September 15, 2004
On September 8th of this year, David Remnick chronicled the current life and times of former Vice-President Albert Gore in pages of The New Yorker. Remnick’s extensive article (39 pages of internet copy) reveals a very insecure man who is still filled with resentment over a presidency lost.
He begins most of his speeches with the line, "Hi, I’m Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States." He always gets a laugh with the line, but it is the uncomfortable laughter of an audience that doesn’t quite know whether he is making fun of himself or he is in need of counseling. After reading this article I would vote for the latter.
Gore’s life now is a study in contrasts. For example, in one place Remnick writes, "When the architect was designing the rear addition to the (Gore’s) house, Gore asked him to curve the walls inward in two places in order to save several trees." This is presented as evidence of Gore’s supposed commitment to the environment. But later in the article Remnick remarks, "Other features of the house are less environmentally correct. A 2004 black Cadillac, which Gore drives, was parked in the driveway. A ’65 mustang -- a Valentine’s Day gift from Al to Tipper -- was parked in the garage."
So is Gore the bastion of environmental protectionism which he portrays himself to be, or does he simply promote causes which allows him to bask in the soft glow of the limelight of the left? Once again, I will choose the latter.
I was fascinated with Gore’s description of his admitted liberation from any suggestion of moderation in his political rhetoric. Remnick describes this new freedom of Gore’s by revealing what Al really felt like saying to the media. "If he felt like calling George Bush a ‘moral coward,’ if he felt like comparing Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib to islands in an ‘American gulag’ or the President’s media operatives to ‘digital Brown Shirts,’ well, he just went ahead and did it."
In other words, the Al Gore we are seeing today -- now that he is no longer vice president -- is the "real" Al Gore. He is the Al Gore who can criticize the politics of personal destruction out of one side of his mouth while the politics of personal destruction flows freely out of the other side. Stop and think for just a minute: We almost elected a man to the highest office of the land who has more in common with Michael Moore than with the average American.
The most eyebrow-raising moment in the interview came when Remnick opened the door for Gore to comment on President Bush’s personal faith. Gore says through tight lips, "It’s a particular kind of religiosity. It’s the American version of the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia, in Kashmir, in religions around the world." Gore’s new freedom to speak his mind reveals a very disturbed mind that would compare the tenets of Christian fundamentalism to Muslim extremists.
President Bush’s faith has much in common with the faith of many evangelical, born again Christians and absolutely nothing in common with the Islamofascists who intentionally target children and routinely slaughter innocents. It is outrageous for Gore to try in any way, and for political reasons, to connect the two. His comments point to a disturbing trend in America. It is a well-known and much used tactic to take out those who disagree with you with a simple one, two, three punch.
First, you vilify your opponents by accusing them of being hate mongers or backward peddlers of narrow-mindedness. Then, you marginalize them by pushing them to the perimeter of every discussion and refusing to allow them a place at the table of ideas. Finally, you move to criminalize their behavior so they will be forever silenced. In 1994, when Evangelicals finally went to the polls and turned the control of Congress over to the Republicans, it so infuriated the Left that they have since been on a search-and-destroy mission against anyone who can be identified with fundamental Christianity.
This latest attempt by Al Gore to link perfectly acceptable conservative, evangelical Christian beliefs with the terrorists who would destroy us cannot be allowed to stand. If Al Gore had made these comments about someone who was Jewish or Catholic he would be banished from public life forever by the media hounds who protect tolerance and political correctness. But since his deplorable link involved evangelical Christians the mainstream media is predictably silent.
These comments come at a time when "hate crimes" legislation has passed into law in California and is now being considered by the United States Congress. Hate crimes legislation is an attempt to criminalize people’s thoughts, and I such legislation becomes the law of the land, how long will it be before the linking of Evangelical Christianity and Muslim extremism will lead to the prosecution of believers for our beliefs?
Remnick ended his interview with Gore while riding down a street in Nashville, which is home to the Southern Baptist Convention. Gore once claimed to be Southern Baptist. At the end of Remnick’s interview, he asked Gore which church he and Tipper were attending now. "There was a pause in the front seat," Remnick says. "We’re ecumenical now," Gore said finally. "The influx of fundamentalist preachers has pretty much chased us out with their right wing politics."
No Al, the problem is you just can’t stand the truth.
Dr. Tony Beam is a regular columnist for South Carolina's Times Examiner and the SC Baptist Courier, as well as the Director of the Christian Worldview Center at North Greenville College in Tigerville, SC -- dedicated to the task of helping people possess and express a distinctly Biblical Christian Worldview in our culture. North Greenville College is a four-year, Liberal Arts school, which will be expanding to include two Masters programs in the fall of 2005.
