Sam Brownback, Tear-Streaked Crusader

(posted by Dan)

This is a good profile of Kansas senator, and conservative Christian gladiator, Sam Brownback. It's of interest, for our purposes, because of this passage about Brownback and Chuck Colson (Watergate evildoer turned Christian right powerbroker) and their mode of muscular, emotional Christian masculinity.

"I have seen him weep," growls Colson, anointing Brownback with his highest praise. Such are the new American crusaders: tear-streaked strong men huddling together to talk about their feelings before they march forth, their sentimental faith sharpened and their man-feelings hardened into "natural law." They are God's promise keepers, His defenders of marriage, His knights of the fetal citizen. They are the select few who embody the paradoxical love promised by Christ when he declares -- in Matthew 10:34 -- "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

I know that I'm supposed to be an advocate of men being expressive and all, but this is sort of disturbing. I'll have to further investigate my soul to figure out whether my creeped-outedness is legitimate or whether it's evidence that I'm just a big old hypocrite, praising expressivity when it's in the service of, or in alignment with, political objectives I find palatable and condemning it when it's not.

p.s. The profile, by the way, is by Jeff Sharlet, co-founder of KillingtheBuddha.com, which is the hipster religion website par excellence (you didn't think there could be such a thing as a hipster religion website, but since the internet came into being, everything that's possible under the sun has its incarnation in a website).

p.p.s. Hat tip Andrew Sullivan for the link, which is apparently what you're supposed to say/do when you link to an article that you found out about through the site you've just hat tipped.