Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Eugene Peterson, in his new memoir, on the pastor’s place in contemporary society.
The vocation of pastor has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans. . . . I love being an American. I love this place in which I have been placed — its language, its history, its energy. But I don’t love ‘the American way,’ its culture and values. I don’t love the rampant consumerism that treats God as a product to be marketed….The cultural conditions in which I am immersed require, at least for me, a kind of fierce vigilance to guard my vocation from these cultural pollutants so dangerously toxic to persons who want to follow Jesus in the way that he is Jesus.
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Texas Senator John Cornyn, doubling down on a Senate colleague’s absurd exaggeration of how much of Planned Parenthood’s work is abortion-related.
Well, I’m not so sure. Here I am in the middle of the debate and I’m not so sure. I’ve been told that 98 percent of the services they offer to pregnant women are abortion-related services. I’m not sure, but I think we ought to find out … I actually went on Planned Parenthood’s website yesterday to try and see if I could get some good info, and I came up empty.
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Tennessee state Sen. Jim Summeville, a Tea Party Republican, demanding that his state’s legislature pass radical “reforms” targeting public education.
Make no mistake, the final responsibility is ours, and we are warriors. We will bend public education to our awe, or break it all to pieces.
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Texas state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, explaining how abstinence-only advocates are so extreme that they opposed his legislation in 2009 requiring that information taught in sex education classes at least be medically accurate. The bill died in committee.
The pediatrician on the committee wouldn’t vote for it; he was the swing vote.
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Maine Tea Party Patriots’ coordinator Andrew Ian Dodge, voicing concerns by libertarians that the Tea Party movement has been taken over by the religious right’s agenda.
I want to build on our success, not ruin the coalition by bringing ‘God’s will’ into it.
re: John Cornyn doubling down on Kyl’s ridiculous exaggeration of Planned Parenthood’s abortion stats
When Cornyn said, “I’m not so sure. I’ve been told that 98% of the services they offer to pregnant women are abortion-related services. I’m not sure but I think we ought to find out”, I thought, “Ah there it is! Classic, classy Cornyn”.
John Cornyn has always struck me as a smarter-than-average arch conservative. He’s a smart guy, especially compared to many of his peers. In this case, Cornyn was casually, flawlessly manipulative while artfully covering his own ass.
My feeling is that whenever denim-clad pretty boy “Big John” Cornyn decides he wants the G.O.P.nomination for President, I don’t see him having any problem getting it, which is a troubling thought….
John Cornyn worded (what he had to know was) a MASSIVE lie in such a way that he could never be pinned down for having said it, much less sued for liable or slander. Claiming he’d “been told” and that he was “not sure” sounds casual and friendly, but it very efficiently plants and fertilizes valuable propaganda with just enough subtlety that the people he’s pandering to would never notice those little disclaimers. Then they spread that outrageously false statistic as truth. Perfect. Smart guy.
This is the kind of political evil that operates more or less opposite the style of Donald Trump and the Tea Partiers; with subtlety and what passes for class; above the fray, seeming sincere but never, ever shrill or stupid.
People should seriously keep an eye on this guy.
That’s pretty perceptive, Flora. Not being terribly political, I sort of took Cornyn at face value. Silly me.
That reminds me of the little riff that’s been around the internet making fun of birthers:
“Glenn Beck has never denied raping and murdering a ten-year-old girl (or boy – what the heck) back in 1991! Why not?” The tactic is no less dirty, though I’ve never seen this Beck trope used for anything but to point to Beck’s methods with a virtual snicker.
We’re doomed. Doomed I tell you. Doomed.