Monday, February 28, 2005

Who do we vigil for?

Sojourners is planning a series of vigils around the country during the weekend of the second anniversary of the Iraq war. My first reaction was positive.

But then I started thinking ... thousands have died in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands died during the tsunami. And over a million have died died in Africa from war and diseases.

Who do we vigil for?

Religious groups call Bush's budget immoral

That's according to the Christian Science Monitor in an article called Budget critics: What would Jesus cut?.
Immoral. That's what several religious groups are calling President Bush's latest budget. The charge has political ramifications. It threatens to undermine some of Mr. Bush's support from voters concerned with values. But it also raises a deep question: Can budgets be moral or immoral? Is that really how the nation's spending plan should be judged? This emerging challenge is turning the "values" debate on its head. Liberals are putting policy issues in moral terms. Conservatives are resisting it.
And more and more people would argue that many policy issues - like those relating to poverty, for example - are moral issues.

Why the Dems declined

NewDonkey discusses why the Democrats declined between 1996 and 2004.
Personalities aside, the biggest difference between Clinton '96 and Gore '00 had to do with how each candidate dealt with two sets of issues: culture, and role-of-government--both big "trust" issues in the South. Clinton was thoroughly progressive, but went well out of his way to make it clear that he wanted abortion to be "safe, legal and rare," that he supported a modest gay rights agenda because everyone who "worked hard and played by the rules" should be treated the same; and that he fought to maintain and even expand the social safety net on condition that it truly represented a "hand up, not a handout." Everyone in Washington laughed at Clinton's "micro-initiatives" on supporting the family--V-chips, school uniforms, youth curfews, etc,--but they sent big messages in the culturally-sensitive South. And in general, Clinton's whole '96 message was that he was willing to reign in government's excesses, while fighting to defend its essentials--the famous M2E2 (Medicare, Medicaid, Education and the Environment).

Compare that message to Gore's, and you go a long way towards understanding why the guy lost nearly half of Clinton's southern white support. Gore was forever bellowing about partial-birth abortion legislation (supported by about three-fourths of southerners) representing a dire threat to the basic right to choose. While Clinton called for "mending, not ending" affirmative action, Gore pledged to defend every aspect of affirmative action with his life. Clinton talked about balancing gun ownership rights with responsibilities. Gore talked about national licensing of gun owners. Clinton talked about making government "smarter, not bigger." Gore never mentioned his own role in the "reinventing government" initiative, and boasted an enormous policy agenda that added up to a message that he wanted to expand government as an end in itself.

Mitt: support your state or quit

Philocrates calls Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney governor of a state he hates.
I've had it with Governor Romney, who badmouths the state that elected him whenever he's somewhere else. In his "I Wish Massachusetts Were More Like Utah" speech last week, Romney said: "America cannot continue to lead the family of nations around the world if we suffer the collapse of the family here at home." (It's an allusion to a popular bit of Mormon folk wisdom, incidentally: "No success compensates for failure in the home.") Aside from the silliness of thinking U.S. prestige has been weakened among the world's leading nations because a few thousand gay couples have married in Massachusetts, I have to ask the governor: Do you really believe Utah is better for families than Massachusetts?

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Are UUs reactionary about Christianity?

Jfield at Left Coast Unitarian talks about an issue that I've thought about recently.
I had a fairly painful UU conversation yesterday. A friend was really struggling with the notion that Unitarian Universalism was a Christian religion. It was his contention that he would not be UU if it were explicitly identified as Christian (or perhaps even post-Christian if post-Christian did not mean non-Christian). I don't consider myself a Christian or a theist. I have made that clear in this space before. But I don't feel the need to flee if folks are honest about our Christian heritage. I will admit that like my friend I would not have become a UU if it was explicitly identified as Christian at the time. But as members and especially as seminarians I think we have to get past that. By all means, we don't have to be Christians but we have to get past being reactionary about Christianity. (I would generally substitute atheists and Pagans for Christians too.)
He goes on to talk about Christian supercessionism, which he defines in the article.

There's at least one good reply by Fausto to the article posted. Fausto says, in part,

UUism has not superseded Christianity, but rather, is a dissenting manifestation of Christianity. It is not a superior and antithetical revelation, but an authentic expression of the Protestant principle of personal discernment of Truth, carried to the ultimate extreme.

I certainly learn a lot by reading other people's blogs.

The Bible for UUs, Part 1+

Fausto, writing at the Socinian, talks about Scriptural interpretation, especially as it relates to UUs, and especially to UU ministers.

Do you know the difference between exegesis and eisegesis, and which one is often considered good vs bad by traditionalists? Do you know how your hermeneutic affects the answer to that? Hint: Unitarians have always stood firmly in the critical hermeneutical camp.

You might need to read this article a few times.

Slowly.

Or maybe it's just me.

Friday, February 25, 2005

Where have all the Southern white moderates gone?

NewDonkey.com points out this article by Ruy Teixeira, a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation and the Center for American Progress.

Business Ethics & Corporate Responsibility

The Agnosticism/Atheism Blog on about.com discusses an article in The Economist which says, among other things,
The standard of living people in the West enjoy today is due to little else but the selfish pursuit of profit.
The blog author thinks our standard of living is due to a lot more than that.

I find business ethics a rather interesting topic, because there's so much disagreement as to whether or not business has separate ethical obligations (as opposed to legal obligations).

Chuck Colson vs Jim Wallis

In this article, Chuck Colson criticizes the views of Jim Wallis with respect to poverty and abortion. Actually, he criticizes what he thinks Wallis's views are.

Jim Wallis responds here with an open letter.

I've heard Wallis speak in person and am just starting his book God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It and Colson's got it wrong.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Separate Communions for primates in gay clergy row

The News Telegraph reports on the continuing disagreements in the Anglican Church over homosexuality.
Conservative archbishops attending Anglican crisis talks this week will demonstrate their anger with their liberal counterparts by refusing to receive Communion alongside them, The Telegraph has learned. The Church's primates, the heads of the 38 self-governing provinces that make up the worldwide Church, are gathering in Northern Ireland today to try to avert schism over homosexuality.
Is that really a Christian thing to do? Why don't the conservative archbishops stick their collective tongues out at their liberal counterparts while they're at it?

