Why is it that you, like the theocons I examine and criticize in my book, seem so terrified of the American republic falling short of Christ-like perfection? Why is it not enough that the United States be a good and decent country among good and decent countries? Why is it not enough for you and other pious Christians to enjoy the freedom to worship and pray and proselytize in peace? Why, despite your own better judgment, do you so steadfastly resist seeking your salvation outside of politics? Why do you insist on identifying the fate of your soul with the fate of your country? ~Damon Linker

There were many ways Linker could have ended his debate with Ross.  He could have ended it with civility or grace or wit.  Instead he ended it with a heavy-handed, appallingly condescending lecture that does not simply question the intellectual project of theocons or Ross’ defense of religious conservative politics, but which actually presumes to say that Ross is some immanentising, chiliastic nationalist heretic.  I have my problems with the theocons, including what I consider to be their unfortunate tendency in certain cases to privilege the policy of the government over the admonitions of their bishops, but this attack crosses the line.  It’s on now, as they say. 

Ross made some pointed arguments and scored some hard hits against Linker, which must have been frustrating for his opponent, but he never stooped so low or directed his attack against the man.  It is always a sure sign of a man who has been beaten that he goes for the cheap shot at the end in a final act of retribution.  No wonder our political discourse is in such a shambles, when a reasonably intelligent, polite debate such as this one was has to end on such a dreadful note.

The first question is the most obnoxious.  I am one of the harsher critics of First Things and their general project, but accusing them of wanting to bring “the American republic” to Christ-like perfection is absurd.  They do not expect any such perfection in this world, and whatever I think of their attitudes towards liberalism no one could really accuse them of this kind of utopianism and chiliasm, at least not in the way that Linker has here.  This is the kind of stock insult that I would expect from someone like Andrew Sullivan, forever prating on about Christianist-this and fundamentalist-that, but not from someone who claims to know something at first hand about First Things.  Obviously he cannot have read much of Ross’ work if he attributes such a ridiculous view to him. 

Also quite annoying was this line:

Why is it not enough for you and other pious Christians to enjoy the freedom to worship and pray and proselytize in peace?

But Christians are not left to pray and proselytise in peace.  They are driven from public institutions, public scenes and public venues.  They can proselytise and pray, so long as they stay in their metaphorical closets and say nothing about the affairs of the commonwealth and do not openly pray in any government building.  Relatively few Christians in the West since the Peace of the Church have ever put up with such obnoxious restrictions on and stigmas against their involvement in the life of the commonwealth.

But the worst comes at the end when he says:

Why, despite your own better judgment, do you so steadfastly resist seeking your salvation outside of politics? Why do you insist on identifying the fate of your soul with the fate of your country?

This is as grievous an insult to a serious Christian as there is.  We might as well ask why Linker has joined forces with Satan, which he would probably find quite offensive–that is approximately how offensive this question is to a faithful Christian.  There are modern political religions that offer a kind of this-worldly salvation, but no Christian conservative actually believes that he will achieve his salvation through politics.  Some Christian conservatives, including theocons, may make poor choices, bad arguments or the wrong commitments, but to say that they seek their salvation in politics is the ugliest kind of an attack on Christians that you can make.  I may have no time for their politics, but I do not presume to know that they do not earnestly seek salvation in Christ.  The fate of Ross’ soul is in God’s hands, and I don’t presume that he identifies it with the fate of his country any more than most any other sane, reasonable Christian ever has.  This accusation is not just insulting, but completely bizarre.  It has no foundation in anything Ross has said during this debate.  It has no foundation in much of anything, excerpt perhaps the perfervid imagination of Mr. Linker. 

Update: As if on cue, Andrew Sullivan cites the same quote, names it one of his “quotes of the day” and says:

Linker nails it in these few paragraphs…