Tuesday, August 23. 2005
 World Mis-spent Youth Day
Curt Jester did a good job with this, but I was looking for Benedict's speech. This will have to do for now. Jester here.
Holiness, and Isaiah From my blog comrade Brian at Real Meal Ministries: Isaiah 6:2-4 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
Isaiah is dumbfounded. He is standing in the temple and God is visible in all of his awesome glory. Yet there is even more. Seraphs are circling above God’s throne. These heavenly beings function as God’s attendants. The word seraph is related to the Hebrew word for fire. It is likely that these creatures appeared to Isaiah as flames of fire. Unlike God who remains silent, the seraphs proclaim two key messages about the One who is High and Exalted.
Read the rest, and find out what holiness really means, from a preacher who digs turtles and Dylan.
Monday, August 22. 2005
(First posted on April 29, 2005) The Gospel of John 4 out of 4 Dog Bones for this movie, which had the misfortune of being overshadowed by Gibson's The Passion last year and was not released in theaters. Sticking tightly to the language and sequence of this very literary Gospel which was written 2 centuries after Christ's death, the 3-hour version captures all of the key moments of Christ's ministry, and is especially good at capturing the rabble-rousing, reckless and provocative style of his ministry and it's inevitable culmination on the cross. It's easy to see why people wanted him out of the way - he was a big trouble-maker and no-one was insulated from his demands or his harsh judgements. Not a go-with-the-flow guy, and more the Jesus of Truth than the sweet Jesus of Love, yet love of God is the whole story. A rebel with a cause. The role of Pilate is small but fascinating, and made me feel that we are all Pilates. What would I have done? Probably what Pilate did. Captain Vere in Billy Budd. The story of Pilate is a Greek tragedy, and I feel sympathy for his fate. My only complaint about the film is that Jesus spends more time talking about his relationship with God than he does preaching the rest of his message that was to change the world. I am not a Bible student - but that focus is a reflection of John's Gospel, which was a message to gentiles - "He is in me and I am in Him" - obviously not a message designed to engage the Jews of the time: "Crucify him. Crucify him." The Jews were not quite ready for a Messiah, nor is anyone, anywhere, any time. How are we to know whether a messiah is the real thing? Pilate is us, and the Jews are us. A holy dream in which we ourselves play every role, as we do in all dreams. Anyway, powerful and very moving stuff, and the narration by Plummer adds a lot.
Monday, August 15. 2005
 (Posted April 29, 2005)
Pagan Idolatry (!?) Michael Shermer, in The American Scientist, has written a thoughtful piece entitled "The Soul of Science" about how he claims that he finds fully-satisfying non-transcendent meaning and purpose in his life. My title above is a bit tongue-in-cheek, and I have not dropped the dime to the Spanish Inquisition - lost their phone number. Nor do I have any argument with anyone who feels simply that "Life is to Live" - I think that is an entirely wholesome, if willfully unreflective, approach to the miracle of existence. We all have to map our own way of being in the world; that's the burden and blessing of freedom. You can easily tell from his earnest writing that Mr. Shermer is a very good, decent, likeable, thoughtful fellow. But there is something in his piece, an undercurrent of trying too hard, or protesting too much, that makes me wonder whether Mr. Shermer is resisting something in himself. I am not a religious man, nor - God forbid - a "spiritual" man. But, like most people, I have a feeling about, or interest in a transcendent force. Call it what you will. And I do find an unaccountable joy in singing hymns about Jesus which causes me to imagine that something "out there" is connecting with something "in here." Some of us Maggie's crew had dinner with The Analyst, Dr. Bliss, last month in Cambridge. She expounded on the theme that "everyone worships something," whether they know it or not. She feels that self-worship - the idolatry of "self-fulfillment" and "self-importance" and "self-realization" is the pop alternative to a deity. At which point Bird Dog tends to crudely interject about his yet-unwritten book entitled "I'm An A-hole, You're an A-hole" - the theoretical counterpoint to that best-seller of the 70s I'm OK, You're OK. I have doubts about whether Bird Dog's title will sell books, but I get his point. Shermer puts everything in a science frame: "Humans have an evolved sense of purpose—a psychological desire to accomplish goals—that developed out of behaviors that were selected for because they were good for the individual or the group. The desire to behave in purposeful ways is an evolved trait; purpose is in our nature. And with brains big enough to discover and define purpose in symbolic ways that are inconceivable to millions of preceding and coexisting species, we humans are unique" Despite his welcome humility about it, I guess Shermer "worships" science, or genetics, more or less, since that is how he decides to frame his experience of reality. Read entire and see what you think. I am out of time. (The ironic choice of photo is of Baal, AKA Beelzebub, to whom live children were sacrificed in Christ's time.)