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

MA high court to hear challenge on law barring gay out-of-staters from marrying

According to TheBostonChannel.com ,
The state's highest court has agreed to hear a challenge to the 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from getting married in Massachusetts. The law, which some say was written to block interracial marriages, denies out-of-state couples the right to marry if it would be illegal in their home state. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gays to marry. Final briefs are due in the case by May 27, but no date for oral arguments has been set, according to court records.

The Secret Genocide Archive

The New York Times (free registration required) prints and discusses four photos in a secret archive of thousands of photos and reports that document the genocide under way in Darfur.

If you know any pro-lifers, have them take a look. They need to get busy to do something to stop things like this.

Discovering the network??

What do the following individuals have in common?:
  • Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
  • Al Sharpton
  • Angela Davis
  • Ayatollah Khomeini
  • Barack Obama
  • Barbra Streisand
  • Betty Friedan
  • Fidel Castro
  • Mohammed Atta
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • Martin Sheen
  • Sean Penn
  • Zacarias Moussaoui
In case it's not coming to you, they're all activists for leftwing agendas and causes, radical egalitarians, and opponents of American "imperialism.".

Glad I could clear that up for you.

Washington on religious tolerance

Logos quotes the words of George Washington talking about religious tolerance.

Commenting on Washington's words, the author says

Many of our citizens today have forgotten this simple but profound point: he who purports to "tolerate" another's exercise of his liberty pretends to the right to control it.

Will there be a draft?

The Christian Science Monitor reports that as military recruiting stumbles and needs grow,some say the draft may be impossible to ignore.

Pursuing Welcoming Congregation status

Steve at FaithWorks has a good article on Unitarian Universalist churches pursuing Welcoming Congregation status.

What would Jefferson do?

John Brummett at the Arkansas News Bureau has a good commentary on the fact that the Arkansas state House of Representatives formally declared that it doesn't believe in the separation of church and state. The resolution to accept the constitutional principle of separation of church and state got only 39 out of 100 votes. Brummett says their negative vote was based on 2 contentions:
  1. Actually, there is no expressed church-state separation in the Constitution. There only is a prohibition against government's establishing a specific religion and a guarantee of freedom of religion. Church-state separation came up later in a letter by Thomas Jefferson to church people saying the nation needed to keep a "wall of separation" between church and government.
  2. The nation was founded on Christian principles and no one can reasonably expect citizen legislators to make laws without applying their own religious underpinning.
Neither point is altogether wrong.
Brummett concludes by saying
To keep all these Americans free, it's best to collect their principles in a big stew pot from which we can scoop out a just, wise and general secular government.

Jesus Symbol of God

John L. Allen Jr. in The National Catholic Reporter discusses Jesuit Fr. Roger Haight’s 1999 book, Jesus Symbol of God .

The book was recently the object of a notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s chief doctrinal authority, citing “grave doctrinal errors” (NCR, Feb. 18). The notification banned Haight from teaching Catholic theology, a largely symbolic gesture given that Haight is now an adjunct professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, a non-Catholic institution. Nevertheless the notification reawakened stereotypes of Vatican authoritarianism.
In summarizing the book, the article says
In general, Haight’s aim is to express the church’s teaching about Christ in language accessible to a postmodern readership that has trouble with universal, exclusive claims for any one religion, and with “metaphysical” assertions that smack of mythology. The book is an exercise in “Christology from below,” starting with the historical Jesus of Nazareth rather than the cosmic Christ. Jesus, according to Haight, is the “central symbol” of God for Christians, though only “one of many symbolic actualizations of God’s loving presence to humankind.” Haight treats the Trinity and the preexistence of Christ as “symbols” of God’s activity, remaining tentative about whether they are actual persons or states of being.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Conservatives talk more about strategy

Michael Tomasky in The American Prospect says that one of the differences between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives talk more about philosophy, while liberals talk more about strategy and that liberals generally, and young liberals in particular, are somewhat less conversant in their creed’s history and urtexts than their conservative counterparts are

Arkansas votes against separation of church and state

WJLA reports that the Arkansas state house voted against affirming the separation of church and state in a resolution brought by a legislator who said he was fed up with a religious undertone at the Capitol.

UU Religious Ed resources

Steve at Faithworks has a great list of UU Religious Education and Lifespan Faith Development Resources.

Monday, February 21, 2005

Fed says: Remove those bad words!

A federal agency can sponsor a talk called "Suicide Prevention Among Gay / Lesbian / Bisexual / Transgender Individuals" as long as it removes the words "gay," "lesbian," "bisexual" and "transgender" from the name of the talk.

This government is in serious trouble.

American people want an opposition party

Oliver Willis points out that The American people want an opposition party.
"American want Democrats to stand up to Bush," the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reports. "Fully 60%, including one-fourth of Republicans, say Democrats in Congress should make sure Bush and his party 'don't go too far.' Just 34% want Democrats to 'work in a bipartisan way' to help pass the president's priorities."

Unintelligent Design

The New York Times Magazine (free registration required) comments on Intelligent Design.
What can we tell about the designer from the design? While there is much that is marvelous in nature, there is also much that is flawed, sloppy and downright bizarre. Some nonfunctional oddities, like the peacock's tail or the human male's nipples, might be attributed to a sense of whimsy on the part of the designer. Others just seem grossly inefficient. In mammals, for instance, the recurrent laryngeal nerve does not go directly from the cranium to the larynx, the way any competent engineer would have arranged it. Instead, it extends down the neck to the chest, loops around a lung ligament and then runs back up the neck to the larynx. In a giraffe, that means a 20-foot length of nerve where 1 foot would have done. If this is evidence of design, it would seem to be of the unintelligent variety.

Sunday, February 20, 2005

A biology text without creationism??

WBAL reports that
the Cecil County [Maryland] Board of Education unanimously approved ... "Biology: The Dynamics of Life" as a textbook for next year's 10th-grade science classrooms. The decision came after a board member complained that the book made no reference to creationism.
Can you imagine? A biology textbook that doesn't discussion creationism or "intelligent design"? What's next? A physics textbook without a discussion of time travel? A chemistry textbook without a chapter on alchemy?

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Bay Windows talks with Bill Sinkford

Philocrates notes that Bay Windows, New Englands largest gay and lesbian newspaper, talks to Bill Sinkford, president of the UUA.
When lawmakers convene at the State House later this year to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, they'll have to deal with lobbying and protests from people on both sides of the issue, everyone from outspoken gay and lesbian couples to outraged Catholic clergy. They'll also have to deal with lobbying from their next-door neighbors, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and their president, the Rev. William Sinkford.

