Holding pattern

While you were circling the airport tonight:

The NYT's Laurie Goodstein has a Week In Review piece on Pat Robertson's shrinking credibility -- which is sort of like documenting the number of days Jack Abramoff has left before he reports to federal prison. Even a foamer like the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land says of Robertson: "He speaks for an ever-diminishing number of American evangelicals, and that process accelerates every time he makes a statement like this."

Meanwhile, journalists are beginning to look at the increasingly substantial alliance between American evangelicals and conservative Jews. The Washington Post reports on fundraising and other efforts by some Christians to ally themselves with the Chosen People. I liked this passage:

On Thursday nights, J.J. Vogltanz, a deacon, uses a Christian textbook to lead his three home-schooled children in science experiments designed to illustrate Bible verses. One of the first things he taught them about Jesus, he said, was that "he was a Jew."

Asked whether he also taught his children that the Jews rejected Jesus, Vogltanz, 34, paused. "I'm not sure it's constructive to assign blame," he said.

Well, hell -- that's an improvement. Can you see Hitler standing in the ruins of the Reichstag saying, "Let's not play the blame game."