Wednesday, August 3. 2005
Taize I see the Farmer mentioned heading off to Taize, which I have visited but I never could find words adequate to describe the experience. (I haven't met The Farmer, but I cannot picture him at Taize.) What I can recommend is their music. Here's one review from Amazon from a Mr. A. Hogan, an articulate fellow from Brooklyn: Hyperbole notwithstanding, this is simply the purest prayer available in recording in the Western tradition (outside of Gregorian or Ambrosian Chant and Orthodox Chant). Taize, dubbed by JOHN XXIII (of blessed memory) as "that little springtime" has been re-connecting young people for 50 years to the sacred simplicity of early Christianity with its emphasis on prayer, hospitality and commonality. These songs here, very simple phrases repeated over and again, are meditative and achingly beautiful. From the opening BLESS THE LORD to the final stirring notes of cantante domino, this is deeply moving and almost pure in its essence. If music can improve a person, this will. Humbling.
Indeed, as Instapundit would say.
Wednesday, July 13. 2005
A Problem with this Religion I am not a scholar of Islam, and I have too many things to keep up with to become one. I can't even understand Christianity quite yet. However, there is a problem with Islam: From Pejmanesque: A year earlier a whole lot of German and French tourists were blown up outside the synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. A few months later a Spanish restaurant and a Jewish community centre were blown up in Morocco. The chap who did it had been trained by bin Laden in Afghanistan. The radicals have blown up Shia mosques in Pakistan, before, after and during Iraq. They have blown up Iraqi Shias for being apostates. Closer to home, in spring 2003, two boys, one from Derby and one from Hounslow, travelled all the way to Gaza and then to Israel so they could blow the arms off a French waitress in an English bar in Tel Aviv.
From LGF: The Islamic murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh boasted of the killing today in court, praised Allah and Mohammed, told Van Gogh’s mother he had no sympathy for her, and said if he ever gets free he’ll do it again. (Hat tip: LawHawk.)
From American Thinker: A decisive answer has now come from an authoritative source, a certain Dr. Hani Al-Siba' i, who runs an Islamic studies center right in London. This gentleman explained the bombers' religious basis in no uncertain terms:
"The term 'civilians' does not exist in Islamic religious law. ... There is no such term as 'civilians' in the modern Western sense. People are either of Dar Al-Harb or not ..." [Dar Al-Harb is the House of War, where Islam is not dominant and infidels may be slaughtered - ed.].
Tuesday, July 12. 2005
Imagining the Apocalypse Predictions of the End Times run through the Old Testament, and maybe Noah's flood could be seen as a mini-preview of the big and final apocalypse. Efforts to imagine the end, or to create metaphors for the end, run through literature, song and art, but none are as familiar as the visions that St. John experienced in his cave on Patmos and are captured in the mystical Revelations, the final book of the New Testament. Alan Jacobs, in Touchstone, discusses some literary depictions of Apocalypse and concludes that it is "inexpressible." A sample from his piece, this bit on the Narnia series: In The Last Battle, the conclusion to the Narnia series, C. S. Lewis has Aslan bring the chronicle of Narnia itself to a close. “All the stars were falling,” he writes. “Aslan had called them home.” Soon thereafter, Aslan commands the Time-giant to “make an end”; the Giant extends his arm and crushes all light from the sun; Peter, the High King, closes and locks the great Door; and Narnia is no more. The children and their friends live now and always in Aslan’s country, and for a few pages—pages that are not, I believe, among the more successful in the stories—Lewis sketches for us what Aslan’s country is like. But it can be only a sketch. Aslan utters his famous final words: “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.” And then the final paragraph: And as he spoke he no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter 1 of the Great Story, which no one on earth has ever read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
Read the entire here: Click here: Touchstone Archives: The Inexpressible Apocalypse . Listening to Dylan, on a bootleg - I mean an "audience recording" - If Dogs Run Free
Friday, July 8. 2005
The UCC, More The UCC did vote in favor of divestment re Israel. This kind of thing just amplifies my critical piece on the UCC a few weeks ago. But with the US as the major ally and supporter of Israel, I don't understand why they aren't voting to divest of US companies also.
