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January
31 2004 | The BBC again
takes aim at American conservative evangelicals in politics Despite
some bloodletting
at the BBC over unprofessional journalistic practices earlier this week, it's
obvious that the unprofessionalism hasn't all been routed (as though it ever could
be). Could a so-called journalist be more transparent in his liberal-left prejudices
and predilections than in calling the Republican apparatus a "machine"
and calling the Christian Coalition a "pressure group" rather than an
interest group or action group? And of course the black/liberal Baptists are allowed
to criticize the conservative Christians as though there is no politicking on
their side. And
of course, again, there's the old pejorative red herring "literal interpretation
of the Bible," except that the BBC calls it the bible, lowercased, as though
it's the phone book or an automotive parts catalog. Nobody interprets the Bible
"literally," though in the PCA it is taken quite seriously and, as their
most famous apologist (the late Francis Schaeffer) used to say, as the purveryor
par excellence of "true truth." Back
to J-school, BBC.
January
30 2004 | Claim
that Mel Gibson has promised to add disclaimer to his Passion film
Let's hope this brings
an end to the pre-emptive strikes on Mel Gibson's film which, I expect from having
followed the coverage, will have much impact upon its release. My take on the
criticism has been that it is aimed at crippling the movie's message, a pre-emptive
strike, as it were, on Christian evangelism. That
notwithstanding, the Christian thing to do is to assure any in the Jewish community
who may be genuinely fearful of fallout from the film, through prudent actions
and statements, that we Christians are in no position to blame the crucifixion
on others, and that can never be our intent. It's only those who come to realize
and repent of their own culpability in Christ's crucifixion who can begin the
spiritual journey to His kingdom, to begin being "Christian." To blame others
in our stead is to seal our own fate as members, rather, of the kingdom of darkness. The
movie will open nationwide on February 25, Ash Wednesday.
January
29 2004 | Russian
Orthodox call French ban on Muslim veils reminiscent of Soviets
A downside of being
Orthodox in America is that often the Orthodox in other parts of the world seem
to have completely different worldviews. A Greek Orthodox spokesperson recently
described the United States as trying to dominate the world, for example, a claim
that must seem ludicrous to any American Christian. So it's a great pleasure to
find that this Russian Orthodox spokesperson is in sync with at least this American's
worldview on the subjects of religious freedom and the inherently and irrepressibly
religious nature of secularism.
January
28 2004 | Finally,
the FCC is getting tough on dirty-talk radio and TV broadcasts
Click here for our previous
article on these developments.
January
27 2004 | Democrats
also claim faith; it's just that their outcomes are different
With one article following another on this topic, I find it encouraging that
the subtext is that the political process is basically tied to religious commitment.
Since the Caesars, we've been asked to choose which claiming the title is our
Lord, and now with the religious lines being so clearly drawn ("modernism"
or humanist "Christianity" against "orthoxoxy" or biblical
Christianity) that question is becoming more important with every national referendum.
January
26 2004 | UK
government advisor says killing children with defects is acceptable
Harris is restating the consistent Christian position that abortion and infanticide
are moral equivalents, as they were seen and practiced in the pre-Constantinian
Roman Empire. And as they were seen and not practiced in the 17 centuries
from Constantine to the 1960's "sexual revolution." I
have no doubt that Harris is a little bit ahead of his time in the liberal secular
humanist world, but that time is quickly approaching.
January
25 2004 | Pope
criticizes mass media for leading culture in path of destruction
I couldn't have said it better myself.
January
24 2004 | Columnist
Goodman tries to reclaim 'religious' political ground for liberals
There is lots of food of thought and some good information in this opinion piece
by the veteran liberal columnist, despite the laughable "strict father"
theory. Perhaps her most telling observation is the citation from George "Lakoff,
an adviser to more than one Democratic candidate, [who] thinks liberals aren’t
hushed up; they’re tongue-tied. 'If you ask most liberals, "what do you believe
about morality?," they don’t know what to say.'" To
which I would reply, that's most likely because post-moderns can hardly define
morality, much less claim any experience in wrestling with its life-claiming tenets.
January
23 2004 | Episcopal
priest's plea: fight for 'all aspects of the abortion-rights' cause
Advocating the killing of unborn babies vs. elevating gay bishops? Sorry, sounds
like a wash to me. Not all evils are equal but these two strike me as darn close. Trying
to find some redemptive potential in all this...maybe we can hope that the newly
launched relatively conservative "Anglican Network" will prove to be
just the beginning of a reform movement toward re-establishing the altars of the
Lord.
