Dean's Faith-Based Folly

WashingtonPost ^ | 01/10/04 | Colbert I. King

[Pikamax]

washingtonpost.com Dean's Faith-Based Folly

By Colbert I. King

Saturday, January 10, 2004; Page A19

Howard Dean took a pass on yesterday's Democratic presidential candidates debate, hosted by WTOP radio and George Washington University. Too bad. He missed a chance to show Democrats in the nation's capital that he cared enough to come to their first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Most of all, though, Dean lost out on a chance to be publicly declared the victor in a contest that he won even before the first Democratic votes are cast Tuesday in the District or later in the month in Iowa and New Hampshire.

It would have been my pleasure, had he chosen to be there, to personally give the former Vermont governor this year's prize for "Panda Bear of the Year."

A panda bear is my own humble way of recognizing the politician who is most shameless when it comes to pandering or ingratiating himself or herself with the voters. Dean is this year's winner, hands down. The second-place finisher wasn't even close.

Dean captured the suck-up prize with his revelation that -- praise the Lord -- he has finally found a way to talk about his deeply held religious faith. Most remarkable, and the reason he won going away, was his explanation for how he reached this exquisite moment of sudden understanding. Was it a particular scene, some road-to-Damascus experience, that occasioned such a flash of insight in Dean? What, pray tell, set off Dean's new compulsion to openly discuss Jesus and his mastery of the Bible?

Dean disclosed that his willingness -- no, make that eagerness -- to start sharing his faith with any reporter, microphone or voter within the sound of his voice comes as a result of his travels on the campaign trail. Yes, credit Dean's journey -- not to Damascus but on the road to the White House, which happens to take him down to the Bible Belt in South Carolina -- for bringing about the Democratic front-runner's epiphany. Dean discovered, to use his words, that way down south in Dixie, "The people there are pretty openly religious."

[miltonim]

He cites the New Testament's gospels as guiding influences in his life, and then holds up Job as his favorite book in the New Testament -- a flub he has to call back an hour later to correct.

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[Wilhelm Tell]

Dean might not be the people's candidate, but he may be the "You People" candidate.
Let me explain:

Dean tells every audience that he understands You People. When he is speaking to white Southerners, he says, in effect, "I understand You People, with your pick-up trucks and Confederate flags..." When he is speaking to African Americans, he says, "I understand how to handle You People. In fact, you will be pleased to know that my family has always been good to our servants..." When he is speaking to secularists, he says, "I know how You People feel. I was shocked to learn that there actually are people who openly practice religion, of all things..."

[AmericanVictory]

The Road to Damascus -- not. You will notice that folks like Dean, busily promoting the sinful agenda of homosexuality, don't acknowledge Paul at all.

[TigersEye]

That's a great insight. You have precisely pinned the tail on this donkey. ; )

[SerpentDove]

>>He cites the New Testament's gospels as guiding influences in his life, and then holds up Job as his favorite book in the New Testament -- a flub he has to call back an hour later to correct. <<

"Doctor" Dean, eh? What a buffoon.

[TigersEye]

You might be a metrosexual redneck if:

... you have a decal of Gay Jesus with a pink Confederate Battle Flag on the back window of your Isuzu Rodeo.

[VOA]

Dean probably didn't want to have to explain to the ACLUers and "separation of church
and state" folks in the audience about his use of religion in reaching his
decision on gay marriage.....
OH, I forgot, Dean's a Democrat...so it's OK if he works as a Theocrat now and then.

[TigersEye]

He says he prays daily and has read the Bible from cover to cover, but then reports that he rarely goes to church except for political events.

Separation of what?

[Criminal Number 18F]

a flub he has to call back an hour later to correct.

It's telling that none of the reporters caught the error in that hour. Most of 'em probably couldn't tell a bible from a phone book. Looking at the pages.

Tells you what the values are in newsrooms. eh? If anybody has a cross in his office, it's probably wrongside-up.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[VOA]

Separation of what?

Yes, Dean rarely attends, but IIRC he says that he's a member in good standing
with the Congregationalists/UCC.

Dean's "Elmer Gantry" phase is a joy to behold!
I just say "Please G-d, get him on The Trinity Network...especially with
the louder type of sing and praise shows."

[VOA]

... you have a decal of Gay Jesus with a pink Confederate Battle Flag on the
back window of your Isuzu Rodeo.

My guess would be a Subaru vehicle, not an Isuzu.
I tend to think a metrosexual would like to drive the acknowledged lesbian-brand vehicle.
LOL!

[sine_nomine]

He is a bicycle path Unitarian but seldom attends.

Someone defended him tonight on TV, saying Dean was simply a secular candidate. Truthfully, Dean is a good representative of the completely untutored. In the past sceptics were proud of knowing the religion they rejected as least as welll as the proponents of the faith (I am thinking of Ingersoll, for instance). But now we have to listen to nitwits like Dean ruminate about the true ending of Job, a New Testament book, as he claimed.

[TigersEye]

Yes but I was talking redneck metrosexual. But now that I think about it should have been 'metrosexual redneck christian.' Or maybe 'metrosexual redneck christian biker.'

Angry metrosexual redneck christian biker?

[KC_Conspirator]

That is an excellent explanation of Dean's attitude. Even worse than Jimmy Carter. (ex: You People need to wear sweaters, You People are a malaise, You People are ignorant)