From today's www.hughhewitt.com:


The first Vox Blogoli of 2005 deals with a Jonathan Rauch piece from the new Atlantic (subscription required.) Jonathan is a Yalie, a National Journal columnist, and the author of Gay Marriage. A more complete bio is here.

Rauch writes in his piece the following:

“On balance it is probably healthier if religious conservatives are inside the political system than if they operate as insurgents and provocateurs on the outside. Better they should write anti-abortion planks into the Republican platform than bomb abortion clinics. The same is true of the left. The clashes over civil rights and Vietnam turned into street warfare partly because activists were locked out of their own party establishments and had to fight, literally, to be heard. When Michael Moore receives a hero’s welcome at the Democratic National Convention, we moderates grumble; but if the parties engage fierce activists while marginalizing tame centrists, that is probably better for the social peace than the other way around.”

Hugh's invited a Blogswarm on Mr. Rauch's comments. As a pastor, long-time pro-lifer, conservative and an evangelical theologian, some thoughts:

Rauch (and the editors at The Atlantic) have made the common error of the false center, viz, we all tend to think we are stand at the dead center. Even if you're Dennis Kucinich, you think you are at the thoughtful center of political discourse, and that opinion is evenly divided to your right and left.

Rauch IDs himself as a "moderate." Take that with a whole bag, not a grain, of salt. It's not that he doesn't believe it; he does. That's why he cites Michael Shut-Out-Of-the-Oscars Moore is a fair representative of the nutty left, and religious conservatives/prolifers as representative of the nutty left. Voila, we have restored balance to the Force!

But I submit: which is closer to the center: the pro-life conservatives or the Moore-Ons? Now I realize I might suffer from error of the false center, but I don't think so. I think some recent elections, polls, etc., indicate that the I'm closer to dead center that Moore et al.

Notice I said closer. I'm no fool; I'm not at dead-center; I'm center-right. If the political spectrum was a chalk line ten feet long, I'm not at the five-foot mark. I'm at about the three-feet, six inch mark. I know I'm not at the center point.

Rauch thinks he's at the five foot mark. Well, maybe five foot six. He isn't. His position on same-sex marriage plants him firmly at the seven-foot mark, at least. But he and the Upper West Side compadres at Atlantic don't see it. They practically can't.

Oh, by the way, this pajamahadeen has a BA and MA in political science and two advanced degrees in theology.

(Dr.) Glenn Layne