Stories of failure don’t usually excite me, as I’m not a schadenfreude kind of guy…
But this interesting commentary from Italy’s La Repubblica, translated on Watching America.com tells of two mutually supporting failures that offer exciting prospects.
The failures? Bush’s failure to deliver on a religious agenda, and the religious right’s failure to choose someone who could.
According to the article, the base that would die for its cause – at least that part of the base that learns its doctrine at Bob Jones University – has decided that politics is a lost cause, and are thinking they might try their hand again at communicating their beliefs to individuals, rather than attempting to rewrite the rules of a nation.
“Not Fox, CNN, nor even the candidates are coming here [Bob Jones University] anymore; no one here believes any longer in a redemption that must pass through Washington.”
Even the candidate who has been billed as the man most evangelical is voicing the exasperation,
“It is useless to deceive yourselves. A President is not equipped to transform the U.S. into a Christian nation.”
Accordingly, the people of Bob Jones are going to sit on the bench for this election:
the people of Bob Jones University are now convinced that all politicians are the same and that time would be better spent committing oneself towards changing the individuals that make up society and towards continuing to train the thousands of pastors of the Church of America.
This is getting radical: if the religious right keeps going on like this, they may let America become a place rampant with that favorite Christian value – free will for each individual. Hallelujah!
Read “When Even the Religious Right Give Up” here on WatchingAmerica.com
Robin Koerner is a British-born citizen of the USA, who currently serves as Academic Dean of the John Locke Institute. He holds graduate degrees in both Physics and the Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge (U.K.). He is also the founder of WatchingAmerica.com, an organization of over 100 volunteers that translates and posts in English views about the USA from all over the world.
Robin may be best known for having coined the term “Blue Republican” to refer to liberals and independents who joined the GOP to support Ron Paul’s bid for the presidency in 2012 (and, in so doing, launching the largest coalition that existed for that candidate).
Robin’s current work as a trainer and a consultant, and his book If You Can Keep It , focus on overcoming distrust and bridging ideological division to improve politics and lives. His current project, Humilitarian, promotes humility and civility as a basis for improved political discourse and outcomes.