A Non-Conservative Woman [Send Her Mail]

Alexander Hart is completely right. The behavior he describes from the Establishment Christian Right is pure intellectual and spiritual masturbation. People like Dr. Brantly will never deign to serve where they stand simply because, aside from the vitriol it would attract, it would not provide the quick and simple spiritual high they'd get from taking on the white man's burden.

It would also be too complicated and long term. The poor and needy in industrialized societies are often there in large part because of their own behavior. They can be surly and ungrateful. They might even regard the help as—gasp!—something they are owed rather than something to sing the white man's praises over. It might require that they call for distinctly unglamorous social and political change. In short, it wouldn't be fun. Better to run off to other continents for a little while, where you can feel good while not having to deal with complex realities.

As a Christian who is not on the right, I see this is all part of the Establishment Christian Right's desperate attempts to avoid interacting with the real American population. Heaven forfend they ever make their case, or fight for their own country. Far better to import pliant foreigners, export their missionaries, systematically harm their own people and then wonder why-oh-why people are so resistant to their message. It has to be brainwashing from the schools and Hollywood, right?

See a previous letter from the same reader.