Q.: Should we be at all surprised that David Brooks’ latest column is a steaming pile of platitudes?
A.: No. Brooks is a master of the thunderingly obvious. We should be grateful for this, as it seems to be the only thing that prevents him from veering off into the territory of the demonstrably wrong.
Q.: Should we be surprised then that Brooks passes on somebody else’s platitudes as if they were prophetic oracles?
A.: No. Brooks is also a master of facile analysis. The only surprise here is how many 20-something evangelical platitudes he manages to cram into just a couple of paragraphs. (Hint to dude: the idea that Christians worship themselves rather than Christ goes back at least to Fichte and Kierkegaard. Radical.)
Q.: So what’s the surprise here? That Brooks only finds a critique that religious figures have been pushing literally for decades interesting because it’s repeated now by a 20-something evangelical megapastor?
A.: Thunk thunk thunk.
