From the very heart of fundamentalist Christian religious rightness — Donald Douglas at American Power — comes a statement I never thought I would hear from his lips (so to speak):
Life is what it is, and human sexuality is God-given.
Human sexuality is God-given??!! Cue the sound of trumpets and angels: Donald Douglas has seen the light. After all, gay and lesbian men and women have sexuality, too; and they are human just like Donald Douglas — so that surely must mean that homosexuality is human sexuality, right?
Actually, Douglas was telling a reader why it’s okay for him, a devout Christian who is very sanctimonious about his devoutness and very much a booster for the Christian religious brand — and who is married with children, to boot — to engage in paeans of panting for various “hot” female celebrities, very openly, on his blog (which he claims is a “family blog”).
And speaking of Christian branding, Brit Hume has doubled down on his efforts to sell Christianity as the superior religious product for achieving redemption and forgiveness.
Ta-Nehisi Coates calls what Hume is selling “the tonic of charlatans“:
I think the most telling part about Hume’s proselytizing (a word which he evidently doesn’t understand) is how it televises his lack of wisdom. We like to think about redemption in terms of getting past a sin, but we don’t really think about the process as teaching us something.
As someone who’s done his share of sinning, I think the striking thing about a serious process of redemption is how it humbles you. It isn’t simply a process of exoneration, or making amends, it’s a fundamental questioning of bone-deep philosophy. You learn about the ignorance of your certainty. Having been deeply wrong before, you come to know that as a flawed thing, you are subject to being deeply wrong again.
I don’t think Hume understands redemption anymore than he understands proselytizing. And I don’t think he understands the God he’s selling, like, at all. Hume speaks of the virtues of his savior, who for all his splendor, majesty and love, has not given Hume the kind of basic respect for people that we try to instill in five year olds. This is snake-oil.
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