Gettting Well Versed
"The verse clearly refers to death, not to his days in office," Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center told me in an interview for my AlterNet story. "These are not amusing or harmless words," he said. "They are calling for someone's death and they ought to be recognized as such." O'Neal is still refusing to resign, but we can be sure that the e-mail at the center of the controversy, which was forwarded to O'Neal, and he in turn forwarded to the Republican caucus in the Kansas House, will continue to live in the culture, endlessly forwarded and the bumper sticker slogan will continue to appear on tee shirts and bumper stickers and other such merch; and the imprecatory Psalm itself will continue to be used by demagogic preachers. Thus this is not a "news" item that becomes stale and people rush on to the next outrage. This is a matter that has a lot of cultural momentum. The continuing efforts to hold O'Neal accountable for his casual invocation of an imprecatory prayer, and ongoing reporting of the controversy, may help to thwart it. The way this will work is if we don't have to reinvent the wheel each time Psalm 109.8 pops up. We know that this is not a joke and we know why.
Gettting Well Versed | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
Gettting Well Versed | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
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