Friday, February 18, 2005

Recycling saves energy

My household recyles bottles, cans, and newspapers like good doobies. Aside from doing that, I never gave a lot of thought to recycling.

An article in the February 7 of Fortune had a statistic that fascinated me, however. It said that, because making new cans from used ones requires 95% less energy than making them from bauxite, recycling a single can saves enough energy to run a TV set for three hours.

Unbelievable.

New Republic says liberalism is dying

Martin Peretz in the New Republic says the liberalism is dying.
Ask yourself: Who is a truly influential liberal mind in our culture? Whose ideas challenge and whose ideals inspire? Whose books and articles are read and passed around? There's no one, really. What's left is the laundry list: the catalogue of programs (some dubious, some not) that Republicans aren't funding, and the blogs, with their daily panic dose about how the Bush administration is ruining the country.

Bush's jihad against journalists

Maureen Dowd in the New York Times (free registration required) says that the Bush administration is waging a jihad against journalists - buying them off so they'll promote administration programs, trying to put them in jail, and replacing them with ringers.

Bush's Sex Scandal

Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times (free registration required) points out that abstinence-only education isn't about abstinence but about refusing to teach contraception.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

The Fighting Moderates

Paul Krugman in the New York Times (free registration required) says that the selection of Howard Dean for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee...
doesn't represent a turn to the left: Mr. Dean is squarely in the center of his party on issues like health care and national defense. Instead, Mr. Dean's political rejuvenation reflects the new ascendancy within the party of fighting moderates, the Democrats who believe that they must defend their principles aggressively against the right-wing radicals who have taken over Congress and the White House.

Why we lose our UU children

Steve Caldwell at Faithworks has an excellent piece on why UU children don't stay in the congregation.
One reason for losing youth members after high school graduation is the perception that our congregations cater to those who are older adult converts. We rarely attempt to provide a worship experience with youth or young adults as part of our religious community. Or if we do offer this experience, we expect youth and young adults to conform to older adult worship norms ... we're not even attempting to meet them half-way.
He goes on to reference a number of other articles on the subject. Definitely worth reading.

Jerry Falwell denies evangalicals opposed war

Media Matters for America reports that Jerry Falwell erroneously denied that many evangelicals opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Their article begins ...
Appearing opposite Sojourners editor-in-chief Reverend Jim Wallis on the February 11 edition of FOX News' Hannity & Colmes, Falwell called Wallis's claim that "evangelicals around the world were against the war in Iraq" "baloney" and remarked: "You could fit your [antiwar evangelical] crowd in a phone booth." After Wallis told Falwell that "there are evangelical Christians who don't share your pro-war views," Falwell replied, "I know -- you and William Sloane Coffin." Coffin is a longtime peace activist and former Yale University chaplain. In fact, many evangelical leaders openly opposed the Iraq war, and a March 2003 poll by the Pew Research Center indicated that although most American evangelicals supported removing Saddam Hussein from power, less than half "favored the use of force if our major allies did not want to join us."

Rainbow Sash wearers can't receive Catholic communion

The Catholic News Service reports that Rainbow Sash wearers disqualify themselves from receiving Holy Communion because they are demonstrating their opposition to church teaching on homosexuality.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, made the comment in a written response to Catholic News Service in early February. Rainbow Sash, which describes itself as an organization of gay and lesbian Catholics and their families and friends, has criticized church statements on homosexuality, including the church's teaching that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered" and that homosexual orientation is "objectively disordered." To underline their point, the group's members sometimes attend Mass and receive Communion wearing the sash.

Questions about the church's role

Prophet Motive's Tom Schade, Associate Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Worcester, Massachusetts, discusses the role of the Free Church in the politcal life of the nation. He begins ...
The traditional position of the Free Church is that it inspires private and personal action, but does nothing that would create a de-facto political creed. The preacher may preach with passion on the issues of the day, but the church is cautious about taking positions itself, out of respect for the rights of those who would disagree. On the other hand, there is an alternative stance, which you could call the Crisis Stance. At certain times in history, the free church acts to defend and promote its basic principles in the society at large, generally during times of intense political and social crisis: the civil rights movement, the anti Vietnam war period. There is both a gain and a loss for the church, as an institution, in doing so. The church serves as a center of popular mobilization, but it also defines itself in such a way that it repels as many as it attracts.

UUA Board of Trustees Meeting Notes

Philocrites notes that notes on the January 2005 meeting of the UUA Board are now online for UUA watchers.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

For those of us not born again

A quote from Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams ...
Religion should be the result of moderation rather than passion, leading men to virtue, not enthusiasm. The Bible does not give us a fair opportunity to understand the motives of God nor is it necessary that we should.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Iraq Vote

The February 14 issue of the New Yorker cites a newspaper clipping around 38 years old ...
U.S. ENCOURAGED BY VIETNAM VOTE ——— Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror ——— By PETER GROSE Special to The New York Times WASHINGTON, Sept. 3—United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam’s presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. . . . A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson’s policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. "
Rings a bit of a bell. The author, Hendrik Hertzberg, argues, however, that there's really very little similarity between the two elections.

Who thinks we should pray for the Pope's death?

According to an article in GetReligion, it's none other than William F. Buckley Jr. He says
"what is wrong with praying for his death? For relief from his manifest sufferings? And for the opportunity to pay honor to his legacy by turning to the responsibility of electing a successor to get on with John Paul's work?"
In response, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights says
“The kindest thing that can be said of Bill Buckley’s vile column is that he’s gone off the deep end. It matters not a whit that he calls the pope ‘a major historical figure,’ because even the most inveterate anti-Catholic must acknowledge as much. Indeed, even the biggest Catholic basher in the world is not likely to write, ‘So, what is wrong with praying for his death?’ If you have to ask, sir, then you are beyond hope. “This is so tragic. Having lived a life of distinction, Bill Buckley will now be remembered as the guy who had a death wish for the pope.”

Where would new UU members come from?

ChaliceChick has a A lengthy essay about Liberal Christians and UUs from which I'd like to quote just one small piece:
Every UU church wants to expand, but most seem to want to convert the Conservative Christians and bring in atheists who haven’t previously needed a church. In reality, every UU church’s best source of converts are the UCC, liberal Episcopalian, liberal Methodist and liberal Presbyterian churches that have people sitting in the back unable to embrace God in human terms as a being who rewards and punishes. A person who can look past the scriptural God, who is very much that personified deity, and see something else, something above that, is halfway in our door.

