Militant Moderate Attacks Again

Few exercises in reading are quite as irritating as reading Nicholas Kristoff’s opinion columns in the New York Times. The dude’s smart, insightful and brave–he recently traveled to Sudan to cover the bloody civil war there–but his efforts at walking the line of moderation under Bushite occupation (a time when no patriotic American should hold moderate opinions) are growing increasingly tedious.

The latest case study: yesterday’s column, wherein he decries, of all things, the habit that liberals supposedly have of mocking Born Again Christian fundamentalists. I don’t know which lefties he’s been hanging out with, but my pals don’t hate Christians–we don’t give them much thought at all, actually. Maybe it’s a New York thing. In this town, people who think they talk to God mutter, dribbling spittle as they ambulate through subway cars asking for money, and they’re best avoided.

Still, I can’t resist poking fun as Kristoff’s close:

It’s always easy to point out the intolerance of others. What’s harder is to practice inclusiveness oneself. And bigotry toward people based on their faith is just as repugnant as bigotry toward people based on their sexuality.

No, of course it isn’t. You see, faith is a matter of personal choice. Sexual orientation isn’t. If you can’t judge someone based on their decisions, what can you judge them on?