Today is Friday, November 19th, the feast day of St. Philaret of Moscow, according to the Orthodox Church in America. (Though oddly, they don't list him with the other saints on
this page.
Today's RNR categories are:
Stupid Christian Tricks
Many of these come via
The Revealer:
- The Louisiana ACLU believes the state of LA has broken a 2002 agreement not to push religion on the state's abstinence page by saying, among other things, that abstinence makes teens "truly cool in God's eyes".
- TWIRP Day has been cancelled in a Texas school district because students were allowed to dress as members of the opposite sex. Somebody better send the memo to Matt Lauer, who has a habit of cross-dressing for Halloween.
- A Missouri man has been arrested for driving without a license, his third such offense. His justification? "As a Christian Israelite and a Nazarite, I am a servant of God and can have no covenant with the heathen government."
- Some fool school superintendent in Grantsburg, Wisconsin is pushing Intelligent Design in the curriculum. According to the Revealer, the Super "who is also a Baptist pastor, has previously caused debate by participating in a heavily biblical school Christmas pageant and by promoting middle school Bible study."
- A Leclaire Iowa pastor has been accused of harassing elderly congregants who voted for John Kerry, including phone calls to one grandmother while she was in the hospital. He is also said to have described to congregants a conversation he had with the Devil.
The attempts to legislate morality by changing school rules is nothing new. Two of these stories, however, demonstrate a theme that has been present in American religion for quite some time: a tendency to withdraw from interaction with the public realm by asserting the superiority of religious affiliation. The Amish do it in a peaceful way; the militia types in a not-so-peaceful manner. Keep your eye on this one.
The last story, in all seriousness, shows what can happen when a pastor suffers from an untreated mental illness. This guy probably is crackers, and as a result, he's doing great damage within his congregation.
Fundagelical News
Agape Press willfully misinterprets a recent Pew poll here. I heard it from Andrew Kohut's own lips: their research did not indicate an outsized values vote on Nov. 2nd.
There's an interesting review of the National Association of Evangelical's revisions to their Statement on Civic Engagement here. Bottom line: the NAE had a chance to say a prophetic word and blew it in favor of sucking up to their Republican overlords friends.
Amy Welborn gives Peter Beinart's TNR article on evangelicals after the election a mixed review, but I was intrigued by this quote:
since the election, the airwaves have been full of a different kind of argument. What many conservatives are now saying is that, since certain views are part of evangelicals' identity, harshly criticizing those views represents discrimination.
Ever wonder where Rush, et. al., will go from here? Look no further, I think.
The Christianity Today blog gives what I think is a very unfair reading of this article from the Harrisburg Patriot-News about some ministers objecting to a new program by the local Council of Churches. It's one thing to question whether adding a spiritual component to aid programs refocuses those programs on evangelism rather than helping the needy; it's quite another to suggest, as CT does, that these pastors are afraid of their own faith. (Full disclosure: it doesn't help my mood much that the people being criticized are my colleagues, many of whom I know from personal experience to be stand-up pastors.)
Democrats and Religion
The question of whether Democrats should "get religion" in the wake of the Nov. 2nd rout has been a hot topic, here as elsewhere.
It also seems to have inspired one stupid-ass article after another. (I'm not linking to Nicholas Kristof, David Brooks or Charles Krauthammer because their idiocy is too old for consideration here.)
Al From, who by now should have been banished to Alaska or some such place, has the nerve to tell the NYT that we lost because we didn't reach out enough to conservative believers. No, Al, we lost because you ran a shitty campaign as you have every time you run a presidential campaign.
Another Kohut piece of analysis: he believes that Dems have embraced the myth of the "values vote" in part because it's easier to accept than the idea that W. won the election by outplaying Kerry on security issues. Looks like From has bought that notion.
Steve Waldman of BeliefNet gets into the game with this stupid-ass piece arguing that Dems aren't reaching middle-American values. Which is to say that we're elitist snobs who don't understand how real Americans live, yadda yadda yadda. Even worse, he continues a media trend of quoting Kos only as an example of those silly progressives and their silly ideas. Still, Waldman partially redeems himself with this piece on the myths that allow liberals and conservatives to talk past one another. It's got a great title, too: "Perverted, God-Hating Frenchies vs. Inbred, Sex-Obsessed Yokels." Yup, that about sums it up.
Meanwhile, there's some perspective from outside the "God box" here and here. I wouldn't call these "stupid-ass," even though I don't entirely agree with their perspective.
Church and Homosexuality
This is interesting, particularly considering its conservative source. A survey of pastors across the country found that "43 percent of the pastors surveyed named divorce as the number-one threat [to families in their communities]. Meanwhile, 38 percent named negative influences from the media, and 36 percent cited materialism." And where did gay marriage figure in? It didn't: the bottom three threats listed were "adultery (5 percent); teen pregnancy (2 percent); sexual predators or sexual abuse (1 percent); or the expense of child care (1 percent)". Hmm.
Even better news: "A synod of the Anglican Church of Canada's Niagara Diocese voted 213-106 to authorize blessings for same-sex couples, but Bishop Ralph Spence withheld his required endorsement for the measure to go into effect." It's still a step closer, I say.
This 'n' That
Chuck Currie has a list of pro-choice Christian resources, and an excellent idea: write to Tom Delay's pastor and ask him to ask Delay to step down from his seat for the sake of "moral values".
The National Catholic Reporter has a review of the last book of a three-volume biography of Graham Greene that's well worth a read, believer or not.
Last but not least, Jesus Politics has a couple of great images to pass on:
Mrs. Pastor will like those; she's got us making relief kits for the Mennonite Central Committee instead of giving gifts this year.