January
22 2004 | The
Rev. Ian Paisley retires after 25 years on the European Parliament
Until finding the linked article, I'd known Ian Paisley had been the most controversial
member of Northern Ireland's Parliament, but hadn't known he'd moved on to the
European Union's governing body, much less that he'd done so 25 years ago. I
met him briefly only once, though I'd been in the audience of maybe a half dozen
religious meetings where he was the main speaker. I was a seminarian preparing
for ministry in a Presbyterian denomination that was the closest American equivalent
to his Northern Ireland Free Presbyterian one and I was employed as managing editor
of the then most widely circulated Protestant weekly newspaper in the United States
(the Christian Beacon is now defunct and I know of nothing that can be
called its successor). We were no sooner introduced than he asked if I'd be interested
in working for him in a similar job in Ulster (Northern Ireland). Love
of Ireland seemingly having been borne in my genes, and at the time never having
been able to visit it, I was momentarily tempted. But this was the time when the
assassination of John F. Kennedy was still topic A in everyone's reckoning, Paisley
was villified as an extremist in most of the media, and even I had to allow that
he was, definitely, anti-Catholic. He and perhaps some of his close associates
would likely be assassination targets, too. "No,"
I replied; "it's tempting, but I'm not up for such a big change." I didn't add,
but thought, "and neither am I willing to define myself as anti-Catholic." Catholicism
was, and in my reckoning, on some points still is, wrong on some issues, but not
nearly as wrong as Mr. Paisley has always made out. More importantly, it is and
should be a major ally in the real spiritual warfare of our generation, not our
enemy. Some of the popes may have been anti-Christ in the worst generations of
Rome's apostasy (that's covered in Traditional
Protestantism 101), but that's not a fair attribution to the Bishops of Rome
of our time. I
finally visited Belfast with my grown son, Mike, in 2001 (and again with both
sons in 2002). Mike and I took a bus tour of some of the city's major sites. While
we were parked near Ulster's Parliament Building for photos, I asked the bus driver
what Ian Paisley was up to these days. "He's still going strong as ever," was
the reply. "I hear him on the radio just about every day."
January
21 2004 | Sweden
is the only member of 15 in European Union outlawing sex for sale
(Tongue-in-cheekily:) Presumably Nevada is the only United States area in which
sex for pay has legal sanction. The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last June that
private acts between consenting adults is not the business of the law, however,
would seem to pave the way for generalized acceptance. Otherwise, the U.S. seems
to be saying sodomy is fine but giving someone money for "personal services" is
sleazy. Huh? Sweden?
January
20 2004 | Current
crop of Democrat candidates called 'models in (family) diversity'
The "diversity" may speak for itself, but I have another reason for linking this
article. Though just about every article in every American newspaper that mentions
conservative religion, ethics, or morals asks "the Rev." Barry Lynn, executive
director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to straighten
their readers out, this is the first article addressing the opposite, liberal,
side of those issues I've ever seen ask for a comment by an opposition conservative
organization or, as is the case, several of them. The
irony of using "the Rev." Barry Lynn (a former executive with the leftwing ACLU
and I would say, still really doing that job, but as a wolf in sheep's clothing)
as the expert on everything touching American religion is that in the hundreds
of quotations I've seen attributed to him I've yet to see anything approaching
reverence or seeming even slightly "religious," unless you stretch the meaning
of the word to include leftist political orthodoxy. One could get the skewed (I'm
sure) impression that his whole holy calling is just to exist to be a foil for
what he calls the Christian right.
Anyway, I could rant on about Barry Lynn and his AUSCS (formerly the Protestants
and Other Americans for SCS, a transparently anti-Catholic group) but the main
point is: thanks to the Seattle Times for being the first of what I hope
is not a short roster of media going, at least, for a bit of balance.
January
19 2004 | Oldest
English-language newspaper becomes voice for Irish Protestants
As the author of a book advocating
radical pluralization in the media and a repeat visitor to Belfast where I've
noted that its major daily newspaper is the one described here, I find this development
significant mainly as one to keep an eye on. Is there already a daily newspaper
there representing the Catholic minority or, if not, will one now arise to compete
with the News Letter? And of course the major issue is whether this development
will stoke the embers of hatred, disunity, and violence in tiny Ulster, or serve
to vent the tendencies toward those destructive propensities and encourage a calmer
quest for a fair resolution.
