(Huckabee) KNOW YOUR FUNDY BUZZWORDS: Vertical Vs Horizontal Thinking [View All]

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

Here Josh Marshall describes his bemusement over this quote on Huckabee's site:

"I think the country is looking for somebody who is vertical, who is thinking let's take the country up and not down." (screencap at link)

WTF, asks Marshall, does vertical mean? After a few readers chime in, it becomes increasingly clear. Horizontal thinking is employed by "freethinkers" who do not include God in their logical equations, whereas vertical thinking is a kind of top-down logic wherein all logic descends to man from a divine source.

Here is the horizontal history of the Bible:
Man looks to the stars and makes up stories which are allegories. → Man writes the stories down to pass them to future generations. → The allegorical nature of the stories is lost. → The stories are misinterpreted as real history.

Here is the vertical history of the Bible:
GOD
↓
God creates the universe and writes the story of his plan for salvation in the stars. Thus his revelation is given to all mankind even before Jesus is born.
↓
The events foretold in the stars actually take place. Jesus is born and crucified to save all mankind.
↓
God divinely inspires scribes to write down the story of what happened. The stories end up in the Bible, declared to be the perfect inerrant revelation of how Jesus died to save all mankind.

As Marshall concludes, "The more I look at this I don't think there's any question this is a clever dog whistle call out to Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals that his politics are God's politics." I will be keeping an eye out for more Huckabee codespeak.

PS: There are more examples of vertical thinking at the link, including a link to Vertical Thought: A Magazine of Understanding for Tomorrow's Leaders. Targeted at ages 12-22, it is published by the United Church of God out of Milford OH.