I love the developing story of the conservative Christians having a summit at a ranch outside Houston to agree on a Republican candidate as their Anointed One, getting snookered by the Catholic contingent, by a little sharp electoral practice, into naming Rick Santorum (don't forget to click, it's still down in fourth place).
It seems that after two indecisive ballots a number of the delegates had to leave to catch planes, so a rump cast a third ballot without them, or with (possibly kind of forged) proxies, and [jump]
As a result of which, a Washington Times article said,
Funny how the aggrieved evangelicals preferred Gingrich--isn't he a Catholic too? But I guess Gingrich only converted for the sex, sort of like Henri IV ("Callista's worth a mass"). Whereas Santorum is clearly the genuine Opus Dei cultist article, as you can see in that dead-eyed, dopey smile, which I remember well from the Maharaj Ji disciples and Lyndon Larouche adepts of the good old days.
How did this unholy alliance get started in the first place? Don't Catholics have any lingering bad feelings about the Reformation? Don't Evangelicals think of the Pope as the Whore of Babylon? Is abortion that important that it outweighs 500 years of mutual terror? I mean, I'm not talking about liberal Christians like in Germany, or New York, or something, these are the conservatives' conservatives.
Apparently a big factor was the late Richard Neuhaus, a liberal Lutheran minister who became a reactionary Catholic priest out of the shock of Roe v. Wade. (Actually, the decision was in 1973 and he was received into the Roman Communion in 1990, so you can't say it was done thoughtlessly.) He advised President Bush, and some say the Catholics got the best out of that deal, in the way there are no longer any Protestants on the Supreme Court bench.
You don't suppose, come to think of it, that it's been one of those classic conspiracies all along, do you? Jesuitical machinations, the climax of the Counter-Reformation, using the dread of abortion as a pretext for taking over the fundamentalist Protestant sects, a Southern Strategy for reversing the Reformation once and for all? Pull those yokels into the embrace of the Scarlet Woman? Jeez, I hope so!
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| The Sufi saint Ibrahim ibn Adham (c. 718–c. 789) in an 18th-century Indian miniature. This version found here. He is the subect, under a garbled name, of Leigh Hunt's poem "Abu ben Adhem". |
It seems that after two indecisive ballots a number of the delegates had to leave to catch planes, so a rump cast a third ballot without them, or with (possibly kind of forged) proxies, and [jump]
The angel wrote, and vanished. Then, that night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo! Santorum's name led all the rest.
As a result of which, a Washington Times article said,
in back-and-forth emails, Protestant fundamentalist leaders who attended — most of them backing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to be the anti-Romney candidate — are accusing Catholic participants of conniving to rig the vote.(WT has now scrubbed this language in favor of a more non-denominational account, but the echo of the Thirty Years' War has left a few traces, notably in the comments.)
Funny how the aggrieved evangelicals preferred Gingrich--isn't he a Catholic too? But I guess Gingrich only converted for the sex, sort of like Henri IV ("Callista's worth a mass"). Whereas Santorum is clearly the genuine Opus Dei cultist article, as you can see in that dead-eyed, dopey smile, which I remember well from the Maharaj Ji disciples and Lyndon Larouche adepts of the good old days.
How did this unholy alliance get started in the first place? Don't Catholics have any lingering bad feelings about the Reformation? Don't Evangelicals think of the Pope as the Whore of Babylon? Is abortion that important that it outweighs 500 years of mutual terror? I mean, I'm not talking about liberal Christians like in Germany, or New York, or something, these are the conservatives' conservatives.
Apparently a big factor was the late Richard Neuhaus, a liberal Lutheran minister who became a reactionary Catholic priest out of the shock of Roe v. Wade. (Actually, the decision was in 1973 and he was received into the Roman Communion in 1990, so you can't say it was done thoughtlessly.) He advised President Bush, and some say the Catholics got the best out of that deal, in the way there are no longer any Protestants on the Supreme Court bench.
You don't suppose, come to think of it, that it's been one of those classic conspiracies all along, do you? Jesuitical machinations, the climax of the Counter-Reformation, using the dread of abortion as a pretext for taking over the fundamentalist Protestant sects, a Southern Strategy for reversing the Reformation once and for all? Pull those yokels into the embrace of the Scarlet Woman? Jeez, I hope so!
Cesare Siepi as the bluff Protestant soldier Marcel--finding himself in the midst of a party of high-tone Catholics, he immediately begins to pray. Keep listening! a Huguenot battle song follows: "Piff, paff, pouff!"
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