Alan Jacobs rightly takes Jeff Sharlet to task here for some rather ill-informed reporting in his widely read peice on American fundamentalism (published in Harper’s). I’m quite used to assuming that whenever a journalist (especially if he or she happens to be from one of the Coasts) deigns to write about evangelicalism or fundamentalism (not that they are typically capable of distinguishing between the two), nonsense will come poring forth. One might have hoped that Sharlet would do a bit better, since he is reporter specifically of religious affairs. But, then again, why should he? After all, those backwards, barely literate fundamentalist types from the woods and plains of the Midwest won’t be reading his article to take him to task for his ignorance.
Anyway, at the end of his piece, Jacobs suggests that Christians shouldn’t waste too much time on rebutting the falsehoods written about them. I’m not sure about this recommendation. I think I’m less sanguine about the effects of widespread misinformation than Jacobs is. Misinformation can carry serious consequences. Mightn’t the world have been a much better place, for example, if more people had been truly informed enough to recognize The Protocols of the Elders of Zion for the contemptible fabrication that it is? Note that I’m not attempting to draw parallels here between either the compilers of the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Jeff Sharlet or between Jews and American fundamentalists. I just want to illustrate the point that ignorance can have serious repercussions. (Harry Frankfurt has some interesting things to say about what we lose when we become cavalier about the value of truth.)
Sydney
Alan Schmierer