A ritual of giving

ChaliceChick has a good posting that talks about fundraising and giving in general in a UU church.

In it, she touches on Mike Durall's The Almost Church.

This brings to mind several chapters in The Almost Church. CC loves a good masochistic beating as much as the next freaky chick, but even she found the book, from that sucky title on, a little much. That goes double for the author's smarmy "Y'all can't admit this to yourselves, but I know better" tone.
I don't think the title is sucky at all - I think it's exactly on target. (Admission: I'm a Big Fan of Durall). And here's why I believe that: I think that one word you could use to describe all of the people who attend any particular church - except UU churches - is believers. The closest you could come to members of a UU church is affirmers - and I don't think that's got quite the same ring. It's not clear to me what all of the members of my congregation have in common that revolves around religion. To paraphrase one of Durall's sources, a UU congregation is sometimes referred to as a group of people who get together but nobody knows what brought them all there.

I and five other members of my congregation had the opportunity to attend a session with him on Saturday February 12 at Andover Newton Theological School. My take on it was that it brought alive the ideas that he expresses in the book, but didn't break any new ground. Definitely worth going to. That being said, I agree with ChaliceChick that he does have an attitude. I don't have a problem with that, though. He's a consultant. He's supposed to have an attitude.

ChaliceChick comments on Durall's encouraging tithing ...

That having been said, I can seriously get behind the idea of UUs tithing. I've learned a lot about faithful church membership from the Mormons I work with, and the enthusiasm with which they approach giving to their church is really sort of inspiring. It's clear it makes them feel good and like they are a part of something, rather than the approach I see in my UU church of making the whole thing seem like a good financial transaction on the part of the giver.
One of the problems with UUs (problems being defined as "something that prevents the denomination from rapidly growing like many non-denominational Christian churchs are growing") is that we look at everything intellectually. No one tithes for intellectual reasons - they tithe from the heart. That's why trying to get UUs to tithe is a losing battle. Even trying to persuade UU Boards to think about encouraging their congregations to tithe is a losing battle.

(If people have a problem with tithing because it sounds too "Christian", Durall suggests giving 11% of income - because "11%" has absolutely no religious significance.)

Friday, February 11, 2005

The Poisonwood Problem

David Blackstone writes for Sojourners...
A front-page story in The New York Times this week raised a red flag about evangelical relief groups in Asia who are mixing tsunami relief work and proselytizing. While many mainstream, faith-based agencies abide by Red Cross guidelines that humanitarian aid not be used to further political or religious ends, some mission groups happily pass along gospel tracts with food and medicine. Honestly, I don't know where to begin as I lay out a response to this controversy. I did run an economic and social development agency in Central America for more than a decade, and we were explicitly faith-based. A majority of our local partners were Catholic and evangelical churches that offered programs such as community micro-credit, innovative agricultural skills development, literacy (often linked to study of the Bible), and children's nutrition. But then and now, talking about humanitarian aid and spiritual motivation trips land mines for different segments of the general public. A healthy slice of New York Times readers are appalled, I am sure, that religious groups were leading the charge to provide aid to the victims of the quake/tsunami in South Asia. For some secularists, all religious people who establish a mission for humanitarian aid overseas are typecast into the 1950s characters of Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Poisonwood Bible. At best, the characters are ignorant of the local culture, and at worst downright manipulative, with the missionary considering charity a foil to convert the needy "natives." It's time for secularists with these stereotypes in mind to catch up with reality. There's a broad range of spiritually motivated relief agencies - Catholic Charities, Church World Service, Mennonite Central Committee, Jesuit Refugee Services, Lutheran World Relief, just to name a few of the Christian ones - that understand their mission as helping humans in their time of suffering. Period. Their approach is that such acts alone are the expression of love, compassion, and justice to which they feel called. To be sure, there are some mission organizations - particularly in evangelical churches - that bear out Kingsolver's typecast. I was raised throughout childhood in an evangelical church, so I know well the mentality of her missionary characters. When I was carrying out my work in Latin America, more than a few old family friends asked me why I "was wasting my time" on projects that aimed to effect real social change or stimulate long-term economic development. In their eyes, that was "social welfare" work more properly relegated to secularists. The work of a faith-based agency should be, in their eyes, propagation of the Christian message and winning converts. After all, as one friend reasoned with me, if the Latin Americans you work with are not saved and have to spend an eternity in hell, your projects accomplish nothing. It is the explicit intent of some evangelical aid groups to view aid as stage one of a longer conversion strategy. Once the recipient experiences the mercy of the organization, they perhaps will be more open to receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ and be baptized into the church. But, by and large, most evangelical missions organizations have become a bit more cautious in the way they mix evangelization and material assistance. In other words, it is rare to find a group that requires an individual to sit through a sermon in order to get a meal. Two very different theologies - how God exists in the world, if you will - undergird these distinct approaches to humanitarian assistance. The Kingsolver-esque "food in exchange for your soul" agencies understand redemption to be a purely spiritual transaction. In their theology, this world has fallen into evil and is beyond redemption. The work of Christians is to preach a personal message that salvation from this fallen world is available to any individual who will make a decision to follow Christ. If people remain Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, or of a more local faith, they are destined for hell. In this worldview, it is easy to judge the sinner and point their way toward salvation. If you saw the world this way, wouldn't your compassionate choice be to do everything possible to save the people of the world? Providing humanitarian assistance in a time of crisis would be an effective way to gain people's trust so that they would hear your message. This, in essence, is the ethos of the proselytizing aid agency. That is not how I experience God in the world, or understand God's calling me to a vocation of service. Along with most Christians who are operating in humanitarian assistance internationally, I experience God calling people to act with love and justice wherever we find suffering. When we stand in those places, we intensely experience God, working with us and through us - and at times in spite of us - to bring moments of redemption where there is brokenness. Spiritual practice so conceived throws us into acts of re-uniting what has been torn apart, confronting evil with goodness, and showing love where there is hatred. We do not judge, lest we be judged. We aim to embrace. We are simply invited to join in God's presence, and where it takes us - or those whom we serve - we rarely know. Our faith is hope in things not yet fully seen, yet we are confident in the path before us.
Source: Sojourners 2005 (c) http://www.sojo.net

Beyond Fair and Balanced

Rolling Stone, in an article called Beyond Fair and Balanced, discusses Sinclair Broadcasting.
In the firmament of right-wing media outlets, Sinclair stands somewhere to the right of Fox News. Its archconservative politics may not be served up with Fox's raw-meat bite, but what Sinclair lacks in flash, it makes up for in unabashed cheerleading for the Bush administration. It sent a team to Iraq to report "good news" about the war and forced each of its sixty-two stations to broadcast a pledge of support for Bush. Last April, it refused to air a Nightline special listing the name of every American soldier killed in Iraq, and it gave national exposure to Stolen Honor, a documentary attacking John Kerry, just weeks before the election. And each night, Sinclair requires all of its stations to air an editorial segment called "The Point," in which company vice president Mark Hyman rails against the "angry left" and "clueless academia," dismisses peace activists as "wack jobs," calls the French "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and supports a host of right-wing initiatives, from a national sales tax to privatizing Medicare.

