Where Left Is Right / The Old Site

The Wittenburg Door (formerly simply The Door, linked as such at the left, and before that, well, The Wittenburg Door) celebrates its Special 200th Anniversary Loser of the Bi-Month. (Check out their archives.) The winner: Umm, The Wittenburg Door. After some hand-wringing about how little effect the religious satire magazine has had on the world (whatever that is), the editor counts a singular blessing:

...when it comes to making a change in the Status Quo, about all that's left to us is satire and humor. It's a cheap -- but dangerous -- weapon. Too much satire without the leavening of the Hope of Christ makes the satirist prone to both cynicism and irreverence. That's why all decisions regarding the content of the magazine, web site and newsletter are made by the entire Editorial Committee, which includes just about everybody who doesn't have kitchen duty that day. You need that accountability.

So, satire it is. This is the hand that's been dealt us, so we're going to continue to play it.

You've heard us say it before: Satire is lining up 100 sacred cows and shooting them all with a machine gun. Whichever one yelps the loudest, you shoot 10 more times.

Who is yelping now?

#1. Right now, we're getting a lot of indignant harassing phone calls, letters, and emails from Benny Hinn's followers following the Dateline expose.

Expect more Benny Hinn articles.

#2. Right now, we're getting lots of unhappy correspondence from people who think we're too hard on the current "Christian" administration. (BTW, where were you when nearly every issue had a Bill Clinton article in it a few years ago?)

Expect more Religious Right, Tom DeLay, and Karl Rove articles.

That's two perfect examples right there of why this magazine will probably never make any money.

Thomas Moore once wrote, "The devil … the proud sprite … cannot endure to be mocked." Laughter is one thing the oppressor cannot abide. Sometimes laughter is the only tool you have.

Sometimes it's hard to laugh in the face of widespread stupidity, criminality, dishonesty, official malfeasance, outright evil-masquerating-as-good. And that's when you most need to find reasons to laugh.

Happy 200th, Door-by-whatever-name!