organizations involved. ‘Kristian’ captured the flavor nicely for me, but I can see that the offense it might give would outweigh its clarifying value.
‘Christianist’ also has the advantage of being analogous to ‘Islamist’, another term fairly widely understood as denoting the abuse of a religion for political purposes — involving doctrinal distortion, theocracy, and tactical extremism.
something polish 04.08.07 at 1:46 pm
I’m confused. Why doesn’t Teh Jesus want the good Ms. Goodling to have a high ranking position in the Bush Administration any more? It just doesn’t make sense.
Lester Hunt 04.08.07 at 3:49 pm
If I were a leftist, I would not be gloating over the problems of the GOP. Their richly deserved beating at to polls was surely caused by their own incompetence, corruption, and stupidity, and not because the voters like what the left has to offer.
John Emerson 04.08.07 at 4:24 pm
23: Agreed, but the Democratic Party is centrist.
Political affiliation shouldn’t be passionate love, anyway. All we can hope for us an administration that isn’t trying to sneak a program of Christian reconstruction and world domination past us.
something polish 04.08.07 at 4:25 pm
Good point lester. Or it would be if it it weren’t a Two Party System.
Eric N 04.08.07 at 4:30 pm
And it can’t be “Corinthians, chapter 15”–it’s either First Corinthians or Second Corinthians (I Cor 15:42 or II Cor 15:42). I’m too lazy to grab my Bible to check which. That error is as blatant to a New Testament reader as a typo is to a good speller. It screamed off the page at me.
bi 04.09.07 at 3:43 am
JRosen (#12) is t3h r0x0rz.
bi 04.09.07 at 3:47 am
Eric N: Read not the Bible with your senses; read it with your gut.
Nat Whilk 04.09.07 at 6:26 pm
John Holbo:
The online futures markets don’t seem to think GOP ’08 is dead. If you truly believe that it is, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?
bi 04.10.07 at 6:37 am
But before that, let us bet on whether political futures markets will be legalized in the first place. I’m sure Nat Whilk will be willing to bet his pants on that.
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