I can't pretend to know Ireland well enough to know where the way to justice and
peace lies. Unionism (meaning continued union of Northern Ireland with England
and the continued partition of the small island into two states) is an easy place
to put the blame for the troubles, but doing so doesn't give any hope to the majority
Protestant community in this divided island. Ironically, both Catholic Ireland
and Great Britain are members of the European Union, and if that larger entity
becomes more like a super state, these tensions may relax. I think the move in
that direction has already given some relaxation and let's hope it continues to
foster goodwill.
January
18 2004 | Britney:
'I do believe in the sanctity of marriage, I totally do'
Significance? Little. But it helps us launch "defense of marriage" week.
For additional background reading: God
Hates Unmarried Losers It's BushCo's $1.5 bil plan to let the homophobic Christian
Right dictate love. Whee! A
radical critique of everything to the right of the SFGate columnist. Is
lawful polygamy next? In
the latter, a Boston Globe columnist looks at the evidence and says "yes." U.S.
Catholic Bishops’ Administrative Committee Calls for Protection of Marriage The
closest thing to a Christian apologetic on the topic I've found.
January
17 2004 | The
'abysmal ignorance of U.S. First Amendment provisions' du juor
I find it mind boggling that any American subpopulation would elect such an ignoramus.
However, it's not just ironic that this is happening in a public school milieu.
That, no doubt, is where such ignorance as that of Ms Carter of the First Amendment
and the American principles of liberty for all originate and are purposely perpetuated.
She no doubt learned it where she is now trying to teach it. Simply, if this is
not ignorance but intentional, it is, clearly, fascism; an attempt to control
the minds of the younger generation by "protecting" them from anything
other than the "liberal" spin. "Stuff
being put in people's face" is the first principle of what the First Amendment
is about, not to mention what academic freedom means. No one has freedom from
information, but rather our Constitution guarantees a right to disseminate
information in any public place. As for pornography, does she not know there are
laws against the showing, much less distributing, pornography to minors? Has she
lived her life in a cave? Or is she a knowing co-conspirator in the destruction
of American democracy?
January
16 2004 | Columnist:
'Secularism' should be free of government interference, support
The linked essay strikes me as containing equal parts of brilliance and silliness.
Secularism, at root, is nothing more, or less, than "worldliness," and it's no
less religious—in fact, as practiced in France and lots of other places,
is more so—than Catholicism or Judaism and even some strains of Islam. So
to hold it up as some shining ideal without defining it or imply that it is somehow
"neutralism," is to mislead. On the other hand, it's a rare mass media
example of taking secularism seriously and therefore its worth noting, even if
it takes it too seriously or fails to grasp its true implications.
January
15 2004 | 'Level
ground at the cross': A holiday giving story the elite media 'missed'
Obviously most of the big media in the United States are invested in their propaganda
that George W. Bush's promise of a practice of "compassionate conservatism" would
characterize his administration was a lie. So
how could they report anything that shows their own position to be untrue?
January
14 2004 | Statistics
support claim that teen abstinence campaign is succeeding
Is it interesting that this story was found in an overseas newspaper and not the
stateside media? That wouldn't have anything to do with anti-Bush and/or anti-abstinence
education attitudes in the U.S. media...would it?
January
13 2004 | Actor
Tom Cruise praises Buddhism, calls it 'grandfather of Scientology' Hmmm.
L. Ron Hubbard is the father of Scientology, right? And Hinduism is the
father of Buddhism (Buddha was to Hinduism as Jesus was to Judaism, loosely speaking,
if I recall my comparative religion correctly). So does this mean Cruise is to
Scientology as Mel Gibson is to Christianity? At least for now, 'twould seem.
But where does this leave John Travolta (Scientology's more visible poster boy),
or for that matter, Richard Gere (who, I believe, professes the real, or at least
TIbetan, Buddhism)? More
seriously, when I hear speeches advocating cults, especially "new age" ones (meaning
ones attributing much from Eastern Religion) who come from post-Christian backgrounds,
I generally wonder if they want religion—a spirituality of their own—but
not the narrow straight road required by Jesus of those who would follow Him (Matthew
7:13-14).
January
12 2004 | Calif.