Wednesday, July 6. 2005
The below (from the UK?) borrowed from the The Owner's Manual: I was walking across a bridge one sunny day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: 'Stop. Don't do it.'
'Why shouldn't I?' he asked.
'Well, there's so much to live for!'
'Like what?'
'Are you religious?'
He said: 'Yes.'
I said. 'Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?'
'Christian.'
'Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?''
'Protestant.'
'Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?'
'Baptist.'
'Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?'
'Baptist Church of God.'
'Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?'
'Reformed Baptist Church of God.'
'Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?'
He said: 'Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915.'
I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.
Monday, June 27. 2005
 The Christian Left
I reviewed Opie's post from earlier today and surfed the Christians for Progress website. All I can see in the website is that Christ was a socialist revolutionary, but I never saw that anywhere in Scripture. This is just another political movement using Christ as a disguise, just as some unfortunate parts of the Christian Right do. Pure nonsense, and blasphemous too, really. As I understand it, the whole point was that He was a major disappointment as a political Messiah. Many of His followers who threw palm leaves on the path to Jerusalem hoped he was coming to remove the imperial Romans. But He was a Messiah of the spirit, humbly inviting us to enter the true eternal kingdom, not the kingdom of man but the Kingdom of God, which transcends earthly concerns. Did He not invite us to abandon worldly concerns - including our families and farms and fishing boats and possessions - and to worry about our souls and to put our faith in God - not man - and to follow Him towards a life abundant in spirit, and eternal? And does that not require a scary leap of faith, to trust something other than ourselves? Or did I miss something in Sunday School? I am not a man of deep faith, and I am overly consumed by earthly and vain pleasures, but I do have a brain, of sorts. Comment from The Dylanologist: Additionally, for anyone to call any part of Christ's ministry "social criticism" is historically inaccurate, as the very conception of a "social order" did not really exist in the common consciousness until the French Revolution or even later (I would argue anyways). Of course, different social classes did exist at the time and certainly people were aware of their station in life, but the idea that "all men are created equal" would have been unthinkable and indeed incomprehensible to anyone alive in 30 AD. In any case, Christ was not arguing for the the human or civil rights of each individual (and probably wouldn't have greatly cared about such things anyways), but rather for the equal potential of each human being to attain salvation through faith in Him. The point being that once one has accepted Christ into his heart, class, income, race, sex etc. become mere incidental factors, irrelevant to one's ultimate fate. To argue that Christ ever intended his teachings to be a form of social rebellion thus misses the point of his entire ministry.
Step aside Reverend Jerry - there's a new Pastor in town. In the Red states, Christians rally around a more inclusive approach to Christianity and politics. Founded by Jacksonville, Florida, businessman Patrick Mrotek, the Christian Alliance for Progress (CAP) says its purpose is the “reclaim” the Christian faith from the extreme religious right. The Reverend Timothy F. Simpson, a Presbyterian minister and the group’s director of religious affairs, said in an interview Wednesday that the Christian left has for too long allowed the Christian right to be the public face of his religion in America. “The language of our faith has been placed in the service of policy ends that don’t reflect the Gospel, and we have become deeply troubled over that,” he said. American Prospect Online - ViewWeb CAP launched its Web site last month, and, with no advertising, has already attracted thousands of signatories to its “Jacksonville Declaration,” a statement of principles that, among other things, explicitly disavows the politics of the religious right: “We must tell you now that you do not speak for us, or for our politics. We say ‘No’ to the ways you are using the name and language of Christianity to advance what we see as extremist political goals. We do not support your agenda to erode the separation of church and state, to blur the vital distinction between your interpretation of Christianity and our shared democratic institutions. Moreover, we do not accept what seems to be your understanding of Christian values. We reject a Christianity co-opted by any government and used as a tool to ostracize, to subjugate, or to condone bigotry, greed and injustice.”
Thursday, June 23. 2005
Go Outside and Play with your family (in It Takes a Church), but don't worship nature - that is idolatrous (Prager): In every society on earth, people venerated nature and worshipped nature gods. There were gods of thunder and gods of rain. Mountains were worshipped, as were rivers, animals and every natural force known to man. In ancient Egypt, for example, gods included the Nile River, the frog, sun, wind, gazelle, bull, cow, serpent, moon and crocodile. Then came Genesis, which announced that a supernatural God, i.e., a god who existed outside of nature, created nature. Nothing about nature was divine. Yes, Prager is persuasive as always, but why do I feel God on the top of Whistler? Or on a trout stream? Is that a pagan sentiment? Or awe of God's creation? Prager makes me wonder about that. Surely He who created the giraffe intended us to admire it before eating it, even if not invested with a divine spark. Or maybe the ancient pagan can never be fully removed from us.
