Ah-he-he-hem: Sally Quinn Wishes to Know To What Extent We Should Hold A Politician's Religious Associations Against Him

She means Governor Perry's "Pastor Problem," a problem she creates by dubbing it with a cute name.

Perry’s critics are concerned about his distinctly Christian approach to public prayer as well as his association, through ‘The Response,’ with several problematic pastors, among them John Hagee, controversial for his comments on Israel, the Roman Catholic Church and Islam, and C. Peter Wagner, who has suggested that the Catholic veneration of saints is an evil practice.Should politicians be judged by the religious company they keep?

Really, dude?

I seem to recall the media embargoing this until Obama had safely won the primaries (despite Hillary's people trying to get attention for it), then downplaying it, then claiming the entire issue had been resolved with a speech worthy of Lincoln, then declaring news shows "Reverend Wright Free Zones."

But Perry's got a Pastor Problem, huh?

But this isn't anti-Perry bias; no, Michele Bachmann gets equal treatment.

Michele Bachmann is practically synonymous with political controversy, and if the 2008 presidential election is any guide, the conservative Lutheran church she belonged to for many years is likely to add another chapter due to the nature of its beliefs—such as its assertion, explained and footnoted on this website, that the Roman Catholic Pope is the Antichrist.

Bachmann was a longtime member of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minn., which belongs to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, a council of churches founded in 1850 that today includes about 400,000 people.

WELS is the most conservative of the major Lutheran church organizations, known for its strict adherence to the writings of Martin Luther, the German theologian who broke with the Catholic Church and launched the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. This includes endorsing Luther's statements about the papacy. From the WELS "Doctrinal Statement on the Antichrist":

Since Scripture teaches that the Antichrist would be revealed and gives the marks by which the Antichrist is to be recognized, and since this prophecy has been clearly fulfilled in the history and development of the Roman Papacy, it is Scripture which reveals that the Papacy is the Antichrist.

It is what it is. I have heard this all before, as most of you probably have; many of the more evangelical or fundamentalist Protestant sects believe, or are at least willing to entertain the idea, that the Pope is the Anti-Christ, as the whole Catholic Church is some kind of Satanic plot to lead people into error and therefore lose salvation.

A lot of fundamentalists believe this. I've seen Jack Chick style comic books making this case. One cover I remember had three bad villains -- Hitler, Stalin (or was it Mussolini?), and Pope Innocent X.

I really wish they wouldn't believe crap like this, and push this kind of hokum out there. But they do.

It's a tough thing to spin, especially to Catholic voters. Vote for me; I think you are in darkness and going to Hell because your religion is a false one concocted by Satan himself.

The Veneration of Saints thing is a long, long, longstanding schism between the Catholic and Protestant strains of Christianity. It's not super-new. It's pretty standard-issue Protestantism that the veneration of saints is, to their mind, in error. I'm 99.99% certain that was one of the main Theses Martin Luther nailed to that famous door.

But then, I also remember the media telling me this stuff just doesn't matter.

I guess maybe Perry and Bachmann will have to give a speech, and then the media will declare the controversy over with all questions resolved.

Oh: Actually, Sally Quinn herself called the Pope "Nixon."

And also thought it was unfair that the wonderful Reverend Wright was tarnished by... wait for it...
racism.

In May of 2008, Sally Quinn of the Washington Post’s On Faith site went on PBS’s Charlie Rose show and decried Barack Obama’s decision to distance himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, since Wright was an incredible man being ruined by "latent racism." She even blundered into expressing that this shaming of Wright "has been absolutely devastating to me -- to him, sorry."

Sally Quinn's "On Faith" is accurately named, as far as it goes. Add the word "liberal" -- as in, "On Liberal Faith" -- and it's completely accurate.

"Jeremiah Wright is known as one of the best theologians in the country."

Oh, I Forgot: Right right right. I forgot that Wright also slammed the Jews frequently. But right, Quinn excuses that.

Oh Dear: MandyP. writes:

As for Michele Bachmann, you have to get pretty far down into the article before they mention the relevant fact that she's not a Lutheran anymore. I think she attends some Evangelical church now.

Oh that's just precious. I didn't even get that far into it so it worked. Putting highly relevant information that undermines your case in chief twenty boring paragraphs down.

Well played, Atlantic Magazine.

You guys still endorse Sullivan's Trigtherist Conspiracies, by the way?

posted by Ace at 12:32 PM

| Access Comments