I like Penn Jillette, but I do often find myself disagreeing with him. Particularly when he's espousing especially libertarian views or defending Glenn Beck[1] When I saw the title of this article, "Atheist Penn Jillette Defends the Pope and Catholic Orthodoxy"[2], I was expecting to disagree with him once again.
Disagreement with Jillette is far from what I found, because defense for the Pope isn't really what he was doing. He took one of my favorite stances in regards to the bad behavior of Christians. By pointing out that such reprehensible behavior is actually in line with the Bible, it puts Christians in the awkward position of choosing between defending the despicable and admitting that the Bible is flawed.
Either way, the opposition to Christianity wins. That's the funny thing about defending an incorrect position. It's quite difficult to do without looking like a fool and hurting the very thing you were attempting to protect.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Disagreement with Jillette is far from what I found, because defense for the Pope isn't really what he was doing. He took one of my favorite stances in regards to the bad behavior of Christians. By pointing out that such reprehensible behavior is actually in line with the Bible, it puts Christians in the awkward position of choosing between defending the despicable and admitting that the Bible is flawed.
Either way, the opposition to Christianity wins. That's the funny thing about defending an incorrect position. It's quite difficult to do without looking like a fool and hurting the very thing you were attempting to protect.
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2. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/07/atheist-penn-jillette-defends-the-pope-and-catholic-orthodoxy/
Penn is a social and political conservative - he's just an atheist while doing it! Penn is simple task of defending another conservative, being an avowed Libertarian himself. They both live in the same house.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I would call Penn socially conservative, as that label tends to mean someone is against marriage equality, women's rights, etc. There's a lot of overlap between conservatives and libertarians, but they're not quite the same.
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