Either/Or

As I watched the Tucson memorial service, the pagan-tinged invocation by a person of mixed Latino/Yaqui blood made me think “this is going to make Limbaugh, Beck and company apoplectic.” Aren’t we supposed to be a Christian nation?

That got me back to pondering the Right’s black-and-white thinking, and it suggested what might well lie at the root: the whole Christian attitude of exclusivity.

This is essentially a Protestant phenomenon: you’re either saved or you’re not. Roman Catholicism always offered more loopholes in terms of absolution, penance, confession, and intercession, not to mention the whole Purgatory scenario. But for Protestants, you either believe or you’re damned for all eternity. And when you think about this country’s Calvinist and Puritan heritage, that attitude goes hand-in-glove with capitalism. (And let’s not forget the whole racial bit: if you’re not all white, you’re not white at all, so never mind that Obama has an Anglo mother.)

The problem with the Protestant mindset is that it’s totally locked in. You just can’t get a true believer to accept shades of gray. Unfortunately, it extends to our president’s skin, to the evils of socialism and gun control, and to any form of thinking that requires an open mind.