Sunday, March 19, 2006
Defining Fundamentalism Down
by Tom Bozzo
More interesting was the biographical detail that Donohue is an ex-sociology professor — Ph.D., NYU (1980). How many non-ex sociology professors would be caught dead saying things like this (via Media Matters)?
Go read Lance Mannion's excellent post on the media distortion of Christian fundamentalism into the mainstream form of religiosity. That's a companion phenomenon to having televised political commentary come from a Republican, a different kind of Republican, and a Libertarian. "Intemperate" but true:
But for the last 35 years or more, that loudmouth minority of self-styled Christians has been pushing their way into the political debate, pushing aside political debate, insisting on having their beliefs be everyone else's beliefs "because God says so," and doing their best to end liberal democracy in this country and replace it with an illiberal theocracy. They want to convert all the rest of us at gunpoint.While Lance singles out truly intemperate comments from a Nightline appearance by Franklin Graham, I've been more interested (car crash and train wreck dep't) about mass media regular and right-wing Catholic blowhard William A. Donohue. Donohue's hypersensitive ability to find anti-Catholicism in jet contrails seems to make him the media's go-to guy when "traditionalist" Catholic outrage is required, though a Media Matters profile from December '04 indicates that Donohue actually isn't on the broadcast networks very often — it just feels like it.
And I'm not saying that as a figure of speech. The guns are holstered and in the background, on the hips of the cops who would enforce all the theocratic laws these people would enact.
Would enact?
Are enacting.
More interesting was the biographical detail that Donohue is an ex-sociology professor — Ph.D., NYU (1980). How many non-ex sociology professors would be caught dead saying things like this (via Media Matters)?
[Donohue:] Now they're saying [The Passion of the Christ is] fascistic queer-bashing. That kind of language would ordinarily get somebody taken away in a straitjacket and -- put you in the asylum. I don't know what about -- the queer-bashing is all about. I'm pretty good about picking out who queers are and I didn't see any in the movie. I'm usually pretty good at that.
