Julia Sugarbaker Vs. Christian Nationalism, 1989

So I was going to write a post about Jimmy Kimmel's return to late night and what he said, but everyone else has pretty much covered it.

Our ABC local station covered it, but strangely, on that same night, some Lexington viewers reported our local CBS station, WKYT, decided to air an old Billy Graham episode from 50 years ago, instead of the scheduled Wheel of Fortune listed in the program guide, for what reason we don't know.

Okay, as much as I love Billy Graham - but passionately dislike his son, Franklin Graham - what the ???

I was reminded of this episode of Designing Women from 1988, when Julia is running for office against a "Moral Majority" member, as they were known at the time, today known as Christian Nationalists.

The push towards literally forcing people into Christianity is, of course, nothing new, but we haven't seen this level of "enforcement" in over a century.

The video begins with the pledge of allegiance - which, by the way, no other country in the world has children recite every morning - and ends with the school prayer debate.

Get it, girl ... 

Julia: "No, Mr. Briquette - I have not forgotten."  

"I was thinking that you seem to have forgotten the phrase "separation of church and state," but the one thing I did forget was just how divisive, dishonest, and distasteful someone like you can be."  

"I've sat here today and listened to you pander to these people, but you don't actually care about them, or you wouldn't sitting here reinforcing their ignorance and prejudices."  

 

Mr. Briquette: "You heard that, callers, she just called you ignorant and prejudiced."  

 

Julia: "I do not think everyone in America is ignorant, far from it! But we are today, probably, the most uneducated, underread, and illiterate nation in the Western Hemisphere, which makes it all the more puzzling to me why the biggest question on your small mind is whether or not lil' Johnny is going to recite the pledge of allegiance every morning."  

 

"And I tell you something else, Mr. Briquette - I have had it up to HERE, with your phony issues and your Yankee Doodle yakking!"  

 

"If you like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every day, then I think you should do it! In the car, in the shower, wherever the mood strikes you -  but don't try to tell me when or where I should say or do or salute anything, because I am an American, too, and that is what being an American is all about!"  

 

"And another thing, I am sick and tired of being made to feel like if I am not a member of a lil' family with 2.4 children, who goes just to Jerry Falwell's church, and puts their hands over their hearts, that I am unreligious, unpatriotic, and unAmerican!"  

 

"Because I have news for you, Mr. Briquette - not all liberals are kooks, any more than all conservatives are fascists."  

 

"And the last time I checked, God was neither a Republican or a Democrat!"  

 

"And just for your information, yes - I AM a liberal - but I am also a Christian."  

"And I get down on my knees and pray, every day - on my own turf, on my own time."  

 

"One of the things I pray for, Mr. Briquette, is that people with power will get good sense, and people with good sense will get power - and that the rest of us will be blessed with the patience and the strength to survive the people like you, in the meantime!"

😂

Amen!