# Michael Flynn's Shining City on the Hill - For Christians Only **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 15, 2021, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397 "2021-11-15T16:09:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/201 "2021-12-04T16:00:25Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Then read Tom Robbins’s 1990 novel _Skinny Legs and All_ , in which that exact scenario being attempted is a major subplot. It’s been a long time… Is that the one with “The Corpse” and the hot air balloon? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/202 "2021-12-04T16:03:33Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Then read Tom Robbins’s 1990 novel _Skinny Legs and All_ , in which that exact scenario being attempted is a major subplot. In my library system; not in any of the libraries I usually go to, but there is a copy in a library I rarely go to, or I could order it. Thanks for the tip. I haven’t been reading Robbins, but am not sure why; can’t remember whether I tried something by him and didn’t like it, or was just put off by the presentation on book jackets. Taking one out would probably settle the question. > [@Broomstick](#): > > Totally ignoring all the actual requirements to get a Third Temple up and running. I think some of them are breeding red heifers, though – ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/203 "2021-12-04T16:08:15Z")
Yeah, that’s a thing: > **[Bible prophecy: First red heifer born in 2,000 years, signals end of days](https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/viral-and-trending/100918/bible-prophecy-first-red-heifer-born-in-2000-years-signals-end-of-days.html)** > > Red heifers feature in tales in both Christianity and Judaism and it’s birth and sacrifice is said to proceed construction of Third Temple. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/204 "2021-12-04T16:11:32Z")
Aren’t they missing a couple of essential groups of people? I thought that the “Lost Tribes” included groups that were necessary for sacrifices to be made and stuff like that? Sounds like the evangelicals are making the same mistakes Belloq and Todt made. They had the outer forms but not the inner Truth, therefore the Ark struck them down. I hope we get clear video when it happens to them again. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/205 "2021-12-04T16:14:07Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > > > Then read Tom Robbins’s 1990 novel _Skinny Legs and All_ , in which that exact scenario being attempted is a major subplot. > > It’s been a long time… Is that the one with “The Corpse” and the hot air balloon? No, that’s _Another Roadside Attraction_. It’s the one where the welder gets hold of an Airstream RV and welds two huge turkey drumsticks on to make it look like a giant stainless steel turkey. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/206 "2021-12-04T16:18:38Z")
Thanks! It has been a long time. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/207 "2021-12-04T16:20:43Z")
I really liked _Jitterbug Perfume._ ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/208 "2021-12-04T17:09:05Z")
I loved Tom Robbins for a long time and then I stopped. Skinny Legs and All was probably the last one I liked. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/209 "2021-12-04T17:10:56Z")
I hear ya, I don’t think I was able to finish “Villa Incognito”. But now that I have been reminded, I may look up “Another Roadside Attraction”. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/210 "2021-12-04T17:13:23Z")
I highly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/211 "2021-12-04T17:27:11Z")
Hmm. I think I read “Another Roadside Attraction” maybe, oh, forty years ago or so? – wiki says it came out in 1971; I might have read it about that time. I don’t really remember it, but it’s possible that’s what left me not all that interested in reading more Robbins. I have a vague recollection of feeling there was something off about it. Did it have a lot of 1970’s-ideas male-oriented depictions of female sexuality? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/212 "2021-12-04T17:34:05Z")
Oh yeah. But the ballon thing is kind of spectacular! (IIRC, it’s been a long time. I was younger and more impressionable then.) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/213 "2021-12-04T17:40:11Z")
Me too. I certainly wouldn’t have come up with a phrase like “male-oriented depictions of female sexuality” at the time. But I might well have had a less-formed sense of ‘but it’s not like that’. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/214 "2021-12-04T17:55:51Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Me too. I certainly wouldn’t have come up with a phrase like “male-oriented depictions of female sexuality” at the time. But l might well have had a less-formed sense of ‘but it’s not like that’. Yeah, now that you bring it up, I might have characterized it as a theme of female empowerment, but now that I think about it, I never actually discussed the book with any women. Or men, for that matter. I _did_ think the writing style was somewhat self-conscious, moreso than _Even Cowgirls Get the Blues_, which was my first Robbins read. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/215 "2021-12-04T18:21:57Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > now that you bring it up, I might have characterized it as a theme of female empowerment, but now that I think about it, I never actually discussed the book with any women. I think that’s the answer I’d have expected to get at the time, including from many women, if I had tried discussing it with anybody. Separating the ideas that women who want to have sex have a right to do so, and that most women enjoy sex under the right circumstances, from the idea that this means ‘now the women will fulfill all the teenage male fantasies!’ wasn’t something I remember being much discussed at the time – that is, I’m sure there were people who were discussing that problem in the early 70’s, but I hadn’t really run into them. And I now think it might well have been _Cowgirls_ which I read; though it’s possible I read both of them. But I’m sure I read _Cowgirls_, and pretty sure I had that sort of reaction to it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/216 "2021-12-04T18:29:23Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > And I now think it might well have been _Cowgirls_ which I read; though it’s possible I read both of them. But I’m sure I read _Cowgirls_ , and pretty sure I had that sort of reaction to it. Yeah, _Cowgirls_ was a lot more about the sex, so that was probably the one. In _Roadside Attraction_, the heroine was pretty free and easy with her sexuality, but also made it clear that she knew where her boundaries lay, and wasn’t afraid to discuss them candidly. But I didn’t have the sense that the book discussed sexuality as a major theme, not the way _Cowgirls_ did. This is turning into a hijack, but it’s still more interesting than anything Michael Flynn has to say. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/217 "2021-12-04T18:33:30Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > This is turning into a hijack, but it’s still more interesting than anything Michael Flynn has to say. That made me laugh; but unfortunately it probably isn’t safe to ignore Michael Flynn, because there are all too many people (though not many in this thread) who aren’t ignoring him and who agree with him. Apologies, everybody, for the hijack. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/218 "2021-12-04T18:34:23Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > That made me laugh; but unfortunately it probably isn’t safe to ignore Michael Flynn, because there are all too many people (though not many in this thread) who aren’t ignoring him and who agree with him. Yeah, good caveat. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/219 "2021-12-04T18:41:24Z")
That cycle of hope is a killer, isn’t it? You keep thinking you’re going to find an honest conservative with a good heart that just wants slightly lower taxes and less regulation. You hear a few reasonable sounding sentences and your heart soars……maybe this is _the one_. Maybe this is the person that will help me show the world that all modern conservatives aren’t gaslighting trolls or brainwashed marks. Because you just _know_ there’s a good conservative out there somewhere on the inter webs. But then they start to talk, really talk….and you realize that this person, the latest conservative you had high hopes for, is just another brainwashed gaslighting trollboy spouting conspiracy theories and thought-limiting cliches. Your soul is crushed, yet again. Give up, already. Cut your losses. Finding a well-intentioned conservative on the internet is about as likely as finding a Christian virgin that doesn’t care about your looks or income dancing naked onstage at a strip club. I’m not saying they don’t exist, I’m just saying you’re never going to find one. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397/220 "2021-12-04T18:44:34Z")
Ignore what they say to you and pay attention to what say to each other, and you can’t go wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-flynns-shining-city-on-the-hill-for-christians-only/954397.md?page=12)