The New American Standard Bible

Hanna Rosin, unpacking Christine O’Donnell’s “constitutional repentance” trope:

We have come to this strange moment in American political history where the Constitution is being talked of not as inspired by the Bible or imbued with Biblical principles but as a kind of Bible itself, a holy text to be interpreted literally and treated with absolute reverence. Any kind of skepticism or critical judgment about it—or at least, the Tea Party-approved parts—is viewed as a sin.

Hanna should be familiar with this holy reverence for the constitution. It’s been decades in the making, and now it is surfacing in political candidates who are coming alarmingly close to national office. It’s just another example of how seamlessly the Tea Party blends with evangelicalism, and, in my opinion, more evidence that the former owes a great deal of its energy and groundwork to the latter.