Rudy, Christ
If Giuliani pulls off a miracle and wins Florida, the press will pay attention to “America’s [self-proclaimed] mayor” again. Until then, only hometown rags like the Daily News are watching Rudy’s reinvention as a holy fool. For observers of religion and media, though, Giuliani’s transparently phony God-pandering — no New Yorker will buy it for […]
If Giuliani pulls off a miracle and wins Florida, the press will pay attention to “America’s [self-proclaimed] mayor” again. Until then, only hometown rags like the Daily News are watching Rudy’s reinvention as a holy fool. For observers of religion and media, though, Giuliani’s transparently phony God-pandering — no New Yorker will buy it for a second — should be of interest regardless, as a marker of just how institutionalized the evangelical vote has become. That’s not to say it’s monolithic or even stable, only that even the most irreligious of candidates — and there’s nobody in this race, Democrat or Republican, farther from God than Giuliani — feels compelled to declare his adoration of the American god.