I will live to retract MANY of my opinions. I have admitted that I don't deserve to have any opinions at all. This isn't an opinion, but a tribute to Hitch being more or less right about something for a change. I didn't like his book, but I like his rooted opposition to religion inserting itself into government.
Oddly enough, though I consider myself deeply small-c christian, it's exactly because Hitchens is an acknowledged godless provocateur that this precipitate reversal in my previous anti-Hitchens views, which themselves represented a reversal of my previously pro-Hitchens views, has occurred.
I very much resent that the conservative cause has become inextricably mixed up with religion and the desire of certain religious people to impose their religious values on people who don't share them. Having Hitchens coolly sail in to administer a sound moral and rationalistic drubbing to those who get religion into their politics and vice versa makes it seem as if he is actually playing on my side. And this interview between Lou Dobbs and Hitchens also helped.
The difference between a typical or garden variety religious person and me is that whereas a religious person would likely find Hitchens' remarks offensive or potentially offensive (e.g., to the religious person's political "base"), my private version of christianity jettisons all the parts of the Bible that make me responsible for other people's values. I don't mind that my husband, also an Englishman by birth, considers any reference to God to be the worst sort of "not-done" name-dropping; and I don't mind that he and Hitchens think religion poisons everything because my small c-christianity leaves that to them to sort out with God if---or, according to me, when---they finally meet. I don't think it's any of my business.
Furthermore, a godless provocateur who isn't afraid to admit it is a refreshing change from a provocateur who tags all liberals (including me) "Godless," as if that's a bad thing.
Also, this particular one says things like this:
[quote begins from Radar Online by Citizen Hitch by Holiday Dmitri]
1. THE ATHEISTICAL/GODLESS HITCHENS. Hitchens has always loved a good fight, and his latest literary endeavor, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Twelve, $24.99), is sure to piss off enough readers to satisfy his thirst. Of course, the book is just another stop on Mr. Hitchens's personal journey to hell, which began at age nine, when he became an atheist, and reached a crescendo in 2002, when the Vatican called him to testify against Mother Teresa during her beatification process. Asked in a recent interview if he had ever prayed in his life, he responded, "Probably once for an erection, but not addressed to anyone in particular. Nor completely addressed to my cock."...
2. THE SELF-DEPRECATING HITCHENS. I think anyone whose had any sort of public reputation, even as small as mine, knows by now that there will be something on the Web or something in the ether for people who are mad, because, as we just found out, the culture now presents huge opportunities for people who are maladjusted.
3. THE ANTI-MAWKISH HITCHENS. I don't think about [Virginia Tech]. To me it's a non-event. There will always be a tragedy with some little kid falling down a mineshaft some week. Horrible things will always happen, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. We had a moment of silence at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. But why not for the 116 people who were torn to pieces in Iraq, which does have implications for us, because the people who did that want to do it to everybody? Instead, this little nutcase has state power. I hate it!
When I heard about the Virginia Tech event, I thought, This is horrible, because I knew there would be nothing on the television, in the newspapers, or on the airwaves for weeks. Everyone wants the shooting to be about them...
4. THE ME-DESPISING HITCHENS. I don't have any party allegiances.... [People] think of it as zero-sum: You're either an elephant or a donkey. I hate the whole mentality. It produces boring parties and bad politicians. I've never been a supporter of either party in America. My line is that I dislike the Republicans, but I despise the Democrats.
[quote ends; links in original]
There are a lot more things I could have used but I have already quoted as much as I felt I should. You'll want to read the whole of it.
Here is Lou Dobbs interviewing Hitchens (as pointed out OneGoddMove) as Hitchens should be interviewed.
HITCHENS: "Mr. Jefferson, build up that wall!"
After watching this, Nicholas said: "I don't exactly like him yet, but I agree with an awful lot of what he says."
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