Y’all remember this summer when we learned about how and why Judge Robert Echols appeared to be giving money to the racist Kershaw Foundation when he was, instead, just trying to give money to the Christian homeschool organization of his Bible study leader, who teaches students that slavery’s not that bad and the Rev. Martin Luther King sucks? And then that Bible study leader, the Rev. David O. Jones, had to come out to try to assure everyone that there was just no possible way Judge Echols could have known he was a terrible person with ties to hate groups?
Well, it’s happened again, or before, I guess. U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, currently running for Bob Corker’s Senate seat, has long, close ties to Jones, whom she’s known since her days in the Williamson County Young Republicans. They were close enough that Jones officiated Blackburn’s sister’s wedding at Blackburn’s behest. And she had him go give the opening prayer to the House of Representatives.
According to Talking Point Memo:
Blackburn’s campaign told TPM Thursday that she had no idea about Jones’ controversial views and ties and hasn’t seen him in a long time, but declined to say whether or not she plans to return his campaign donations or discuss their earlier relationship.“Marsha is appalled by saddened by the actions and words of these hate-filled organizations. Marsha has not seen Rev. Jones in over a decade and was not aware he was affiliated with this organization,” Blackburn spokeswoman Andrea Bozek told TPM in an email.
If this is true, then Blackburn sure is doing a very shitty job of keeping up with the news in Tennessee, considering the sizable scandal Jones’ affiliation with the League of the South and the Kershaw Foundation caused this summer. We’re supposed to believe that she missed that story? No one in her family even bothered to gossip with her about it?
The more I think about this story, though, the more I feel kind of bad for Jones. I cringe for him that he’s now, twice, had to come out this year and say, “It’s possible that these people who knew me for years, decades, don’t know these important things about me and don’t know where my passions lie.” Don’t get me wrong. I think Jones’ passions are vile and stupid, and part of me is glad he knows that if he spoke about them in mixed company, many people would be repulsed.
But I can’t imagine having some part of your life that is as deeply important to you as Jones’ weird slavery apologia and longing for Southern secession seems to be to him, and not being able to share it with people you genuinely like and care about.
My gut says that they must have known. I mean, when you see how eager he is to tell everyone in the media his opinions, and once you know how much of those opinions are in his school curriculum, it seems impossible to believe that he could have neglected to ever even hint to these people that he holds these views.
The alternative is stranger and harder to believe — that he knew even his most conservative friends would find his opinions upsetting and so he pretended to be more moderate around them.
One of the things we’ve been told repeatedly is that the easiest way to change people’s minds is to just expose them to different things and let them realize the error of their ways. But Jones has led a very privileged life with access to the halls of power and all he learned, supposedly, was to be quiet in his white supremacist work.
