This Just In: Bill Moyers Is an Ass
Out: Christians elect Christians, unacceptably mixing church and state. Oh, those dumb Christians.
In: Christians elect entities run by people they think are Christians but who really aren’t. Oh, those dumb Christians.
Moyers:
… reports were circulating that [Karl Rove] himself had confessed to friends his own agnosticism; he wished he could believe, but he cannot. That kind of intellectual honesty is to be admired, but you have to wonder how all those folks on the Christian right must feel discovering they were used for partisan reasons by a skeptic, a secular manipulator.
And Rove calls the PBS ombudsman to respond, after an intervening interview with Chris Wallace and Moyers standing by his statement:
In his call to me [PBS ombudsman Michael Getler], Rove said, “If someone says he is a believer, why is that not accepted? He (Moyers) has decided he will be the judge and the jury about whether I’m a believer. He attributes this to unknown parties and then defends it in a letter to Chris Wallace, with no personal interface with me at all. How does the San Antonio Express know? They don’t. They don’t know me well. He (Moyers) then relies on a blogger who says ‘I could be wrong here.’ Well, he is wrong.” Rove calls Moore an “incredible left-wing ideologue.” Bill Israel, he says, “was once my teaching assistant. He was no more a close friend of mine than the man in the moon. I attend church in my neighborhood and here in Washington. I was married in church, worship in church, tithe to the church. My faith is my business. This is just beyond the pale.”
Aside: The ombudsman at PBS doesn’t like Moyers pulling this crap on PBS’s dime? That really is just in.
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That is ironic and annoying on a couple levels. Don’t the lefty Christians have fits when someone wants to draw a line on essential vs. non-essential beliefs?
It is amazing how some think it is un-Constitutional that someone would let their religious beliefs inform their political views.
Comment by Neil — August 26, 2007 @ 2:44 pm
Hi Neil, welcome.
I don’t think Moyers was making any remarks on essential beliefs here–he was merely reporting as fact that Karl Rove has said he’s not actually a Christian, which Rove then categorically denied while Moyers continues to stand by his “facts.”
And to be perfectly clear I’m not saying Moyers ever said that to vote for a Christian because you are a Christian is an unacceptable mixing of church and state–that just always seems to be the underlying implication when people complain that Christians voted for Bush solely because he is one.
Comment by Anwyn — August 26, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
Several years ago (perhaps as many as ten) Moyers did a televised symposium on religion. He invited people representing all manner of traditions and beliefs and seem to think that, really, everyone gathered there was looking for the same thing. Why can’t we all just get along? Why get hung up on the doctrinal differences?
From a pluralist standpoint (at least in theory) I supposed that was a good thing. Let people be and they’ll let you be. From a theological standpoint it was ludicrous. Baptists are Baptists; Methodists are Methodists; Neo-Reformed Unassociated Conglomerated Pentecostals are Neo-Reformed Unassociated Conglomerated Pentecostals for really important reasons within their respective creeds.
But if all religious belief is relative and inter-connected and Rove says he’s a Christian, who is Moyers (or anyone else) to say he’s not? And if Rove corrects Moyers, the least Moyers can do is offer a retraction. Seems like a Christian thing to do.
But what do I know? I’m an Atheist who voted for Bush in 2000 despite his profession of faith.
Comment by Norm — August 26, 2007 @ 5:38 pm