Louie Gohmert Challenges the Rev. Barry Lynn on His Christian Faith

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First, the breakdown of Gohmert's means of questioning:

1. Ask a question

2. Let the respondent give a partial response

3. Interrupt before the respondent completes a coherent answer, attempting to engage in civil discourse

4. Change the topic slightly, disparage the speaker's position through the straw man fallacy

5. Attempt a facade of legitimacy by brief back-tracking such as "I'm not judging ..." then proceeds to judge

6. Assume only he has the right to make universal definitions about issues that have been argued about for millenia, using some sophomoric authority which is not his, having never actually studied the issue in depth or through any academic institution

7. Repeatedly interrupt the respondent so that any inconsistencies in his own questioning are not easily exposed for the few minutes he has at the mike.

8. Take the whole episode back to his constituency, reframing the argument in terms of good vs evil, light vs dark, anti-American vs. Christian, etc. [off tape]


 Aside from his strategy, his tone, his self-sanctified demeanor and assumption that he alone has the right to determine who is a Christian, who can be saved, how disagreeing with his limited view will condemn others into some Protestant hell -- all worry the heck out of me that this is the discourse so easily permitted not only in our society, but in an official hearing of House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice in the United States Congress. 

 Ironically, the agenda of this hearing of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice was specifically about the separation of church and state, and yet Gohmert repeatedly conflates the US system (as he interprets it) with his own, precise flavor of Christianity, with little understanding of both government and religion of the 18th century (or 19th century; or 20th century).

The metaphor of "American Taliban" is perhaps thrown about too easily, and deserves more critical discussion. But Gohmert comes about as close to the intolerance of others' ideas, experiences, beliefs, and learning as the iconic Afghan Taliban who destroyed the 6th century Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001. I'll try to find significant differences beyond the actual use of explosives, but that comes later.





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