The hedgehog knows only one thing...
This one's about James Dobson and Helen Miers, but I have to digress to get there. Forgive me my digressions...
In the church of Christ of my youth there was pretty much one big sin and that was S-E-X. At the end of each sermon, there was (and still is) an altar call. Anyone who wanted to be baptized (full immersion, thank you) or confess sins came forward in full view of everyone (which is one reason I waited until very late in the game to get baptized, much to the chagrin of my parents and every old biddy in our church who continually chastized me for delaying and increasing my chances that the world was going to end and THEN WHERE WOULD I BE???).
The brave souls who came forward to confess moral turpitude rarely specified their shortcoming(s), much to the disappointment of most of the people in the place even though most of them wouldn't admit their voyeuristic schadenfreuden impulse. We KNEW the sin involved sex in one of its infinitely interesting iterations. The reason we knew this is that pretty much every thing we were not permitted to do was verboten because it lead to SEX. No dancing...all that sweaty gyrating...no 'mixed bathing' (in modern terminology this means no swimming with members of the opposite sex) because just looking at a scantily clad missy leads to impure thoughts.
Impure thoughts and activities were the church of Christ equivalent to the 'don't do that, it'll put your eye out' cry of our moms: Both led to horrid consequences and in some cases the former led to the latter's end result: blindness.
The corollary to the centrality of sex in the life of sin is that nobody actually TALKED about sex. This led to some very interesting and convoluted conversations and a latter-day hyper-appreciation of the Seinfeld episode about masturbation where no one actually mentioned the word in the entire episode.
In latter years during the Clintonian era, when I found out that Kenneth Starr's father was a church of Christ preacher involved with Harding University (in Searcy, Arkansas), I ABSOLUTELY knew that the Starr report was going to center on sex. Combining the evil of tobacco in the form of a cigar AND sex was a rodeo that I knew would rope Starr's salacious church of Christ driven mentality.
I also knew that Clinton was going to not lose his job because there are way too many members of congress who have jumped into the illicit 'sex pool' to be able to vote with a straight face to condemn a man for lying about a blow job.
To make a long story a bit longer, abortion is the new sex for evangelicals. It will not only put out the eye of the fetus, it'll sink a civilization. Abortion is the ONLY issue for many many people.
James Dobson has positioned himself at the head of the evangelical neo-moral majority gang. Falwell and Robertson have not totally fallen off the map, but their idiotic pronouncements have moved them out of the serious pundit/leadership roles they so desperately desire. Dobson has made his share of bone-headed comments, chiefly about the 'gay' issue (SpongeBob is a little too fey and tolerant to suit Dobbie), but he hasn't called for the assassination of foreign leaders or blamed the Twin Towers attack on feminists and the ACLU.
Many people attribute Dobson's Focus on the Family organization and its political prowress to the delivery of Ohio to Bush in 2004. Dobson's quid pro quo for delivering the votes is his demand for judges who will overturn Roe v. Wade.
After Roberts was nominated and installed to the court, Dobson was ready to pounce on Bush whenever the next opening occurred.
As soon as Bush named Miers he immediately had his brainiac Rove head over to Dobson-world and attempt to hard-sell Miers to Dobson.
Dobson heard and heeded the call. I can tell you exactly what the information that Dobson was teasing us with. Miers is so anti-abortion that she can't even say Roe v. Wade without blanching. She wields the zealous sword of an evangelical convert.
Dobson wanted some attention and he got it. He really can't totally spill the beans, but I can guarantee you this is ALL about abortion and ONLY about abortion.
In the church of Christ of my youth there was pretty much one big sin and that was S-E-X. At the end of each sermon, there was (and still is) an altar call. Anyone who wanted to be baptized (full immersion, thank you) or confess sins came forward in full view of everyone (which is one reason I waited until very late in the game to get baptized, much to the chagrin of my parents and every old biddy in our church who continually chastized me for delaying and increasing my chances that the world was going to end and THEN WHERE WOULD I BE???).
The brave souls who came forward to confess moral turpitude rarely specified their shortcoming(s), much to the disappointment of most of the people in the place even though most of them wouldn't admit their voyeuristic schadenfreuden impulse. We KNEW the sin involved sex in one of its infinitely interesting iterations. The reason we knew this is that pretty much every thing we were not permitted to do was verboten because it lead to SEX. No dancing...all that sweaty gyrating...no 'mixed bathing' (in modern terminology this means no swimming with members of the opposite sex) because just looking at a scantily clad missy leads to impure thoughts.
Impure thoughts and activities were the church of Christ equivalent to the 'don't do that, it'll put your eye out' cry of our moms: Both led to horrid consequences and in some cases the former led to the latter's end result: blindness.
The corollary to the centrality of sex in the life of sin is that nobody actually TALKED about sex. This led to some very interesting and convoluted conversations and a latter-day hyper-appreciation of the Seinfeld episode about masturbation where no one actually mentioned the word in the entire episode.
In latter years during the Clintonian era, when I found out that Kenneth Starr's father was a church of Christ preacher involved with Harding University (in Searcy, Arkansas), I ABSOLUTELY knew that the Starr report was going to center on sex. Combining the evil of tobacco in the form of a cigar AND sex was a rodeo that I knew would rope Starr's salacious church of Christ driven mentality.
I also knew that Clinton was going to not lose his job because there are way too many members of congress who have jumped into the illicit 'sex pool' to be able to vote with a straight face to condemn a man for lying about a blow job.
To make a long story a bit longer, abortion is the new sex for evangelicals. It will not only put out the eye of the fetus, it'll sink a civilization. Abortion is the ONLY issue for many many people.
James Dobson has positioned himself at the head of the evangelical neo-moral majority gang. Falwell and Robertson have not totally fallen off the map, but their idiotic pronouncements have moved them out of the serious pundit/leadership roles they so desperately desire. Dobson has made his share of bone-headed comments, chiefly about the 'gay' issue (SpongeBob is a little too fey and tolerant to suit Dobbie), but he hasn't called for the assassination of foreign leaders or blamed the Twin Towers attack on feminists and the ACLU.
Many people attribute Dobson's Focus on the Family organization and its political prowress to the delivery of Ohio to Bush in 2004. Dobson's quid pro quo for delivering the votes is his demand for judges who will overturn Roe v. Wade.
After Roberts was nominated and installed to the court, Dobson was ready to pounce on Bush whenever the next opening occurred.
As soon as Bush named Miers he immediately had his brainiac Rove head over to Dobson-world and attempt to hard-sell Miers to Dobson.
Dobson heard and heeded the call. I can tell you exactly what the information that Dobson was teasing us with. Miers is so anti-abortion that she can't even say Roe v. Wade without blanching. She wields the zealous sword of an evangelical convert.
Dobson wanted some attention and he got it. He really can't totally spill the beans, but I can guarantee you this is ALL about abortion and ONLY about abortion.
