K-Lo and Faith

I kid a lot about Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor and writer for National Review. I portray her as naive, good-hearted and simple-minded, but the truth is that she's just fucking crazy.

For all the "Bush lied, people died," hysteria, there is something of St.
Joseph in George W. Bush. St. Joseph plays a key part in the Christmas story. If you're a believer, you know -- you have faith -- that he wasn't Jesus Christ's biological father. But he was a loving, hard-working man, who out of all men the Creator trusted with his Son. St. Joseph had a faith that allowed him to follow divine requests that couldn't have made a whole lot of sense. He was a model of masculine faith. While all men are not called to act as a father to the most important man in human history, Christian manhood involves providing, protecting and obeying, not just when it comes to family life, but also in the Church. What would any religion be without a few good men?

Even if you're not a believer, St. Joseph was a carpenter who protected
the reputation of the woman he loved and provided for his family -- including
going so far as to take his family to Egypt to save his son's life. In the
bible, James describes him as a "doer."

And it's not just "The Decider" that seems to channel a little bit of
Joseph. The moving and shaking of St. Joseph brings to mind so many men I've
encountered over this past year. I know some of them as fathers of a
less-traditional sort, united in purpose with St. Joseph. I think of the founder
of the conservative movement -- and the magazine where I work -- who fought the
Cold War and built a freedom revolution. He was a man who was deeply in love
with his wife, even after she left this world. I think of his current successor,
who works daily to protect the legacy with which he has been entrusted. And I
think of a talk-show phenom who never forgets to invest in human capital,
fathering the movement by teaching for three hours a day and supporting his
fellow happy warriors, no matter where they are on the totem pole.

Only K-Lo could twist reality into a combination of a fairy-tale and Christian mythological world that she can crawl into to hide. That's Rush Limbaugh she's calling a saint. George Bush. William F. Buckley. In Lopez we can see and identify the traits that betray conservatives into harming themselves and everyone else around them. She is so extreme that the traits that are easy to overlook and excuse away in others are too glaring to dismiss.

Lopez utterly believes in faith. She sees it as a goal in itself instead of as a philosophy. Therefore it doesn't matter what she believes in. Lopez simply believes in it all. She believes in saving herself for marriage and that her sexuality belongs to her father and then her husband, because that is what her religious leaders tell her . She believes that her president is Godly because he says he is and therefore whatever he does is right and Godly, because she was brainwashed to be an authoritarian. The more outlandish the situation the better; they require more belief and demonstrate more holiness through belief. Some middle-class housewives like to pretend they are saints and martyrs, some truly are. Lopez lives and breathes and sacrifices for her beliefs, and what a narrow, fearful, worshipful life it is.