Wednesday, June 22. 2005
Where does God fit in?
Doctor Bob has put the question of religion in life, and politics so well in his blog The Doctor Is In » Faith & Religion that everyone interested in a common sense approach should read his comments. It seems everyone has something to say whether it be positive or negative, slanderous, hurtful and even exasperatingly stupid that when I happen onto the thoughts of a rational human being I just have to link to it. For some very insightful thoughts read on: "But what is religion, really? If you view it as smells and bells, hymns and hypocrisy, rules and restrictions, churches and chastity belts, then yes–there are many who are not religious, who shun and oppose it–rather rationally in fact. But if you view religion rather as a worldview, as a set of beliefs about who we are, why we are here, our relation to the physical and the spiritual (or the immaterial, the soul, the life-force, the unseen, if you prefer–and if you believe such exists)–in other words, the meaning of life–then religion becomes a far broader thing, universal in scope, for we all have beliefs and opinions about such things. And these opinions mold and motivate how we act. So in a sense, we are all religious. You define your liberalism as the freedom to hold opinions and your dislike of having others force their opinions on you, if I paraphrase you correctly. Do you read the newspapers? TV news? blogs? Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, Sports Illustrated, People magazine, Cosmopolitan? They all force their opinions on all of us, although force is perhaps too strong a word–persuasion, overt or occult, is more accurate. They all hope to change the way you think about yourself, others, and the world around you–that’s exactly why we read and listen to them. You personally do the same, when you share the best cookie recipe ever, or how awful that movie was last night–you are attempting to influence someone else, to change the way they think or act. Religion (narrowly defined) is in reality just one more worldview, one more opinion attempting to influence how you think, how you perceive, how
 I Brake for Turtles
From Real Meal Ministries: I stop for turtles. I have often even parked my car so that I could pick up and carry one across the road. I do this because of my commitment to be a steward of God’s creation. I can’t help but feel sorry for the slow moving reptiles. I have witnessed on too many occasions motorists swerving to hit turtles. I have had obscenities and objects hurled my way for slowing down so that a turtle could cross. I know that stopping to help a turtle is no great deed. In fact, if the turtles insist on attempting to cut across the heavily traveled roads of Central Forida, I don’t have much hope for the future of the species. But I like turtles. Always have.
You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat turtles on the road way. People tend to fall into three categories. There are a few people who will actually stop to help a struggling turtle. There are probably an equal number who will happily squash the reptiles under the wheels of their automobiles. Yet, I suspect that the vast majority simply drive by unaware of the creatures or uninterested in their well-being. I like this blogger. We at Maggie's are also all certified turtle-lovers, as is well-known. "Howsoever you do unto the least of these..." Just do not pick up a big snapping turtle with your hands - it will not behave gratefully: they have terrorist brains. This is the time of year when turtles wander to lay their eggs, but dealing with roads is not in their genes. (photo of the delightful Eastern Box Turtle)
Friday, June 17. 2005
Waiting for the Revolution Eugene McCarraher, a thoughtful, earnest, but clearly impatient and irritated Christian Leftist from the old school (ie, appearing more passionate about politics than about saving souls), is awaiting an uprising from the pews to bring a Christian-socialist utopia to earth. Naturally, "corporations" and Bush are the main obstacles, plus that tired old bugaboo "American imperialism". You know how much utopians frighten me - wasn't Hitler a Socialist Christian? I always figure socialists want to own me and control me, crush my spirit and to make me a dependent. Tell me, who are the more worldly - the (few but vocal) members of the termite Christian Left or the traditionalist Christians? It's worth hearing about how they view the world, in Christianity Today: Click here: The Revolution Begins in the Pews - Books & Culture
Tuesday, June 14. 2005
A New Bible ""Of making many books," the Bible warns, "there is no end." Tell that to David Norton.Mr. Norton knows a thing or two about that, too. This quiet-spoken scholar has spent the past 10 years producing the New Cambridge Paragraph Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2005), the first entirely re-edited edition of the King James Bible since 1873.The Berkeley professor's next translation will probably be of the Bible's most comprehensive work of poetry, the Book of Psalms."The Chronicle: 6/17/2005: For Bible Editors, No Day of Rest
A moving and touching piece on Grace, by Warren. On Loving God, and the levels of Loving God, by Real Ministries
Monday, June 13. 2005
Jesus in China Check this link fast - it will expire soon. From Chronicle of Higher Education.