Congressman moves to ban 'dirty words' from broadcast airwaves Ordinarily,
we don't link articles about proposed legislation. Its power to "signify"
at that stage is limited. However, many may have missed the fact that a major
corner toward legalizing new dirty speech on the American airwaves was turned
in recent weeks, so this is worth repeating. I see it as part of the movement
toward "Europeanizing" and secularizing America. On
a media-critical note, is it indicative that the San Francisco Chronicle
calls Congressman "politician" in its headline...a pejorative term if
there ever is one (see my previous heading for example).
January
11 2004 | Roman
Catholic bishop bars pro-abortion politicians from Communion That
the apostolic church—taught by the virgin birth of Christ, the intended destruction
by infanticide of Moses by Pharoah and of Jesus by Herod—stood solidly against
the widespread practice of abortion and infanticide in the Roman Empire is incontrovertible
history. Latter-day politicians, liberal Protestants, and those voters whose religious
roots are more political than ecclesiastical, may think the opposition to abortion
is a late development as part of Catholicism's anti-contraception doctrines, but
that just is not supported by history and the consistent doctrine of the church,
universally taught from the time of the apostles to approximately 1970. Abortion
is absolutely an instance of what the church universal has generally taught is
included in "though shalt not commit murder." Bishop
Raymond L. Burke's courageous stand may help stay the liberal politicans' attack
on and the abortion of Christianity itself. And even by throwing more light on
the issue, it will undoubtedly save infant lives.
January
10 2004 | CT
Weblog: Star Christian reporter quits USA Today after investigation "Now
there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph," Exodus 1:8.
There methinks may hang the key to this tale.
UPDATE:
January 13 2004 | Apparently, I was wrong BUT
Kelley implies he was unfairly targeted at the paper January
9 2004 | Dean
cites religion in signing civil unions, but didn't mention it at that time Who's
to judge what leads any individual into a closer walk with God? Also
sharpening up the Democrats' image today: Wesley
Clark Backs Abortion Until Birth, Won't Pick Pro-Life Judges
January
8 2004 | Research
uncovers a deep regional, urban/rural divide among Americans Despite
the widespread survey findings that most people don't "vote their religion," there
are definitely religious connotations in this study. It supports the thesis this
writer proposed in a recent series
of articles comparing liberals and conservatives, which said liberals generally
lean to the secular, conservatives to the spiritual way of life.
January
7 2004 | Pop
culture writer finds Mel Gibson's Christian imagery 'bizarre' The
website's ignorance of Christianity 101 is itself what's significant here. Anyone
who does not consider himself primarily responsible for crucifying Christ hardly
gets the point of the Christian gospel. If he did not die for our sins
(and if we don't confess this from our spiritual depths), we are still in them,
their control, unfit to the Kingdom. And
of course this point is the only one that must be stressed in claiming, in reply
to the film's antsy Jewish critics, that Gibson's film puts the stigma of "Christ-killer"
on their people. Another
site calls the scene "odd," which is almost as bizarre as calling it bizarre.
Also, the playing of the role is not about "guilt," so much as it is about "grace."
January
6 2004 | 'Deeply
held beliefs' is new code for keeping Christians off circuit court After
all, there is no place for deeply holding anything in a society normed by relativity.
January
5 2004 | Next
pop religion best-seller: 'Jesus' as American cultural icon? Matthew
24: 22 And
unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's
sake those days will be shortened. 23 Then if anyone says to you, "Look, here
is the Christ!' or "There!' do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false
prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even
the elect.
January
4 2004 | Group
blames 'Christian ideology' for destroying international health programs And
yet at least one fringy accuses
the Bush Administration of being ineffective on Christian issues.
January
3 2004 | Jewish
leaders accuse European Union Commission of anti-Semitism Fourth
Reich? First,
the French outlaw Jewish garb in state schools (Muslim garb, too, but that topic
has already been treated), and the Germans fall in line. Next development, Egypt
nods its smiling approval. Now this from the European Commission. It's
an internal matter, say the French and Egyptians. Isn't that exactly what the
Nazis and President Roosevelt said when the President turned back the shipload
of escaped Jews
who tried to land in Florida only to be returned to the Fuerher?
January
2 2004 | 'Deviance'—the
intersection of cultural, political, and religious morality This
is only a book review, and though it raises interesting questions, it's hard to
tell where either the book's author or the reviewer stands on them. But it's allusive
enough, on a no-news-of-significance day, to merit a perusal
on Amazon.
January
1 2004 | HAPPY NEW YEAR! Pittsburgh
Episcopal bishop outlines goals of new Anglican network Another
95 Theses? Let's hope.
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