The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Kos is Just Plain Stupid

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Okay, I have now read the Kos piece attacking Jindal and defending the scurrilous ad run by the LA Demo Party. I therefore update my earlier blog to make room for the possibility that Kos isn't so much hateful as he is just plain stupid or utterly ignorant of what he tries to write about. His analysis of Jindal's column shows absolutely no understanding of the subject matter.

I myself am a Protestant, and I disagree with a number of Jindal's points. I similarly disagree with the same number of the Catholic Church's points on those topics, because Jindal ACCURATELY portrayed those points and the church's position on them. I know this, because I was a theology major at a Jesuit University and have studied this stuff. Indeed, it is on just some of these points that my disagreement with the Catholic Church and Jindal keeps me from becoming a Catholic. BUT NONE OF THAT IS TO SAY THAT ANYTHING THAT JINDAL WROTE, OR THAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH PREACHES ON THOSE POINTS, AMOUNTS IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM TO A SERIOUS INSULT TO PROTESTANTS. What Jindal wrote is a fairly unremarkable exposition of Catholic doctrine, and I as a Protestant am not offended by it even though I disagree with much of it. All that Jindal is doing is explaining why he believes his is the one true Church; but he does not insult Protestants in so doing, but quite explicitly, in the very passages quoted by Kos himself, invites Protestants to consider his points seriously rather than dismiss them.

To repeat: Jindal offers not an insult, but an invitation. It's as if a Mason invited a non-Mason to become a Mason, or even as if a Yankees fan invited a non-Yankees fan to become a Yankees fan: The invitation may or may not be one that the recipient wants to accept, but only a truly twisted recipient would consider the invitation an insult rather than a generous gesture.

The point here, by the way, is not to analyze or discuss the theology itself at issue, but only to explain the basic thrust of what Jindal was attempting in that long-ago essay. To actually use that thoughtful and generous essay as grounds for a political attack ad, somehow asserting that the essay expressed a vicious bigotry against Protestants, is to utterly mispresent the essay and is itself a clear attempt to play into any anti-Catholic bigotry that may or may not still exist in heavily Protestant North Louisiana.

It is contemptible, and even if Kos is merely stupid or ignorant in what he writes (rather than downright hateful), it is contemptible for Kos or ANYBODY to defend the ad and repeat the slander against Jindal.