Wednesday, June 1. 2005
Curt Jester has a clever twist on the RC Church and gays, and it appears that he doesn't care for the aggressive variety of gay advocacy. In my opinion, even if homosexuality is a sin (which I very much doubt, but who am I to say?), the fact remains that those felt to be sinners must be welcomed in church - not protested. If you have no sinners in church, churches would be empty, plus only sinners need Christ's redemption anyway. The implicit sign in front of every Christian church is "Sinners Only, Please." That's the meaning of the cross. The perfect folks can stay home, or golf, or just gaze at themselves in the mirror. Every human who wants to connect with God through Christ is welcome in our church. Period. Jester has a voluminous list of RC bloggers including, I was interested to see, a nunsblog.
Saturday, May 28. 2005
[Gwynnie noted a fine Memorial Day piece in the Federalist Patriot]Public Prayer? Where's the outrage! Yesterday, much to the vexation of the ACLU and company, President George W. Bush invited a group of religious leaders to the East Room of the White House. There, he talked about the importance of prayer, and then (you'd best sit down) he prayed. Yes, on government time and on government property, he prayed. Who does he think he is? In this enlightened era when progressive, free-thinking liberals insist on the removal of all religious references and symbols (Crosses, Ten Commandment monuments, etc.) from federal, state and local public places, the President of the United States impudently promoted the merits of prayer and encouraged all Americans to do the same. But wait, it gets worse. "We pray to give thanks for our freedom," the President said. "Freedom is our birthright because the Creator wrote it into our common human nature. No government can ever take a gift from God away." He then asserted that giving thanks to God is writ through and through upon American history, from Plymouth Rock to the Revolution and to this day. He reminded us that in our nation's supreme founding document, the Declaration of Independence, "...our Founders ... declared it a self-evident truth that our right to liberty comes from God." Then, he concluded, "We pray to acknowledge our dependence on the Almighty [and] we who ask for God's help for ourselves, [since we] have a particular obligation to care for the least of our brothers and sisters within our midst." How can he, and other elected leaders, get away with such a blatant breach of the "wall of separation" between church and state? Because, in short, there is no such doctrine supported in our Constitution or its superior guidance, our Declaration of Independence. In fact, the First Continental Congress called for national prayer. Read the rest at http://federalistpatriot.us/alexander/edition.asp?id=306
Friday, May 13. 2005
George Will asks Christians to "practice the magnanimity of the strong rather than cultivate the grievances of the weak. But many Christians are joining today's scramble for the status of victims. There is much lamentation about various "assaults" on "people of faith." Christians are indeed experiencing some petty insults and indignities concerning things such as restrictions on school Christmas observances. But their persecution complex is unbecoming because it is unrealistic."
Read entire. David Brooks feels religion is essential in public life: "On Sept. 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln gathered his cabinet to tell them he was going to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He said he had made a solemn vow to the Almighty that if God gave him victory at Antietam, Lincoln would issue the decree." Read entire. Martin Marty asks for hospitality when faiths collide: "With good reason some are learning to adjust their visions and are beginning to determine how they will relate to the rest of the globe. In a world of 6.2 billion people, 2 billion are identified with Christianity, 1.25 billion with Islam, 836 million with Hinduism, 367 million with Buddhism, and 15 million with Judaism. These are but five of some 10,200 "distinct religions" known to today's mapmakers and chroniclers. Read entire: Click here: Religions Strangers as Menaces, by Martin E. Marty Morals aren't facts. Bill Schardt and David Large examine the remarkable influence of Tolstoy's The Gospel in Brief on Wittgenstein's writings on ethics, esp Tractatus: "...The above argument means that there cannot be ethical facts because the rightness or wrongness of an action cannot be determined by any examination of the world. Hence the truth or falsity of a statement such as 'it is wrong to murder people ', cannot be determined in this way. Ethical or moral statements are not propositions; they are not truth functional in the way that real propositions must be. As ethics is not propositional it cannot, therefore, be put into words. It is, instead, transcendental (Tractatus 6.421), and as such must be passed over in silence (Tractatus 7). Propositions can express nothing that is higher than themselves, i.e. nothing beyond states of affairs of the world (whether true or false), and so there can be no propositions of ethics." Read entire. Fr. Neuhaus on "America as a Religion": "That America is guided by Providence is a belief deeply entrenched in the seventeenth-century beginnings, the constitutional period, Lincoln’s ponderings on our greatest war, and Woodrow Wilson’s convictions about the inseparable connections between freedom and American destiny. The belief has never been absent from American public life and discourse, although in the last half century many, and not least religious thinkers, have tried to discredit or marginalize it. In recent years, however, the idea of a providentially guided America has been making a comeback." Read entire at First Things. The Cross The history of the cross as a symbol, going back to the Egyptian ankh, symbolizing "the creative essence of life.".