Fewer in Congress support free speech

Ryan Sager at Tech Central Station says fewer and fewer in Congress support free speech anymore. He begins ...
The war on free speech continues in Congress. The crew that did its darndest to repeal the First Amendment back in 2002 -- Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold and Reps. Chris Shays and Marty Meehan - is back, and now its looking to clean up the mess left by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act. That mess: insidious "527" groups, like MoveOn.org's Media Fund and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, of course. The problem, it seems, is that there are still just too darn many independent groups allowed to go shooting their mouths off about any darn thing any darn time they want -- and they can accept pretty much any amount of money from pretty much anyone. There should be a law. And there will be, since free-speech looks to have no defenders left in Congress. In 2002 some conservative stalwarts --people who believed that money and speech couldn't be distinguished, since it takes money to make speech heard -- tried to hold out against the McCain-Feingold mania to get money out of politics.
Thanks to Instapundit for pointing this out.

A class warfare budget

Paul Krugman in the New York Times (free registration required) calls Bush's budget "class warfare" ...
It may sound shrill to describe President Bush as someone who takes food from the mouths of babes and gives the proceeds to his millionaire friends. Yet his latest budget proposal is top-down class warfare in action. And it offers the Democrats an opportunity, if they're willing to take it. First, the facts: the budget proposal really does take food from the mouths of babes. One of the proposed spending cuts would make it harder for working families with children to receive food stamps, terminating aid for about 300,000 people. Another would deny child care assistance to about 300,000 children, again in low-income working families. And the budget really does shower largesse on millionaires even as it punishes the needy. For example, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities informs us that even as the administration demands spending cuts, it will proceed with the phaseout of two little-known tax provisions - originally put in place under the first President George Bush - that limit deductions and exemptions for high-income households.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

2006 Federal Budget

Take a look at the proposed 2006 Federal Budget here.

Massachusetts Governor Opposes Stem Cell Work

The New York Times (free registration required) reports ...
Setting up a political battle over stem cell research, Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts said this week that he would propose legislation to outlaw a type of embryonic stem cell research that is being planned by laboratories at Harvard University and other institutions in the state. The governor's remarks came as Democratic lawmakers were introducing legislation that would promote embryonic stem cell research, partly in an effort to keep the state's large stable of research scientists and biotechnology companies from moving to California or other states that are providing support or financial incentives for such research.

Washington Times publishes extremist pieces by managing editor's wife

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that "Long criticized for its brand of journalism, The Washington Times makes a habit of publishing the work of extremists — including the wife of the newspaper's managing editor".
Marian Kester Coombs is a woman who believes America has become a "den of iniquity" thanks to "its efforts to accommodate minorities." White men should "run, not walk" to wed "racially conscious" white women and avoid being out-bred by non-whites. Latinos are "rising to take this country away from those who made it," the "Euroamericans." Muslims are "human hyenas" who "smell blood" and are "closing in" on their "weakened prey," meaning "the white race." Blacks, Coombs sneers, are "saintly victims who can do no wrong." Black solidarity and non-white immigration are imposing "racial revolution and decomposition" in America. Coombs describes herself as just "a freelance writer in Crofton, Maryland." But this is one writer who's a bit more well-positioned than she lets on. Marian Kester Coombs is married to Francis Booth Coombs, managing editor of the hard-right newspaper The Washington Times. Fran Coombs has published at least 35 of his wife's news and opinion pieces for his paper, although his relationship to her is not acknowledged in her Times bylines.
Thanks to Eschaton for pointing this one out.

Liberal morality is alive and well

Daily Kos has a good review and commentary on James Ault's Spirit and Flesh: Life in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church.
Lately I've been reading up on the Religious Right, particularly James Ault's marvelously insightful book Spirit and Flesh: Life in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church. I plan a more sweeping article on these themes next week, but right now I want to toss out a simple conclusion: Despite how it looks, when the conservative rank-and-file talk about moral values, they aren't being hypocrites. I know. I know. Rush Limbaugh is a recovering drug addict. Bill O'Reilly settled rather than face those nasty charges about phone sex. Practically every word that comes out of the White House is deceptive in one way or another. You don't have to tell me. But conservatives have an absolutely genuine reason to be concerned about moral breakdown: Conservative morality is breaking down.

Distorting FDR

Media Matters for America reports that Bennett and Hume claimed the father of Social Security system wanted Social Security privatization.
In an attempt to promote President Bush's plan to partially privatize Social Security, nationally syndicated radio host and former Reagan administration official William J. Bennett and FOX News managing editor and anchor Brit Hume falsely claimed that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt advocated replacing Social Security with private accounts. In fact, while Roosevelt advocated "voluntary contributory annuities" to supplement guaranteed Social Security benefits, he never proposed replacing those benefits with private accounts. On the February 3 edition of FOX News' Hannity & Colmes, Bennett declared: "Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the guy who established Social Security, said that it would be good to have it replaced by private investment over time. Private investment would be the way to really carry this thing through."

