On Oogedy Boogedyism

Jonah Goldberg asks,

What aspects of the Christian Right amount to oogedy-boogedyism? I take oogedy-boogedy to be a perjorative reference to absurd superstition and irrational nonsense. So where has the GOP embraced to its detriment oogedy-boogedyism? With the possible exception of some variants of creationism (which is hardly a major issue at the national level in the GOP, as much as some on the left and a few on the right try to make it one), I'm at a loss as to what Kathleen is referring to. Opposition to abortion? Opposition to gay marriage? Euthanasia? Support for prayer in school?

To which I would answer, roughly, "yes."

First, Jonah tries to steal a base when he fobs off the creationist issue by saying it "is hardly a major issue at the national level in the GOP." It's a little like saying that affirmative action isn't a major national issue in the Democratic Party because some Democrats support it strongly and the rest don't really care either way. It's not that easy.

Until fairly recently, the Democrats were happy to have the loud and vocal support of groups that favored massive restrictions of gun owners' rights. While most Democrats said (honestly, I think) that they had no problem with hunters and guns kept in the home, gun owners listened to what the Democratic fringe was saying and voted Republican. This GOP advantage has dissipated over the past 5-10 years because the Democrats no longer put Sarah Brady on stage at every major event, and are happy to showcase loudly pro-gun Democrats.

It is clear that the Republican party is publicly comfortable with oogedy-boogedy creationists in the same way the Democrats once were with the most extreme anti-gun campaigners. It doesn't matter that they're relatively limited in number, or that at heart, they represent a viewpoint that is much more common than the left-wing media would like you to believe. So long as we continue to entertain their affections unconditionally, we will be viewed as the party of flat-Earthers.

But there is another, larger force at work as well, and that is the increasing militancy of atheism and agnosticism. The Catholic Mass is a ritual of great beauty and cultural resonance, but that whole transubstantiation thing is rather oogedy-boogedy, no? It's interesting to note that in Japanese pop culture, elements of Christian ideology and iconography are occasionally used to impart the same air of exoticism which Hollywood gets from the Tao, Buddhism, or Hinduism.

As a conservative, I respect the great faiths of the world just as I would respect any other venerated tradition, and Christianity especially, as it is the great tradition of my tribe. If it happens that we celebrate Easter with the Saxon pagan fertility symbols and Christmas with Odin, well, big whoop. But if you are fundamentally a rational materialist, then all of this stuff is, as Jonah calls it, "absurd superstition and irrational nonsense."

But then, the US is also not a remotely atheist or rational-materialist nation. If the bayous of Louisiana are full of tongue-speakers and snake-handlers, the byways of Cambridge are filled with tantric yogis, reiki healers, and Wiccans. How many of them have ever even glanced at the Republican column?

No, the issue here is not "absurd superstition and irrational nonsense." It is Christian morality, and its proper role in setting public law.