Still working on posting more often…in the meantime, more Sunday links:<\/p>\n
Damon Linker<\/a>\u00a0wants to know “Why Aren’t Conservative Intellectuals Disgusted with the GOP<\/a>?” \u00a0Good question, and it begs the “what is a conservative intellectual” follow up. \u00a0Whoever it is, I think they’re wondering what to do now that they’ve constructed an electoral coalition on racism, nativism and a reactionary theological\/cultural movement based on imagined existential threats to American society. \u00a0They’ve painted themselves into an ideological corner and handed extremists the brush. \u00a0To the extent any conservative intellectuals exist, I suspect they do feel disgust for today’s GOP. \u00a0They just lack the moral courage to say so.<\/p>\n Googling around for background on Linker lead me to\u00a0this post from over a year ago<\/a> by Rod Dreher<\/a>. \u00a0Quoting a Linker piece about “…why its not right for same-sex marriage proponents \u2014 as he is \u2014 to say that Christians who oppose SSM are on the same footing as racists,” Dreher argues in effect that it’s impossible to “…reconcile normative Christianity with sanctioning gay relationships, without doing serious violence to Christian teaching.” \u00a0Since this teaching so permeates the very essence of Christianity and its moral teachings, it justifies discrimination against homosexuals in a way it failed to justify racial discrimination. \u00a0 In the end it still comes down to using religion to justify discrimination.<\/p>\n