Andrew English wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paten241 at aol.com <Paten241 at aol.com>
> To: Marxist at yahoogroups.com <Marxist at yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Thursday, July 12, 2001 6:43 PM
> Subject: [marxist] Gary Condit for Marxists
>
> OK! I know, tabloid journalism, sleaze, The degradation of public discourse
> etc. But this is a pretty interesting piece. I apologize in advance to our
> Comrades that are not residents of the benighted USA. I suspect you are all
> bemused by the truly surreal nature of our *culture wars*. Frankly so am I
> most of the time.
> Here it is anyway.
> B.
>
> Ten Commandments' Sponsor Finds Demons Chasing Him
> By Robert Scheer
> How quickly the judges become the judged. Not so long ago, Rep. Gary Condit
> (news - bio - voting record), D-Calif., was hectoring Bill Clinton on the
> need to come clean about an alleged extramarital affair. Now it is the
> congressman's turn to be evasive. But the implications, given the suspicious
> disappearance of Chandra Ann Levy, are far greater.
>
> The distance between adultery and the implication of murder is enormous.
> Condit's spokespersons are right that the media feeding frenzy is fueling
> expectations of the worst kind. But his alleged simultaneous liaisons with a
> 25-year-old intern and a flight attendant would suggest that we have yet
> another dreary example that the most self-righteous of our politicians might
> have the most to hide.
>
> Clearly Condit was declaiming against his own demons when he co-sponsored
> legislation calling for displaying the Ten Commandments in public buildings.
> How easy it is to forget the admonishment against adultery when it is not
> prominently posted at every turn in the Capitol.
>
> The argument typically advanced in support of the government's dabbling in
> religion is that the constitutional mandate of a separation of church and
> state erodes the power of religious truths and leads inevitably to a liberal,
> secular and amoral society.
>
> How then is one to explain Condit, who has been an evangelical Christian all
> his life? There's nothing liberal or secular about him. He's a strong
> pro-life, family values, Bible-quoting son of a Baptist minister who is rated
> highly by the Christian Coalition and flunks out with the ACLU.
>
> Don't blame his moral lapses on the influence of decadent Hollywood movies or
> the '60s counterculture. Condit spent the first 19 years of his life in
> Oklahoma, attending tent revival meetings with his minister father and
> singing in a quartet on a Christian radio show. When he moved to California
> in 1967, it wasn't to join a hippie commune in San Francisco but rather to
> accompany his father, who became the pastor of the Village Chapel Free Will
> Baptist Church in Ceres, a town in the conservative San Joaquin Valley.
>
> Condit was only 23 when first elected to the Ceres City Council and went on
> to become one of the most consistently conservative members of the California
> Democratic congressional delegation. His is a pro-gun and pro-God combo that
> plays so well in the agriculture belly of California that four years ago no
> Republican candidate even bothered to oppose him.
>
> Condit's public commitment to conservative family values was underscored by
> his father's declaration three years ago that "I'm a very strong
> Bible-believing minister, and I believe with all my heart that God has had
> his hand on Gary because every time he was ready for a step up, a door
> opened."
>
> An equally strong endorsement was offered by the Rev. A. Dwight Burchett,
> California representative of the National Association of Evangelicals, who in
> 1995 hailed Condit as a stellar example of a revival of Christian presence in
> national politics. "America has been in desperate need of Christians in
> government leadership. Real Christians. Those who have been in leadership by
> and large have taken the American cultural experience down an 'anti-Bible'
> path." He then offered Condit and Sen. John Ashcroft (news - web sites) of
> Missouri as two leading examples of evangelical Christians stepping up in
> Washington to turn things around.
>
> Condit's congressional performance did not disappoint. Not only was his
> voting record on social issues solidly conservative, he condemned Clinton's
> dalliances and he fortified his own morality by rigorous participation in a
> weekly Bible-study group.
>
> One of his Bible study classmates was then-Rep. Rick Lazio (news - web
> sites), who last year lost a Senate bid to Hillary Clinton (news - web
> sites). When asked about Condit's troubles, Lazio said: "Gary Condit would be
> one of the last people I would imagine that I would find in the middle of a
> story like this."
>
> That could have been said of Newt Gingrich, Robert Livingston, Henry Hyde and
> Helen Chenoweth, just to mention the congressional Republicans whose
> denunciations of Clinton's moral lapse in the Lewinsky affair were followed
> by reluctant admissions of their own sexual transgressions.
>
> The revelation that sin is widespread in the ranks of judgmental politicians
> prompted the Rev. Barry Lynn of the Americans United for Separation of Church
> and State to caution that "Congress should probably spend more time obeying
> the Ten Commandments and less time trying to exploit them for crass political
> purposes."
>
> Politicians should also learn to deal honestly with the consequences of their
> temptations. Obviously Condit was so preoccupied with his appearance as a man
> of virtue that he did not act with virtuous haste and honesty in telling the
> police in a timely fashion exactly what he knew.
>
> © 2001 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
>
> Email this story - View most popular
>
> "[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt."
> --Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31
>
> Community email addresses:
> Post message: marxist at yahoogroups.com
> Subscribe: marxist-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
> Unsubscribe: marxist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
> List owner: jplst15+ at pitt.edu
>
> Shortcut URL to this page:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist
>
> Also take our one-question survey at
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/polls
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
> The preceding is a personal opinion. Try not to post more than daily.
>
> ==^================================================================
> EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?b1dj8W.b1IoYV
> Or send an email To: asdnet-unsubscribe at igc.topica.com
> This email was sent to: crdbronx at erols.com
>
> T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
> http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
> ==^================================================================