Michael Gerson, frigid prude

Unlike either Ezra or Dana, I find Michael Gerson's addition to the Washington Post's editorial page to be an indefensible example of a lazy editorial desk relying for content on somebody whose qualifications seem to be a somewhat high profile and professional availability.  My problem with him isn't so much that he's an evangelical. Rather, it's the small matter that he's both a verified apparatchick and an architect of a truly immense national disaster. I imagine that when George Bush leaves office it will be about the last we hear from him. In a just world, that would be Gerson's fate, too. Except he can write well so I guess he'll be taken seriously until he dies.

I've gotta say though, this is pretty funny:

When the statistics on teen sexuality are controlled for social and economic factors, conservative Protestant teens first have sex at about the same time as their peers -- the average is midway through their 16th year. That is hardly comforting to conservative Protestant parents, who would expect more bang for the bucks they spend funding Sunday schools -- well, actually, less bang.

Comments

[anonymous]

How old was Michael Gerson when he first had intercourse? How old was his partner? Was the act consummated behind some church, or in a Ford?

[low-tech cyclist]

My problem with him isn't so much that he's an evangelical. Rather, it's the small matter that he's both a verified apparatchick and an architect of a truly immense national disaster.

And for an evangelical, there's nothing inconsistent about that. "WWJD?", which I regard as a good question to ask in discerning the morality of a course of action, applies in the evangelical mind only to personal conduct, and not to policy issues such as going to war, or making sure kids get health care.

You know how evangelical morality would apply to young Iraqi girls? It bothers evangelicals less if they get deflowered by a car bomb than by a man.

[Brian]

I think that point's basically correct. It's just sort of egregious that WaPo gives it a pass.