Mark Morford, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, writes that “hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country…” Wow, so how do you really feel, Mark? In an otherwise on-target assessment of youth culture, he connects problems in our nation’s education system with Christian lemmings. In my response, I note that those “lemmings” could help lead us out of the morass.
7 thoughts on “The sky is falling: Blame the Christians – New column”
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Warren said in post 60911:
Who are fundamentalist evangelical Christians?
Well I can’t speak for the author, so you’d have to ask him directly. However, for myself, I consider fundamentalists to be the extreme conservatives. The type that want to legislate the bible. Or who only value science as long as it confirms their interpretation of the bible, but consider anything contradictory to their interpretation to be wrong (ex. evolutionary theory).
The most inclusiive reading of this would be the 60 million who identify as evangelicals.
Why do you presume the most inclusive reading must be used? And that all who identify as evangelical would also identify as fundamentalist (by whatever they consider fundamentalist to mean)?
Who are fundamentalist evangelical Christians? The most inclusiive reading of this would be the 60 million who identify as evangelicals. A subset, I suppose, but a large one.
Warren said:
he connects problems in our nation’s education system with Christian lemmings.
His comments were no about christians in general. Nor about evangelical christians nor fundementalist christians, but about fundementalist, evangelical christians (with a few more qualifiers added on).
Additionally, he was not saying that the educational problems were caused by this subset of christians in the US, but would be worse than the problems caused by this subset of christians.
Good response Dr. T.
Clearly the author (not to mention Norm’s comment) shows just how ignorant of and out of touch with mainstream middle-american christianity the left coast really is.
I suppose they are just as afraid of the stereotypes about “us”, as we are about the stereotypes about “them”.
Norm – you’ll have to ask him if it is good to private school. He seemed to promote it. I have not come to that place yet although I would consider it if my local school was failing my kids. As it is we spend lots of time at home anyway — and we have pretty good schools here — very good actually.
Clearly, Mortford was comparing the current conservative Christian lemmings to future society of ignorant former public school students. He was not blaming ‘Christian lemmings’ for the failure of public schools — let alone a major point in his column.
It seemed to me that Mortford’s quip about “easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings” was referring to the stereotypical conservative society which feeds and votes on whatever the latest rant, scare, and misinformation that is perpetuated by Republican political leaders, right-wing media, consumer megachurches, and corporate interest groups. Admittedly from my bias perspective, I do believe religious and political fundamentalism caters to people’s simplest and most basic fears and instincts.
I don’t see how pulling Christians out of public schools and confining them to Christianist madrasahs benefits society. Wouldn’t investing in public schools and raising kids in diverse environments do more to make sure future generations are not ignorant lemmings?
I also read the Morford column. I found it humorous in places and as sad as the decline in education in others.
As you said in your reply, I found myself in general agreement with him regarding the state of American education, but I was less convinced regarding his reasons for this decline.
I think the christians jibe was indeed a little bit snarky, but why feed it with a reply? It was one line in a column that was relatively lengthy.
Personally, I felt he was refering to educational missteps, like the Kansas School Board which thought to teach intelligent design as an “alternative theory.”