Libby Copeland's 2,500-word profile of Sen. Sam Brownback thoroughly analyzes his religious views. Titled "Faith-Based Intitiative: Presidential Hopeful Sam Brownback Strives to Be Humble Enough for a Higher Power," the piece is all religion, all the time.
And because I know very little about Brownback, I'm unsure whether he really is as folksy, non-threatening and, well, slightly weird as she makes him out to be. The piece is puffy and Copeland seems a bit taken with Brownback. She's goes to great lengths to point out how much Brownback prays for his enemies, how he apologized to Sen. Hillary Clinton for thinking hateful thoughts about her, how he worried about his stereotyping Copeland as a liberal because she's a reporter. For The Washington Post. (You have to admit it's funny that he says that to her and she puts it in her story.)
But there is a paragraph in the piece that says nothing about Brownback and everything about Copeland.
Because of his emphasis on compassion, Brownback does not fit the stereotype of the angry Christian conservative. This persona was embodied sensationally by "Pitchfork Pat" Buchanan and his talk of America's "religious war," by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who once imagined "rampant" lesbianism in his state's schools, by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who said abortionists, feminists, gays and pagans helped cause the 9/11 terror attacks. (Falwell later took it back.)
Well, if the Post's stereotype of Christian conservatives is that they are angry and are described best by bizarre outliers and uncharitable caricatures, then I guess Brownback doesn't fit! I wonder if there are any other Christian conservatives -- other than this Brownback fellow -- who deviate from the Falwell model?
I know it was in the Style section, but when do reporters there get to stop using that as an excuse?