Ralph Reed vows to re-revolutionize Christianity
July 13, 2009 at 4:46 pm by Asher Smith in NewsUsing the same logic that brought Poochie the Dog into the world, Ralph Reed — t
he man with more attempted resurrections than Jesus Christ Himself — vows to rejuvenate the now-moribund and heavily tarnished Christian Coalition, using a handy checklist of things that he’s been told are trendy:
“This is not going to be your daddy’s Christian Coalition. It has to be younger, hipper, less strident, more inclusive and it has to harness the 21st century that will enable us to win in the future. … It’s the political analog to the iPod and the iPhone. It would be cool. It would be transformative. It would transform our politics and bring younger people to our ranks. All of those are critical imperatives.”
Since appearing on the cover of TIME Magazine in the 1990’s and being hailed as a mastermind behind the Republican revolution in the Deep South, Reed has undergone more than a few setbacks before finally ending up back where he started.
First there were the FEC investigations and the revocation of the Coalition’s tax-exempt status. Then there were the Jack Abramoff-related probes in 2006 during his race for lieutenant governor, which led to his defeat at the hands of fellow Republican Casey Cagle and the revelation of his role in the defrauding of Indian casinos — followed by tentative, largely panned baby steps into the worlds of cable news and publishing.
Still, give the man who once managed to conflate godliness with protesting Congressional efforts to make the Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws this much credit: He knows how to spin things.
“Even though I’ve been doing other things, this is kind of like Steve Jobs returning to Apple…I’ve become an elder statesman at 48, but I’m still doing what I was doing at 20.”
Mission accomplished?
(Photo courtesy of RalphReed.com)
July 14th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Reed is right – in this crazy 21st century world, we need a Christianity with a hip-hop styling soundtrack that the kidz can rock out to! The new Christian is a righteous homey – tithing, twitterin’, baptizin’, and convertin’ in the ‘hood with his gnarly,skateboarding homeys.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I think of Ralph Reed as the Chucky doll of American politics.