Its not often that I am in communication with organizational presidents or successful authors, and its even more rare for them to insult me. Yesterday was just my lucky day i guess, as Brannon Howse from the Christian Worldview Network fulfilled all of those traits when he felt felt it was necessary to email me.
Allow me to back up and provide the necessary background. One of the ways I relieve stress is to go onto websites run by fundies, specifically http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com. I then proceed to read a few of the articles presented there, and after amassing a sufficient amount of grief and depression towards my fellow man, I usually say something in the comment section to counteract the authors claim, in as careful, polite, and logically sound language as I can muster. This is the first time that I've ever received an email back in response to one of these comments, however, and it made me happy to know the right people consider me the enemy.
But you need more background than that. Christian Worldview Network is a division of Worldview weekend, which is devoted to helping christians "understand the times through a christian worldview." According to these folks, a 'christian worldview' is diametrically opposed to the 'modern day liberal worldview' which is of course headonistic, shallow, and secretly ruled by satan. These are the evangelicals people are talking about about whenever the 'irrational right' or 'theocrats' are mentioned.
Brannon Howse, is, according to his bio, "President and founder of American Family Policy Institute and Worldview Weekend," author of at least six books, founder and host of various Worldview activities and conferences, and Tom Delay name dropper. Notice the photo gallery with various other conservatives that Brannon is proud of.
He's also the author of this article, "Make Worldview Training a Sweet Deal for Your Kids". Mr. Howse makes the argument that parents should use pre-approved books as a necessary requirement before the child can get a driver's license. He gives the example of his own 10 year old son not being allowed to play computer games until he does a certain amount of studying out of his fathers selected books, with the hope that by the time his son graduates high school, he will have read hundreds of books that will keep his mind strong against the evils of the secular humanistic universities that he will invariably find himself in.
What kind of books provide this sort of moral fortitude you might ask? Well Mr. Howse is happy to help out, and readily recommends... what else? Worldview weekend books. All the knowledge necessary is available in the many books offered, on all subjects that could possibly pertain to having a christian worldview.
My comment that provoked Mr. Howse to write back sadly cannot be found with the other comments on the article (something about prescreening comments to see if they're appropriate to be associated with the article), so I cannot quote it exactly. It was something to the effect of "forgive me if I'm just being cynical, but this seems like nothing more than a desperate ploy to sell books."
Imagine when I checked my email a few hours late to find this:
You got that right...cynic and clueless.
from the man himself, or at least from his given email address. I was psyched. i had gotten to them! And this wasn't just some columnist, it was the president! I calmed down, kept my composure, and wrote out an answer:
there was no need to insult me Mr. Howse, I phrased my criticism of your article as politely as possible, I would appreciate some civility if you choose to respond to my critique. As to my cynicism, It is only reasonable to be at least skeptical when one considers you're enormous investment in all things world view, especially the direct involvement and creation of many of the products that you recommend your readers buy in your article. Promoting your ideas and message and having a product to go along with it is one thing, presenting your products in the way you do, as an end rather than an aid, borders on dishonest.
Classy right? No smack-down of his beliefs, no attacks against his hypocrisy, i even managed to avoid calling him a republican shill or a Straussian. (is that redundant?) But did Mr. Howse think that we could agree to disagree, or give me the reasons behind his article, or what about these books provides all these answers? no, the president of an influential prominent organization sent back the following reply:
blah, blan blah,
That was it! not even a full sentence in even the most basic sense, as it ends with that comma. and he misspelled blah! This was so childish, so disdainful of manners, I was a little offended. But secretly I was bouncing off the walls. Then I started laughing. I knew that as far as thinking was concerned, I had won. Progressives had won. They're leaders are rude, so cocky, that this guy felt he could just blow off a reader and possible customer (ok so i would never buy anything from them, but he couldn't have known that). They're weak, paranoid, stupid, and any other adjective that may have been ascribed to Bill O'reilly.
So next time you get involved talking to a theocrat, whether they be a founder of a large republican propaganda outlet or just your next door neighbor, don't get upset when your logic and reason go by unheard. Its proof that their position is going to have to undergo massive reform if its not to dissapear completely, and if you can avoid getting angry, it's probably worth a laugh or two.