I'm a pretty big fan of Tavis Smiley, and I truly enjoy listening to his radio show. This week, he had Senator Rand Paul on, which was interesting, because Smiley is quite openly a liberal. They talked about racial issues, and Paul not only didn't say anything horrible, he admitted that there is a problem with race, as well as class, in the United States (which is a big deal for a Republican).
He also commented that the Bill of Rights is probably more important to minorities than majorities, because in a democracy, majorities generally have the ability to protect their own rights, while minorities can sometimes be at the mercy of the majority. I agree with that sentiment, but, when making the point, he listed racial minorities and evangelical Christians as holders of minority opinions who are particularly likely to need protection.
That's right, according to Senator Paul, evangelical Christians, also known as the
largest religious category in the United States, apparently face a degree of oppression comparable to that suffered by racial minorities. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but nearly 80% of Americans are Christians. More than half of Americans are Protestant, and more than half of American Protestants are evangelical. Yes, at 26.3%, they're not a majority, but given that they are the plurality, the cannot be considered a minority in a socio-political sense. For fuck's sake, if my math is right, there are 12.6 million more evangelicals than there are nonwhite people in the United States. That's basically the population of Pennsylvania, the 6th largest state in the country.
Not only that, evangelicals have a tendency to try to codify their beliefs into law, so that everyone must follow them. Evangelicals have, and absolutely deserve, the protections provided by the Bill of Rights, but let's be real: the Bill of Rights is much more necessary to protect people from evangelicals than it is to protect evangelicals themselves. [/rant]
The thing is, I'm not annoyed that the Senator said that. I think it's a dumb thing to say, but he's entitled to his opinion. Whatever. I'm annoyed by the fact that Smiley didn't call him on it. How can you let that go? He's entitled to his opinion, but if he says something stupid to a very smart journalist in a public forum, shouldn't he be asked to defend it?