Sullivan: Mitt Romney A "Christianist," But Not A Christian

Taranto (last item) catches Sullivan playing the Mormon card:

Mitt Romney will surely provide a fascinating glimpse into the Christianist mindset in the coming two years. He will be the candidate for the Christianist right, but he's not a Christian. And many Christianists may well recoil at the man's Mormon faith. . . . This emerges as a delicious irony: a candidacy made possible by sectarian politics could subsequently be made impossible by the same forces. I'm sorry if I have little sympathy for Romney's plight. Live by fundamentalism; die by fundamentalism.

One can be a "Christianist" without actually being, you know, Christian. Who knew? In the Sulliverse, all things are possible; Sullivan just needs to wish them to be, and so they are.

Anyone remember when Sullivan was pro-life? I do. Apparently, however, that position was easily changeable. He now seems fairly vehemently pro-choice:

Since the galvanizing force for Christianism (not Christianity, I might add) is the imposition of public policy criminalizing all abortions, banning all legal protections for gay couples, and banning embryonic stem cell research, the theological issues do not seem to me a huge problem for the Christianist Popular Front.

And of course he's not really pro-choice so much as he's against people who are against gay marriage, who are largely (but not exclusively) pro-life. Ergo, a flip-flop on a trivial issue like abortion in order to better align himself with those who support gay marriage, The Only Issue That Matters.

Taranto snarks that the world changed on "2/24" for Sullivan, which I guess is the day Bush announced his support for the FMA. Kind of funny -- 2/24 as an epochal watershed, similar to 9/11 (only much more important).

And I just can't help but steal Taranto's last bit. Romney's not a Christian, but guess who is?

The Madonna NBC concert was, to my mind, astonishingly good. . . . I believe Madonna is often an authentically Catholic pop-artist. Case in point: a whole set last night focused on chidren [sic] orphaned by AIDS in Africa, and used as its leitmotif a verse from Matthew's Gospel. Here is a pop performer, reaching millions, and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. . . . Madonna is closer to Jesus' authentic teachings in this respect than many Christianists.

Indeed, she is closer to "Jesus' authentic teachings." Who among us can forget the Sermon on the Gigantic Stage-Prop Dildo?

Thanks to Larwyn.

posted by Ace at 04:25 PM

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