Bible-bashing

Mon Nov 20 16:52:11 UTC 2006

On Nov 18, 2006, at 10:49 AM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> This usage would be really misleading to us Ohians who know about
> Blackwell's Christian conservatism!  Since the Economist is from
> England,
> might "bashing" in the "thumping" sense be a Britishism?
>
> At 11:46 AM 11/18/2006, you wrote:
>> from the Economist, 11/11/06, p. 14: "and in Ohio the Bible-bashing
>> Ken Blackwell, who aspired to be governor, went down in flames."
>>
>> this would be 'Bible-wielding' or 'Bible-thumping', i.e. 'bashing
>> with the Bible', as opposed to 'bashing the Bible'.  both senses are
>> attested in considerable numbers on the web.  context is obviously
>> key.

the 'Bible-thumping' uses seem to be british (or australian).
american uses seem to be of 'bashing the Bible'.  the u.k. cites
include some in both senses.

arnold

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