Without vision the people perish

Jim Wallis, head of Soujourners and author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It comments on President Bush's 2006 budget. He begins ...
On Monday, February 7, President Bush released his 2006 budget proposal. As convener of Call to Renewal, Sojourners' partner organization, I issued the following response to the budget. The biblical prophets frequently spoke to rulers and kings. They spoke to "the nations," and it is the powerful that are most often the target audience; those in charge of things are the ones called to greatest accountability. And the prophets usually spoke for the dispossessed, widows and orphans (read: poor single moms), the hungry, the homeless, the helpless, the least, last, and lost. They spoke to a nation's priorities. Budgets are moral documents that reflect the values and priorities of a family, church, organization, city, state, or nation. They tell us what is most important and valued to those making the budget. President Bush says that his 2006 budget "is a budget that sets priorities." Examining those priorities - who will benefit and who will suffer in President Bush's budget - is a moral and religious concern. Just as we have "environmental impact studies" for public policies, it is time for a "poverty impact statement," which would ask the fundamental question of how policy proposals affect low-income people. We could start with this budget and do a "values audit" to determine how its values square with those of the American people. I believe this would reveal unacceptable priorities. The cost of the deficit is increasingly borne by the poor. The budget projects a record $427 billion deficit, and promises to make tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest permanent. Religious communities spoke clearly in the past years about the perils of a domestic policy based primarily on tax cuts for the rich, program cuts for low-income people, and an expectation of faith-based charity. We must speak clearly now about a budget lacking moral vision. A budget that scapegoats the poor and fattens the rich, that asks for sacrifice mostly from those who can least afford it, is a moral outrage.

UUA to receive Peace and Justice Award

The Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry is presenting awards to groups and individuals at the Massachusetts State House today. awards are given for their outstanding work and leadership in supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples as a civil right and in affirming the religious liberty for all faith traditions by opposing the anti-gay constitutional amendment.

Among the recipients is the Unitarian Universalist Association which is receiving the Peace and Justice Award.

Complete information can be found here.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Religious Right fights same-sex marriage in Canada

The National Post says ...
Powerful U.S. religious groups are sending money and support to allies in Canada to fight same-sex marriage. Patrick Korten, vice-president of communications for the Knights of Columbus head office in New Haven, Conn., said no limit has been set on the help his organization is prepared to offer. "Whatever it takes," he said. "The family is too important."

Gay marriage ban gets more support in Va.

The Boston Globe reports ...
The Virginia House yesterday approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, despite a warning from the state's first openly gay legislator that the measure will one day prove as shameful as slavery and segregation. The House voted, 78 to 18, in favor of a resolution similar to one easily approved in the Senate on Monday.

Sexuality Education and the Budget

The Unitarian Universalist Association says ...

Following the submission of President Bush's FY '06 Budget, which presumably will include increased spending for abstinence-only education programs in all areas, the UUA Washington Office will be participating in a press conference for the introduction of the Real Education About Life (REAL) Act. Introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-9), the bill will work to support and fund comprehensive sexuality education programs in the states. The press conference will take place at 10am on Thursday, February 10th, 2005 in the Capitol Building. DC-area Unitarian Universalist youth and parents will stand behind Rep. Lee in support of the Act and will speak to their experiences with Our Whole Lives in their congregations.

The UUA Washington Office is spending much of this spring doing advocacy and organizing in support of comprehensive sexuality education. Our work with the Our Whole Loves (OWL) program, as well as many previous statements from General Assembly, puts the UUA in a great place to speak to the value of comprehensive, age-appropriate, medically accurate sexuality education. If you would like more information about our efforts, sex education bills in Congress, actions you can take, or our partnerships with other offices and organizations on this issue, please visit our website at http://www.uua.org/uuawo/new/article.php?list=type&type=27.

If you are interested in getting involved with the UUA's work on sexuality education, please contact Kierstin Homblette, Legislative Assistant for Women's Issues, at khomblette@uua.org .

Write to your governor to speak out on Medicaid

The Unitarian Universalist Association says ...

Urge your governor to weigh in with your state's congressional delegation opposing cuts to Medicaid. It's especially important that Republican Governors speak out publicly as well as lobby the White House and congressional leaders in opposition to cuts that, in essence, shift financial burdens on to the states. Find a sample letter at http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=1269. Find your Governor's contact info at http://www.nga.org/governors/1,1169,,00.html.

Tell your Members of Congress what your Budget Priorities are!

The Unitarian Universalist Association says ...

To make up for increased expenses in homeland security, defense, and tax cuts, the president and subsequently many members of Congress are looking for ways to cut spending that would severely impact domestic human needs programs including health care (Medicaid in particular), community and inner-city development, environmental protection, education, and others.

As people of faith and witnesses to the vast inequities that exist today in the United States, we must call upon our elected representatives to serve the common good of our nation through the creation of a federal budget that prioritizes the well-being of all and the equitable distribution of resources to the most vulnerable in our society.

See the Washington Office website for links to help you and your congregation take action, including ideas for worship services, letter-writing, lobby visits, and other local organizations that may be organizing in your area at http://www.uua.org/uuawo/new/article.php?id=569.

Recall him for not standing

The Denver Channel reports that an attempt is being made to recall a man from office for not standing during the Pledge of Allegiance.
An Estes Park [Colorado] town trustee who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at Town Board meetings filed a federal lawsuit Friday, asking a judge to stop his recall election next month. The lawsuit also asked the court to declare the pledge unconstitutional and to order trustees to stop saying the pledge during official business. David Habecker, who describes himself as agnostic, says the words "under God" violate his religious beliefs and are at odds with the separation of church and state, according to his lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver. The lawsuit says Habecker exercises his First Amendment right to religious freedom and sits during Town Board meetings while other members recite the pledge. Some citizens have organized a committee to recall Habecker, saying voters have lost confidence in his ability to represent citizen's patriotism and "common decency." The recall election is scheduled Feb. 15.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Avoiding the real challange

An editorial in the New York Times (free subscription required) says that resident Bush's latest deficit-steeped budget, for all its talk of reining in spending, is a monument to misplaced political capital.
It would take some hard work, indeed, to get Congress to face up to the binge of deficit spending that is haunting the nation and future generations of taxpayers. Yet Mr. Bush is not going to face the music. Instead, he's investing his precious re-election clout in pushing a wildly expensive plan to divert some Social Security payments to private accounts, a step that would not even address the long-term financial problems with the current system. His proposed budget, meanwhile, is a picture of reduced revenue and swollen pockets of hidden spending. The lip service about draconian clampdowns will hardly solve the problem, particularly in the eyes of the international markets that are studying the administration for signs of commitment to closing the budget deficit.

Religiously intellectual dual can ease terror

James Brandon in The Christian Science Monitor reports that a religiously intellectual dual can ease terror.
When Judge Hamoud al-Hitar announced that he and four other Islamic scholars would challenge Yemen's Al Qaeda prisoners to a theological contest, Western antiterrorism experts warned that this high-stakes gamble would end in disaster. Nervous as he faced five captured, yet defiant, Al Qaeda members in a Sanaa prison, Judge Hitar was inclined to agree. But banishing his doubts, the youthful cleric threw down the gauntlet, in the hope of bringing peace to his troubled homeland. "If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."

