Rod Dreher’s latest piece on the Confederate Battle Flag illustrates why so many people have such a hard time taking him seriously:
“True, Dylann Roof did not display the Confederate battle flag in his rampage inside the church, but it can’t be denied that the Dylann Roofs of the Civil Rights era, and their fellow travelers, did openly associate that flag with their cause. In light of what just happened in Charleston, and considering things from the point of view of black Southerners, I believe that the Confederate battle flag is simply too tainted as a symbol to be displayed in good conscience anymore. …”
As I said in the OD comments, if the CofCC or the Confederate Battle Flag is responsible for Dylann Roof’s heinous actions, then the #BlackLivesMatter movement is equally responsible for burning down Ferguson and Baltimore, and inspiring the fanatic Ismaaiyl Brinsley to put “pigs in a blanket” in New York City. As he revealed on his Instagram account, Brinsley’s radicalization and assassination of two New York City police officers last December is “linked” to all those who cried for “Justice for Mike Brown” and “Justice for Eric Garner.”
I also find it rich that Rod Dreher wants to play this game. In light of all his blog posts decrying gay marriage and the radicalism of the LGBT movement, would Dreher be willing to claim ownership of the anti-abortion bomber, Eric Rudolph? How about Michael Frederick Griffin who murdered the abortionist David Gunn in Pensacola? Maybe we should all cry “Down With The Bible” next time an anti-abortion fanatic goes on a shooting spree or a bombing campaign? Doesn’t the “tainted” Bible in Leviticus 20:13 explicitly prescribe the death penalty for homosexuality?
When Ismaaiyl Brinsley murdered officers Ramos and Liu in New York City, it never occurred to me that the #BlackLivesMatter movement is completely illegitimate, or that because of the actions of one evil, mentally ill fanatic that black lives have no value at all. I don’t believe that Dylann Roof can justifiably argue, as he seems to believe, that because of Ismaaiyl Brinsley and the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore that he was completely justified in gunning down 9 random black people in Charleston.
Dreher’s post on the Confederate Battle Flag is a disappointment in light of all the insightful things he has written about expressive individualism in American culture. Instead of cheap opportunism and triangulation against “racism,” he could have noted that Dylann Roof had a morbid fantasy like Elliot Rodger and Andreas Lubitz, which he wanted to act out on a grand stage to draw attention to himself.
Note: Russell Moore is one of the most important reasons why the Southern Baptist Convention has gone into terminal decline.
@Hunter: I was hoping for a longer post on the cowardly frontrunner Dreher, but this is a good start. it will be interesting to see if he or some of his admirers will post a defense of his position here.
“As I said in the OD comments, if the CofCC or the Confederate Battle Flag is responsible for Dylann Roof’s heinous actions, then the #BlackLivesMatter movement is equally responsible for burning down Ferguson and Baltimore, and inspiring the fanatic Ismaaiyl Brinsley to put “pigs in a blanket” in New York City.”
Absolutely terrible reasoning. It’s no wonder your cause was lost long ago.
Actually it’s rather good reasoning.
Dreher proof that propaganda works
The party of Lincoln strikes again! South Carolina’s Republican Sikh governor Nikki Haley, its Republican negro U.S. Senator Tim Scott and its Republican homosexual U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham have united as one demanding the removal of the Confederate flag!
Haley, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott calling for Confederate flag’s removal today:
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150622/PC1603/150629833
Nikki Haley To Call For Confederate Flag To Be Removed From South Carolina Capitol:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22/south-carolina-confederate-flag_n_7637644.html
@BGriffin…
Sir, ’tis mind-boggling the level of your psychick energy. Do you ever sleep?
Usually.
This blog has been rather sleepy for months, but my wife and son are in St. Louis for the moment, so I have had more time to write lately than usual. I’m joining them tomorrow evening though.
Since I returned from Atlanta, I haven’t put down the keyboard.
All of Dreher’s gushings are only about self-promotion, nothing more. Charleston and the Confederate flag have been sweeping the NPR/Salon universe, and he wants their readers.
Right about the same time, he recruited Pope Francis as spokesman for his weird Crunchy Cons book of long ago. A friend of his literally pasted up the words Crunchy Con in a title about the Pope’s encyclical.
It may shock and surprise some, but Rod Dreher actually seems to believe in very little outside of promoting Rod Dreher, not religion, not his own family, not the culture he comes from, little or nothing. Instead, everything he talks about is merely a prop in the neverending performance art that is Rod Dreher.
I agree with you.
I find everything Dreher writes to be dubious. Does he even exist, or is he (along with Frederica Matthews-Greene) a CIA-generated software program designed to kike’n’cuck Orthodox Christians?
There is nothing wrong with the Confederate Battle Flag. I own one, along with an American flag, Betsy Ross 13 star flag, and Gadsden flag. I know this is an old post, but I felt the urge to briefly comment anyway.