November 2, 2003
DAMN THE FACTS!:
Onward, Christian Soldier!: The jihad against General Boykin. (David Gelernter, 11/03/2003, Weekly Standard)
LIEUTENANT GENERAL William Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and a highly decorated officer, has intimated that the United States is a Christian country and that he is, himself, a Christian. Journalists across the nation are shocked and horrified. Apparently the general has been traveling around the country speaking in churches, and has gone so far as to suggest that all religions are not equivalent and that, while he relies on his own God, the one bloody-minded terrorists praise and celebrate must be a different and a false one. Naturally he has apologized (to "those who have been offended by my statements") and promised never to do it again. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made things worse by refusing to kick Boykin when he is down, and by adding such weird, unaccountable pronouncements of his own as, "That's the way we live. We're a free people." At this point, the world's hyperventilating pundits need time to compose themselves. While they are resting, here are a few simple, healing truths about which we can all agree. (Pretty much.)Of course the United States is a Christian country. In fact it is a baseball-loving Christian country. Which doesn't mean that everyone is a Christian or loves baseball. Which doesn't empower the government to establish a national baseball team or force non-Christians to be baptized. It is just a statement of fact.
It is also a statement of principle. The essence of conservatism is to build our future in harmony with our past. (It is a moral, intellectual, and artistic principle: Naturally the structure must grow and is always growing, but in what style?) The Founding Fathers made clear that they wanted the federal government out of the religion business. No federal functionary (and no wiseacre journalist) had the right to dictate anyone's religious beliefs, or force him to keep quiet should he choose to express them.
The problem is that political correctness is, nearly by definition, at odds with facts.
MORE:
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-REVIEW: of The New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds (Tammy Bruce)
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-REVIEW: of Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History (Mary Lefkowitz)
-REVIEW: of Out of America : A Black Man Confronts Africa (Keith B. Richburg)
-REVIEW: of How the Russians Invented Baseball : And Other Essays of Enlightenment (John Leo)
-REVIEW: of Politically Correct Bedtime Stories : Modern Tales for Our Life & Times (James Finn Garner)
-REVIEW: of How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace) (Harry Stein)