Constitutional theories of same-sex marriage

Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School, cites some legal arguments in favor of same sex marriage.

Thanks to InstaPundit for pointing this out.

Don't challenge the rights' piety, challenge their theology

Ryan Lizza, a senior editor at The New Republic, reviews Jim Wallis's book God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It in the New York Times (free registration required). In the review, Lizza says
In ''God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It,'' Wallis has a simple message for Democrats: rather than challenging the right's piety, challenge the right's theology. ''Conventional wisdom suggests that the antidote to religious fundamentalism is more secularism,'' he says. ''But that is a very big mistake. The best response to bad religion is better religion, not secularism.'' Many liberals admonish President Bush for his use of religious language. Wallis is one of the few on the left to question the accuracy of Bush's biblical allusions, which he maintains ''are too often either taken out of context or, worse yet, employed in ways quite different from their original meaning.'' And instead of attacking conservatives for bringing religion into the public square, Wallis attacks conservatives for reducing the Christian policy agenda to abortion and gay marriage. After all, the Bible has far more to say about poverty, economics and war than it does about the right's two favorite wedge issues.

Monday, February 07, 2005

RNC tries to stop ads critical of Social Security changes

The South Bend Tribune reports that the Republican National Committee asked stations to kill a 'false TV ad' promoted by MoveOn.org ...
At least part of the Social Security debate focused on the 2nd Congressional District again Friday, as the Republican National Committee sent letters to local television stations asking them not to air what it calls a "false TV ad" promoted by MoveOn.org. Washington, D.C.-based MoveOn.org immediately issued a statement defending the accuracy of its ad, which began airing on local stations Tuesday and which is critical of the president's plan to revamp Social Security. The RNC letter drew a mixture of responses. One local station executive said he viewed the tone of the letter as "threatening." Another said he planned to investigate a statement in the ad and might decide to pull the spot if he found it to be misleading.

Attempting to defeat same-sex marriage in Canada

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the war to stop same-sex marriage moves into Canada ...
The Roman Catholic Church has opened a major campaign to defeat a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage across the country, which the government says will be introduced in early February when a deeply divided Parliament reconvenes. The bill is largely symbolic because provincial and territorial courts have already expanded marriage rights in jurisdictions where 85 percent of Canadians live. But it will be the first time an elected body will vote on the issue, and polls show the population to be about evenly split. The church and Roman Catholic groups, allied with Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Orthodox Jewish groups, are revving up their strongest political effort in decades in what the government calls a challenge to the separation of church and state.

"environmentalism" connotes liberals, secularists and Democrats

An article in The Washington Post (registration required) says that evangelicals are hopping on the environmentalism bandwagon - but they're calling it "creation care". The article starts ...
Thanks to the Rev. Leroy Hedman, the parishioners at Georgetown Gospel Chapel take their baptismal waters cold. The preacher has unplugged the electricity-guzzling heater in the immersion baptism tank behind his pulpit. He has also installed energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs throughout the church and has placed water barrels beneath its gutter pipes -- using runoff to irrigate the congregation's all-organic gardens. Such "creation care" should be at the heart of evangelical life, Hedman says, along with condemning abortion, protecting family and loving Jesus. He uses the term "creation care" because, he says, it does not annoy conservative Christians for whom the word "environmentalism" connotes liberals, secularists and Democrats.

Democracy Corps survey

Democracy Corps is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to making the government of the United States more responsive to the American people. It was founded in 1999 by James Carville, Stanley Greenberg, and Bob Shrum. Democracy Corps provides free public opinion research and strategic advice to those dedicated to a more responsive Congress and Presidency.

On February 1, they issued the results of a survey called Toward A Democratic Purpose. It asks a number of questions about how people feel about Democrats vs Republicans.

The top 3 Democratic Positive Attributes are:

  • Equal rights for women and minorities
  • Protect the environment
  • Will help the poor and neediest
The top 3 Democratic Negative Attributes are:
  • Support for gay marriage
  • No strong direction
  • Support for legalized abortion
We've got an uphill battle. Take the time to read the whole thing - it's a 9-page .pdf.

Newsweek takes a stab at Intelligent Design

GetReligion reviews an article by Jerry Adler in Newsweek called Doubting Darwin. The review says that the Newsweek article gets many parts of the debate between creationists and real scientists right. The Newsweek article starts ...
When Joshua Rowand, an 11th grader in Dover, Pa., looks out from his high school, he can see the United Church of Christ across the street and the hills beyond it, reminding him of what he's been taught from childhood: that God's perfect creation culminated on the sixth day with the making of man in his image. Inside the school, he is taught that Homo sapiens evolved over millions of years from a series of predecessor species in an unbroken line of descent stretching back to the origins of life. The apparent contradiction between that message and the one he hopes someday to spread as a Christian missionary doesn't trouble him. The entire subject of evolution by natural selection is covered in two lessons in high-school biology. What kind of Christian would he be if his faith couldn't survive 90 minutes of exposure to Darwin?

Our Godless Constitution

The Nation has an article entitled The Godless Constitution. It starts ...
It is hard to believe that George Bush has ever read the works of George Orwell, but he seems, somehow, to have grasped a few Orwellian precepts. The lesson the President has learned best--and certainly the one that has been the most useful to him--is the axiom that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. One of his Administration's current favorites is the whopper about America having been founded on Christian principles. Our nation was founded not on Christian principles but on Enlightenment ones. God only entered the picture as a very minor player, and Jesus Christ was conspicuously absent. Our Constitution makes no mention whatever of God. The omission was too obvious to have been anything but deliberate, in spite of Alexander Hamilton's flippant responses when asked about it: According to one account, he said that the new nation was not in need of "foreign aid"; according to another, he simply said "we forgot." But as Hamilton's biographer Ron Chernow points out, Hamilton never forgot anything important.
Thanks to FaithWorks for noting this.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Gays can marry in New York

Associated Press via cbsnewyork.com says ...
A Manhattan judge has declared that a section of law that forbids same-sex marriage violates the state constitution, a ruling which if upheld on appeal would allow gay couples to wed. State Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled that the words “husband,” “wife,” “groom” and “bride” in relevant sections of the Domestic Relations Law shall be construed to mean ‘spouse,’ and all personal pronouns ... shall be construed to apply equally to either men or women.

