Welcome, Hanoi Jane!

Here's one story I overlooked in the midst of the general info fog spread by the MSM. This is one that the MSM probably has no use for:

Jane Fonda always appeared to be trying to please somebody else--whether it was as the sex kitten "Barbarella" for first husband Roger Vadim, as "Hanoi Jane" for her activist second husband Tom Hayden, or as the nipped and tucked trophy wife for her egregiously creepy third husband, Ted Turner.

Now we learn she may have a new cause: Christianity. The Academy Award-winning actress is said to have been driven to faith by her chauffeur. He reportedly began sharing his beliefs with her several years ago.

I sincerely hope her conversion is genuine, rather than just a celebrity fad like Madonna's foray into Jewish mysticism or the Jesus Freak phase of Tom Wolfe's Man Who Always Peaked Too Soon. If it is true, we as Christians should rejoice in it and accept Hanoi Jane back into the fold of humanity (vice the species Homo Plutocratus Brachycephalus that she has belonged to most of her life). Understandably, most observers are not reacting favorably:

But when a conservative Christian website called WorldNetDaily.com reported that Fonda had embraced Christianity, nobody rejoiced--neither the conservatives who have been appalled by Fonda all these years, nor her friends on the left. Perhaps people are just being cautious; we haven't heard from Jane herself and maybe the news accounts are exaggerated or wrong.

The Left will despise her for it, of course, since Leftists see Jesusland as their principal enemy and the main source of "evil" (if such a thing can exist in their Weltanschaung) in the world. The Right will have trouble getting past her past treason--and yes, Chefjef, her actions were treasonous by any reasonable definition, but then treason is no longer even a misdemeanor. Nonetheless, if she is serious, we should forgive her.

Two things are encouraging indices of her seriousness: she was reportedly converted by her chauffeur and nostalgie de la boue doesn't seem her style, and she has to know how much this will cost her in the crowd she hangs with, not least of whom is her erstwhile husband Ted Turner, the man who said, "Christianity is a religion for losers."

The author of the BeliefNet article has more encouragement:

Still, since reading about Fonda, I've heard the words of another religious seeker echoing in my mind. He, too, sampled a number of contemporary intellectual fads before embracing Christianity. I refer, of course, to the man from Hippo--St. Augustine.

Augustine had dabbled in all sorts of trendy isms of the day. The father of an illegitimate child, Augustine famously arrived at Carthage "burning, burning" with sexual desire. He asked God to make him good "but not yet."

Finally, God could wait no longer.

I don't expect her to become Augustine, but I do hope her turning is real.

Update: More here, here, and here, including an appeal to pray for Ted Turner, whose latest kick seems to be to earn his way to heaven through good behavior:

"So I'm living like a Christian," [Turner] said later, after recounting highlights of his charitable giving. "I guarantee you I'll see you [in Heaven]. I'll be like the guy who has the last two tickets in the stadium. I've lived a really good life. I'm going to say, 'Hey, St. Peter, remember Gods & Generals? This movie is a final bit of insurance that I get in."

Yuk. That's so wrong on so many levels that it's hard to even deal with it. You might just find, Mr Turner, that those tickets you scalped aren't real, regardless of how much you paid for them.

Monk