Comments on: Jeff Sessions, My Pro-Rape Senator

By: Scyllacat

Scyllacat — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:01:36 +0000

I think it’s a terrific letter. But you imply that he has voted his conscience, or even has the option to. I think that votes like this tell me how much pressure big money brings to bear on our electors. Every day I see more signs that our government is bought and paid for by the people they’re supposed to be protecting us FROM.

In other words, I’m a sad panda.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:17:50 +0000

valancy: Yeah, I get that. Bad enough to get a form letter; even worse to get a form letter about something else.

By: valancy

valancy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:00:52 +0000

now you’ve done the impossible – I’m impressed with something Jesse Helms did. I’d still like to see what they think is suitable content for their form letter response.

In case it was unclear, my problem with Santorum’s letter wasn’t that it was a form letter, it was that the form letter in no way addressed what I wrote them about. It was about a different subject entirely.

By: Ogre

Ogre — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:54:59 +0000

Very well said I may have to “borrow” some of this seeing as my Senator voted the same way.
Like some Im not christian and I would even refrain from saying what Will said to even the least devout of my friends not just out of religious respect but respect of others in general and my family would kill me for any such stupid remarks.

By: Tiffani

Tiffani — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:04:45 +0000

Bravo! Sessions and Shelby should be ashamed of this vote. However, we both know they have no shame when it comes to protecting big business. How they can vote against this and call themselves Christians is beyond my understanding.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:01:41 +0000

I expect to get a form letter, since that’s normally how it’s handled. It’s what I’ve gotten every other time I’ve written someone in Congress — with one exception. When I lived in NC I wrote both senators on a funding issue, and got a non-form letter back from Jesse Helms’s office.

By: valancy

valancy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:50:46 +0000

1. I agree, “Magic Space Jew” is extremely offensive. I’m not a Christian, but I don’t feel the need to ridicule people who are or try to invalidate their faith or their God(s).

2. I would love to see Sessions’ repsonse when he/his office answers. I used to be “represented” by Sen. Rick Santorum. (That’s in quotes because our beliefs are polar opposites.) Right around the time he was being lambasted in the press for comparing homosexuality to bestiality, I wrote him about a different issue that I had with his service as legislator. My response was the form letter they were sending to everyone who complained about his comments on homosexuality. I was livid. I was so mad I wrote a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Bad enough he was being a jackass but that his flunkies didn’t even have the sense to read my letter before answering it just infuriated me beyond belief. So I’m very curious to see what Sessions’ office has to say in response to your well-reasoned letter.

By: LB

LB — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:03:10 +0000

“Magic Space Jew” is completely offensive. I feel sorry for the person who wrote that.
I agree with you, Stephen.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:45:39 +0000

Will,

Scott nailed it. What you disparagingly call the “magic space Jew” is something Sessions and I have in common. If he and I are to be Christians, then we are to follow Christ’s example — it’s right there on the label. I look at how Jesus treated the adulterous woman, someone who had broken Mosaic law, and then I look at how Sessions treated Jamie Leigh Jones, who broke no law and was horribly victimized, and I see an irreconcilable gap between Sessions’s words and actions.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:43:31 +0000

Given that Stephen originally wrote directly to Senator Sessions, referencing common ground — or, at least, Sen. Sessions’ assertion that he holds values rooted in a particular tradition, in which Stephen is a participant — is an appropriate rhetorical technique; reproducing his letter to the senator here saves Stephen time, establishes the nature of his prior involvement in this discussion, and draws attention to Senator Sessions’ hypocrisy.

Stephen has written about his religious faith and practice before on this blog; while you, he and I may hold three divergent viewpoints on religion, I can say that Stephen lives the best values of the Christian tradition in his daily life. Anyone would do well to hold themselves to the same standard of conduct Stephen does; if more people did, our world would be a better place.