John Adams: Boston over Philly

Former President John Adams, with whom my church has a unique relationship (he, his son, and their wives are in the basement), in a diary entry on October 9, 1774, said
Phyladelphia with all its Trade, and Wealth, and Regularity is not Boston. The Morals of our People are much better, their Manners are more polite, and agreable -- they are purer English. Our Language is better, our Persons are handsomer, our Spirit is greater, our Laws are wiser, our Religion is superiour, our Education is better. We exceed them in every Thing, but in a Markett, and in charitable public foundations.
Thanks to Socinian for pointing that one out.

UU Churches and their memberships

According to the Unitarian Universalist Association, here's a list of UU congregations and their newly-reported membership numbers.

Discontinuity and Hope

Peter Bowden in Adventures in Small Group Ministry discusses Lyle E. Schaller's book Discontinuity and Hope.
When congregations give all the ministry to their called professional minister and she or he takes it on, something horrible happens. No, I am not talking about burnout, though that is common. When the minister takes the ministry away from the congregation (or they refuse to take it) the majority of the opportunities for spiritual and personal growth go with it. Did you catch what I just said? Doing ministry is how we stretch, learn and grow spiritually. Give away the ministry and you give away the very reason for church. Well, there are many people who do like pew oriented religious experience where the minister is called upon to do all the ministry, grow spiritually, and preach on related learning to the congregation, challenging all to reflect on the lesson in their own lives. This is backwards.

Contempt for constitutional guarantees

Bob Herbert in the New York Times (free registration required) says that the Bush administration has left no doubt about its contempt for a number of our supposedly most cherished constitutional guarantees. He begins...
The Constitution? Forget about it. Only about half of America's high school students think newspapers should be allowed to publish freely, without government approval of their stories. And a third say the free speech guarantees of the First Amendment go "too far." This has thrown a lot of noses out of joint. Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which financed a two-year study of high school attitudes about First Amendment freedoms, said, "These results are not only disturbing - they are dangerous." But maybe we shouldn't be so hard on the youngsters. After all, they've been set a terrible example by a presidential administration that has left no doubt about its contempt for a number of our supposedly most cherished constitutional guarantees.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Mandela: Rich must feed the poor

Nelson Mandela told thousands gathered in London's Trafalgar Square Thursday that the world must do a better job of eliminating poverty. According to CNN,
Mandela, former South African president and former prisoner of that country's apartheid government, called for trade justice, an end to rising debts for the poorest countries, and more and higher-quality aid. "Where poverty exists, there is not true freedom," said Mandela, who wore a white strip of cloth around his wrist. "The world is hungry for action, not words. I am proud to wear the symbol of this global cause to action."

Abstinence Program in Texas a Failure

Reuters reports that Texas teens increased sex after an abstinence program ...
Abstinence-only sex education programs, a major plank in President Bush's education plan, have had no impact on teenagers' behavior in his home state of Texas, according to a new study. Despite taking courses emphasizing abstinence-only themes, teenagers in 29 high schools became increasingly sexually active, mirroring the overall state trends, according to the study conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University.

Barring Gay Marriage Gets OK in Kansas

The Associated Press reported that the Kansas House of Representatives yesterday approved an amendment to the Kansas Constitution banning gay marriage and civil unions, placing the measure on the April 5 ballot. The vote was 86 to 37, three more than the two-thirds needed to pass. The proposed amendment declares that only couples in a traditional marriage of one man and one woman are entitled to the benefits associated with marriage.

Dean Fits the Leadership Role

Thomas Oliphant, Boston Globe Columnist, says that Howard Dean fits the leadership role for the Democratic National Committee.
Howard Dean is about to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee this month because he says convincingly he wants to be build a stronger national party, not try to lead the upcoming fights with President Bush over Social Security or the war in Iraq, or to enforce ideological orthodoxy. That means that Dean understands the difference between the role he is about to assume in national politics and the roles played by congressional officials like the Democrats' two minority leaders - Representative Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada.

Traditional marriage plates

The Richmond Times-Dispatch says that a proposal in Virginia's House would create special license plates endorsing traditional unions ...
With only a week left to act on all legislation introduced by their respective members, the House and Senate yesterday argued over matters ranging from "traditional marriage" license plates to state budget procedures. The House of Delegates squabbled before tentatively endorsing the special state plates that would include the capital-letter words "TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE," as well as a symbol, two interlocked golden wedding bands over a red heart. Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William, who sponsored the legislation, said it would merely embrace 4,000 years of history on marriage and show children that "traditional marriage is fundamental."

Self-censorship on American Television

Frank Rich in the New York Times (free registration required) begins a column entitled The Year of Living Indecently by saying ...
Let us be grateful that Janet Jackson did not bare both breasts.

On the first anniversary of the Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction that shook the world, it's clear that just one was big enough to wreak havoc. The ensuing Washington indecency crusade has unleashed a wave of self-censorship on American television unrivaled since the McCarthy era, with everyone from the dying D-Day heroes in "Saving Private Ryan" to cuddly animated animals on daytime television getting the ax. Even NBC's presentation of the Olympics last summer, in which actors donned body suits to simulate "nude" ancient Greek statues, is currently under federal investigation.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Fundamentalists of all stripes love the family

Brian Whitaker in the Guardian says that when it comes to defining family values, conservative Christians and Muslims are united against liberal secularists.
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a controversial Islamic scholar who approves of wife-beating and believes in traditional family values. The Mormon church, having abandoned polygamy more than a century ago, believes in traditional families too. With that much in common, they have joined forces to "defend the family" and fight progressive social policies at the United Nations. Other members of the holy alliance include Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo, who campaigns against condoms on behalf of the Catholic church, and Mahathir Mohamad, the dictatorial former prime minister of Malaysia who sacked and jailed his deputy for alleged homosexuality. They all met in Doha, the capital of Qatar, last November for what was officially described as a conference to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UN's Year of the Family. In reality, it brought together some of the world's most socially conservative religious forces.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Evolution Takes a Back Seat in U.S. Classes

The New York Times says some teachers are just ignoring evolution for fear of retribution.
Dr. John Frandsen, a retired zoologist, was at a dinner for teachers in Birmingham, Ala., recently when he met a young woman who had just begun work as a biology teacher in a small school district in the state. Their conversation turned to evolution. "She confided that she simply ignored evolution because she knew she'd get in trouble with the principal if word got about that she was teaching it," he recalled. "She told me other teachers were doing the same thing."

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