A friend of this blog, Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News, recently posted a fun shout out on behalf of conservative columnist Cal Thomas. Thomas, you see, has done something online that is quite interesting, and entertaining to boot. The former Moral Majority press aide has dedicated a page of his own WWW site to the hate mail that he receives from the all-tolerant people who like to condemn him for his lack of tolerance. Well, to tell the truth, it also seems that he gets angry mail from the right as well. Let's assume that anyone way, way right of Thomas is pretty dang conservative. Take this crisp dose of venom:
Mr, You are freaking sellout! You go to church on Sunday and 6 of the other days you do the Jews work. Youre a damned disgrace!
Nice, huh? In addition to providing lively reading, the Thomas hate mail library also offers insights into a group of Americans who do not receive their fair share of press coverage -- the angry religious left. These are people who live by the credo: "There are people in the world who do not love everyone the way that they should, and I hate people like that." Here is a lively example.
Your god must be one gigantic dirtbag to have produced such a hate filled follower as yourself, I have a feeling you dont really know much of Jesus or care much about his teachings to expouse some of the hatred you preach.I have a question for you.What in your life has made you such a hate filled person?From the continuous smirk on your face, I get the impression you dont really believe or at least follow Gods word but some darker power.You really seem to be one evil person. Heres knowing you will one day burn in hell,If I were you, Id be buried in 55 gallon barrel of barbecue sauce your going to need it sparky. You really are slimey Bob
Thomas, of course, primarily writes columns about the intersection of social, moral, religious and political issues. So it is impossible not to notice the degree to which his hate mail centers on issues of religious faith and the Sexual Revolution.
Thus, the religion ghosts are flying around -- right out there in the open.
This is fitting, since coverage of religion and sex is the hot territory in media bias studies these days (more on the latest blast of data from Pew in the near future). The closer you get to the Bible and the bedroom, the louder the shouting gets on both sides.
Dreher has reached the same conclusion down in modern Dallas. Thus, he composed this handy-dandy generic hate letter, summing up the best of the worst from his email bag. Actually, I think Dreher went soft on the religion angle in this.
You are a right-wing idiot. How stupid you are! Keep your rosaries off my ovaries, you stupid idiot who is right-wing. You right-wing homophobic stupid Musliim-bashing idiot who loves Bush, another idiot. Idiot-idiot love, that's the two of you. Did I mention that you are a Nazi? P.S. You're an idiot.
I wonder if other columnists could follow Thomas' lead on this. What would high-end hate mail sound like? What about a best-of site for Andrew Sullivan hate mail? Or Mark Steyn? Bring it on.