Blog Post of the Day
I read blogs from all over the political spectrum, including a lot of very good diehard liberal ones. And over the last week, one big outcry has been over Obama’s gospel tour in South Carolina. Literally, he’s invited a bunch of gospel singers to go around to campaign events with him to soul things up. It actually sounds like a great time.
Anyway, one of the prominent gospel singers, it turns out, is intolerant of gays. Believes that homosexuality is a choice, and a sin. Like, you know, most every church-thumpin’ Southern evangelical.
The response from liberal quarters to the news that she’s on the campaign trail with Obama has been savage outcry. BURN THE INTOLERATORS!!!!!
I tend to gloss over this kind of thing when I read it, so I haven’t paid the story all that much attention, but via Sully, this post at a pro-Obama blog gives pretty much the 100% best response to this howling that one could imagine.
There’s a terrific lesson contained in that post. Even if you’re not interested in the specific flap, it’s absolutely worth checking out.
It would be an irony to end all ironies if Obama’s Sista Souljah moment came from denouncing hysterical liberal criticism of an anti-gay evangelical stumping for him. But…well, shouldn’t he? Isn’t the linked blogger absolutely, dead-on right?
Tolerance, very fundamentally, means being willing to engage people across the spectrum of tolerance, doesn’t it? It doesn’t mean building fences around everyone who doesn’t meet increasingly idealistic litmus tests of tolerance, right?
Thankfully, Obama seems to understand this to his core. At least compared to some of the rest of the Democratic field, or peanut gallery.
Go read the post.