How Embarrassing!

Feminist icon and former Al Gore sartorian guru Naomi Wolf has found Christ. I'm not comfortable commenting on her conversion, except to say I wish her well. But I do want to quote an account from the Glasgow Sunday Herald:

"Born-again Christians might nod in recognition at Wolf’s awakening, but secular society will find it extremely bizarre. At the time, she was struggling with writer’s block, and sought help from a specialist, who induced what Wolf calls 'a light meditative state', then asked her to walk downstairs in a classic deep relaxation technique. 'I opened the door and there he was,' recounts Wolf.

“'I wasn’t myself in this visual experience,' she continues. 'I was a 13-year-old boy sitting next to him [Jesus] and feeling feelings I’d never felt in my lifetime, of a 13-year-old boy being with an older male who he really loves and admires and loves to be in the presence of. It was probably the most profound experience of my life. I haven’t talked about it publicly.'

"Well, no wonder. She confesses she still feels awkward speaking about it. 'It’s very embarrassing. We’re intellectuals, we’re on the left, we’re not supposed to talk like that,' she says later."

What stands out here--and this is something I do feel comfortable talking about--is the peculiar notion that if you are a Christian, you aren't an intellectual. Thomas Aquinas might have something to say about that. The Church, of course, is responsible for the very idea of a university.

Contemporary intellectuals are stranded in a small slice of time, and nothing shows their isolation more than their disdain for the religion that created our culture. Oh, but they don't like that either. (Condescending to Christians appears to be a pastime for intellectuals, but this critic of Wolf's apparent conversion gets nasty.)