Clint McCance

I haven't commented on the Clint McCance story -- enough people have -- but here's an excellent segment from Anderson Cooper on it:



I'm going to be very charitable and point out one thing about McCance's "apology" that no one else seems to have stated directly: he just doesn't get it. Dr. Phil has it right in one regard: McCance is displaying some of the characteristics of a sociopathic personality. How much of that is actually his personality and how much is the standard for "apologies" these days is up for debate -- how many have we seen that are not apologies at all? In this case, and what's more germane, is that without the huge outpouring of very negative reactions to his horrific post, it never would have occurred to him that he'd done anything wrong.

And the problem, of course, is exactly what Dr. Phil points out: McCance is apologizing for his words, not for the attitudes those words came from. He says that his core beliefs haven't changed, and I suppose he thinks that's somehow admirable. It's a pity that the core beliefs of his brand of Christianity don't include compassion and understanding -- if your core beliefs are that repellent, not changing them is not something to be proud of.

At least we've seen the "free marketplace of ideas" in action. Are you listening, Tony Perkins?