Friday, April 29. 2005
Gwynnie Responds to The Barrister with the following lyrics from God Shaped Hole, by Plumb "Every point of view has another angle
And every angle has its merit
But all comes down to faith
Thats the way I see it
You can say that love is not divine and
You can say that life is not eternal
"All we have is know"
But I don't believe it
There's a God-shaped hole in all of us
And the restless soul is searching
There's a God-shaped hole in all of us
And it's a void only he can fill
Does the world seem gray with empty longing
Wearing every shade of cynical
And do you ever feel that
There is something missing?
That's my point of view... "
Wednesday, April 27. 2005
 Theocracy?
I agree with Barone that you would think the Taliban had come to town, if you go by the headlines. It seems to me that it's all political scare tactics. When Dems like Clinton used Christian moral arguments to support a goal, no-one complained. When Repubs do the same, it's suddenly creeping theocracy. Politicans tend to use "situational ethics". They want to win elections and keep their jobs. So if they apply religious moral principles, even if only as window-dressing, voters ought to be at least a bit pleased - not fearful. The real issue is that the Left is ticked off about the 23% evangelical voters who don't see the world their way, but they don't know how to deal with it and become shrill and hysterical and throw a tantrum. The message is that it's OK to appeal to unions, or the AARP, or the ACLU, or the NAACP, etc., but it's not OK to appeal to the views of voters who go to church. But 70% of voters go to church, believing or hoping that there is more to life than self-interest and materialism. Barone: "The real question is whether strong religious belief is on the rise in America and the world. Fifty years ago, secular liberals were confident that education, urbanization and science would lead people to renounce religion. That seems to have happened, if you confine your gaze to Europe, Canada and American university faculty clubs. But this movement has not been as benign as expected: The secular faiths of fascism and communism destroyed millions of lives before they were extinguished. America has not moved in the expected direction. In fact, just the opposite. Economist Robert Fogel's "The Fourth Great Awakening" argues that we've been in the midst of a religious revival since the 1950s, in which, as in previous revivals, "the evangelical churches represented the leading edge of an ideological and political response to accumulated technological and social changes that undermined the received culture." " Read entire. And an amusing piece on the subect that has been floating around the b-world by a Charlie Otto, via Borowitz Report:SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE VANISHES, REPLACED BY NEW ENTITY CALLED STURCHWill Offer Salvation, Motor Vehicle Renewals on Sunday
The separation of church and state, long considered a hallmark of American democracy, vanished early Sunday morning, replaced by a new institution called sturch.
Scientists at the Clausen Observatory at the University of Minnesota, who for years have been monitoring a widening hole in the wall separating church and state, said that the wall disappeared entirely on Sunday morning shortly after 8:00 (EST).
"We first noticed the hole in the wall developing about four years ago," said the University of Minnesota's Davis Logsdon. "But now it's pretty much no wall and all hole."
While the exact shape and dimensions of the new church-state entity, sturch, remain to be determined, President Bush today installed as its official leader the Reverend Bill Frist (R-Tenn), the star player in this week's "Justice Sunday" broadcast.
At a formal swearing-in ceremony at the former White House, now called the Big White Cathedral, Rev. Frist said that jettisoning the wall between church and state would benefit all Americans "except those who are anti-faith, and they know who they are."
He added that by combining the two traditionally separate institutions, sturch would allow congregants to seek salvation and motor vehicle renewals on Sunday without leaving their pews.
As for the longstanding debate over taxing places of worship, Rev. Frist said, "Since sturch is part of the government, it will be collecting taxes, not paying them, thank you very much!" "
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Friday, April 15. 2005
Doug TenNapel: "Life would be so much easier if I could just ditch this religion crap and swallow atheism...but I'm not a man of faith. " Read his short but pointed piece here
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