Area Man Wakes From 55-Year Doctrinal Coma

Discovery can be hard.  Sometimes it takes a lifetime.

I, for one, am in awe of people who have made discoveries about the universe, whether it's something eye-popping like finding a new exoplanet, or something more subtle, like a new species no one had ever cataloged before.  

And then there are the no-less worthy discoveries made by people about themselves.  Who have perhaps stumbled upon a personal epiphany or, as is often the case, done the hard and painful work of achieving a deeper understanding of why they do what they do.

And then there are people who are just full of shit.  Who lay claim to suddenly discovering something about their world which was not just staring them in the face all along, but was a subject about which they had been hailed as an expert.  A paid, professional expert.

Imagine a master carpenter who claims decades of experience, one day picking up a saw and demanding to know, "A device for literally cutting wood?  What unnatural deviltry it this?!?"

Imagine a board-certified podiatrist with 25 years of experience suddenly proclaiming, "Oh my God, you mean there are five toes on the average human foot?  What the fuck did that happen?" 

Which brings us a column by David French published just a few days ago in The New York Times, where, inexplicably, Mr. French now has a job for life writing about "law, culture, religion, and armed conflict."

I've mentioned Mr. French before on this blog. 

Outside of wingnut circles of self-admiration, most normal people may have first heard of him when he was Bill Kristol’s Never Trump fantasy league choice to run for President in 2016. Because voting for Hillary was just too icky.

Mr. French used to be a writer at America's oldest journal of white supremacy, The National Review, where he used his position to advance his many odious opinions, which all grew out of his hardcore, Conservative Evangelical "Christianity".   But, as happened back in those days, Mr. French ran afoul of the MAGA right on the issue of Donald Trump, they ran him right out of there.  How fortunate for him that he also had so many friends in the "liberal" media, that a job was almost immediately found for him at The New York Times.

Because of course it was

However, before they could bring him on board, Mr. French had to hastily "rethink" some of him more medieval beliefs about woman  and gays and so forth so that he could meet the minimum requirements for reputational rehabilitation by the Beltway media.   Then, on to the Times!  After which a slot was found for him at The Bulwark, and an occasional chair was found for him on cable news.  

Because of course they were.  

Anyway, this week, The New York Time's new, in-house expert on religion wrote a long column which began with this headline:

The Day My Old Church Canceled Me Was a Very Sad Day 

There followed a very long column about how shocked, stunned (pardon me while I make a quick trip to my pocket Roget's) astonished, bewildered, dismayed, floored and , yes, even flabbergasted that his Conservative evangelical church was full of...Conservative evangelicals all along!

Just as he and the rest of his Never Trumper friend were dumbfounded, overcome and, yes, even stupefied t discover that their Republicans Party was, y'know...

Here's a small snip of that long column:

This week, the leaders of the Presbyterian Church in America will gather in Richmond, Va., for their annual General Assembly. The Presbyterian Church in America is a small, theologically conservative Christian denomination that was my family’s church home for more than 15 years.

It just canceled me.

I am now deemed too divisive to speak to a gathering of Christians who share my faith. I was scheduled to speak about the challenges of dealing with toxic polarization, but I was considered too polarizing.

I was originally invited to join three other panelists on the topic of “how to be supportive of your pastor and church leaders in a polarized political year.” One of the reasons I was invited was precisely that I’ve been the target of intense attacks online and in real life.

The instant my participation was announced, those attacks started up again. There were misleading essays, vicious tweets, letters and even a parody song directed at the denomination and at me. The message was clear: Get him off the stage.

And that’s what the conference organizers chose to do. They didn’t just cancel me. They canceled the entire panel. But the reason was obvious: My presence would raise concerns about the peace and unity of the church. ... 

This is where you all should feel free to make up whatever "Come of Jesus moment" joke suits you and share it in the comments if you like.

As a rebuttal witness to, I call to the stand Ms. Diana Butler Bass, who, according to her author’s CV:  

...has had a conflicted relationship with evangelicalism over the last several decades. Early in her career, she was fired from the evangelical Westmont College, blacklisted, and ignored after she challenged traditional beliefs. She has written extensively about progressive Christianity ever since, and is the author of eight books, including Grounded: Finding God in the World—A Spiritual Revolution and, most recently, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks. 

And this, from The Chautauquan Daily,  is a very short version of the circumstances of her firing:

Bass was fired from her dream job for doing nothing wrong.

At the time she was working as a theology professor at an evangelical Christian college. Bass said the president of the university told her: “You’re an amazing student and an amazing scholar. I’m literally just firing you because you don’t fit here.”

So, without further ado, take it away Ms. Bass (via excerpted from Twitter):

So, David French has “never seen anything like it” when his evangelical church turned on him?

Welcome to my life for the last 30 years.

THIS IS WHAT EVANGELICALS DO. Always. They cancel people.

It just takes privileged conservative guys a while to notice I guess.

He literally just said “there are churches where you can’t be a Democrat.”

THIS HAS BEEN HAPPENING FOR 30 years. Geez. He didn’t know this????? There are millions of people who have experienced this. Evangelicalism has ruined so many lives.

Also, maybe he should memorize that Niemoller quote: “First they came….”

Finally, I’m all for Prodigal Sons and deathbed conversions. If, however, your job is public commentary on religion, you shouldn’t be so clueless. 

Maddening, isn’t it?  

Until they kicked him in the metaphorical teeth and tossed his ass out of his own church, David French somehow never noticed that his cult was a nest of bigoted, hateful vipers.  And it allegedly caught him completely by surprise when his church reacted exactly as anyone who wasn’t in that particular cult could have told him they would react.

Dead-wrong all along about religion? 

And about politics?

So of course The New York Times was gonna hand David French some of the most valuable real estate in journalism so he could write about both on the Sulzberger's payroll..

I Am The Liberal Media