Babbling Letter Makes a Point

Irvin M. Miller is a regular writer to the Poughkeepsie Journal. Being a confirmed leftist, his letters are generally more hilarious or infuriating than informative. However, one that appeared today made a great point, albeit, I suspect, inadvertently.

The headline read, “Interpretations of Bible also evolve”, and the letter proceeded in that vein until the penultimate and final paragraphs:

Much of the world has come a long way from the village charismatic medicine man. If a single religion that accepts no challenges comes to dominate our politics and science, our once-great nation can sink into a new dark age.

This leads to another biblical story: Babel.

I doubt that Miller was trying to make the point he actually made which was underscored by the column by Linda Chavez which appeared on the same page. According to the Biblical story of Babel, its downfall came about when the Lord confounded their language so that the people could not understand one another. Chavez’s piece makes the point that encouraging immigrants to retain their language serves to “Balkanize” the country. Having a common language binds the country together, and departing from that will break us apart, as the Biblical example of Babel shows.

If this is the point Miller was trying to make, it certainly is a departure from his usual leftist orthodoxy. I really doubt that’s the case.

(Posted Tuesday, November 15, 2005 )