More on Deafness and Michelle Bachmann

It’s always nice to find that someone agrees with you, especially if they have a title. I posted a few days ago about deafness as a metaphor for combatants in the culture wars not being able to hear/understand each other. My point was that we speak different languages and mishear each other.

So it was comforting this morning to read the following in regard to Michelle Bachmann being questioned on the New Testament passage regarding women submitting to their husbands. This comes from John Green, director of the Ray Bliss Institute of Applied Politics:

“We often see in American politics that the language of a particular subculture—in this case, evangelicals—somehow gets out into the wider public as part of a political discussion and begins to attract controversy because it’s not understood in the broader community.”

You could argue, of course, that the controversy here is not caused by mishearing or misunderstanding, but by understanding all too well what the issue is. But I think the problem in this case, as in many, is that precisely because the “broader community” thinks they understand (and are appropriately appalled), it is eager to see this as further evidence for its stereotype of evangelicals, and does not want to hear any nuanced or thoughtful explanation. Secularists claim to be appalled by this further evidence of evangelical medievalness, but actually they are delighted, because it fulfills their stereotypes and keeps their world simple.

If you need a parallel example that reverses the roles, think about past reactions to banning the Ten Commandments from hanging in a court room—or supply your own.