Aug 20 2009

The post-Christian society?

Category: church,religionharmonicminer @ 9:09 am

Archbishop Chaput, author of “Render Unto Ceasar,” has some observations on the post-Christian society.

Let’s imagine a society. And let’s imagine that it’s advanced in the arts and sciences. It has a complex economy. It has a strong military. It also includes many different religions, although religion tends to be a private affair or a matter of civic ceremony.

It also has big problems, like a fertility rate stuck below replacement levels. Not enough children are born to replenish the adult population or do the work to keep society going. The state offers money for people to have more babies. But little seems to work.

Promiscuity is common. So are bisexuality and homosexuality. Birth control and abortion are legal, widely practiced and justified by leading intellectuals.

Sometimes a lawmaker will offer a measure to promote marriage, arguing that the future depends on stable families. These ideas usually go nowhere.

What society am I talking about? Most of the Western world would broadly fit this description. But actually I’m not talking about us.

I just outlined the state of the Mediterranean world at the time of Jesus Christ. We tend to look back on Greece and Rome as an age of extraordinary achievements. And of course, it was. But it had another side as well.

We don’t usually think of Plato and Aristotle endorsing infanticide as state policy. But they did. Hippocrates, the great medical pioneer, created an abortion kit that included sharp blades for cutting up the fetus and a hook for ripping it from the womb. Some years ago, archeologists discovered the probable remains of a Roman-era abortion and infanticide “clinic.” It was a sewer filled with the bones of more than 100 infants.

You can find all of this, and a lot more, in a little book from about 12 years ago, The Rise of Christianity by the Baylor University scholar Rodney Stark.

Why is any of this important?

People often say we’re living at a “post-Christian” moment. That’s supposed to describe the fact that Western nations have abandoned or greatly downplayed their Christian heritage in recent decades. But our “post-Christian” moment actually looks a lot like the pre-Christian moment. The signs of our times in the developed world-morally, intellectually, spiritually and even demographically-are very similar to the world at the time of the Incarnation.

The truth is, the challenges we face as European and American Catholics today are very much like those facing the first Christians. And it might help to have a little perspective on how they went about evangelizing their culture. They did such a good job that within 400 years Christianity was the world’s dominant religion and the foundation of Western civilization – and of course, the great Irish monastic tradition was one of its many fruits.

Rodney Stark, by the way, is an agnostic. He’s not a Christian believer. But he was intrigued by a couple of key questions. How did Christianity succeed? How was it able to accomplish so much so fast? As a social scientist, he focuses only on the facts he can verify. And he concludes that Christian success flowed from two things: first, Christian doctrine, and second, people being faithful to that doctrine. Stark writes that: “An essential factor in the [Christian] religion’s success was what Christians believed . . . And it was the way those doctrines took on actual flesh, the way they directed organizational actions and individual behavior, that led to the rise of Christianity.”

Or we can put it another way: The Church, through the Apostles and their successors, preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People believed in that Gospel. But the early Christians didn’t just agree to a set of ideas. Believing in the Gospel meant changing their whole way of thinking and living. It was a radical transformation — so radical they couldn’t go on living like the people around them anymore.

Stark says that one of the key areas in which Christians rejected the pagan culture around them was marriage and the family. From the start, to be a Christian meant believing that sexuality and marriage were sacred. From the start, to be a Christian meant turning away from abortion, infanticide, birth control, divorce, homosexual activity and marital infidelity — all those things widely practiced by their Roman neighbors.

The early Christians understood that they were members of a new worldwide family of God more important than any language or national borders. They saw the culture around them, despite all of its greatness and power, as a culture of despair, a society that was slowly killing itself. In fact, when you read early Christian literature, things like adultery and abortion are often described as “the way of death” or the “way of the [devil].”

Here’s the point I want to leave you with: If the world of pagan Rome and its Caesars could be won for Jesus Christ, we can do the same in our own day. But what it takes is the zeal and courage to live what we claim to believe.

While I’m not certain that historical sources support the claim that “from the start,” “to be a Christian meant turning away from….. birth control…,” the other items on that list are abundantly clear in the record.   I suppose I’m willing to be educated on the point, if clear references without significant counterfactuals can be presented.

The broader point of Archbishop Chaput, that ancient Roman times have a lot in common with the 21st century, is hard to debate.  His hope is very attractive that we can do much more to win the world for Christ.  Based on current trends, however, it’s becoming more and more likely that the world that is won for Christ will be the third world and Asia.

No doubt, as the center of world Christianity continues its move away from the USA and Europe, and more and more Korean and African missionaries are sent to the USA and Europe to try to win back an increasingly secularized culture (if current trends continue), some enterprising post-modern Korean or African academics will accuse their missionaries of colonial ambitions.


Aug 19 2009

The penalty for “honor killing” in Islamic nations: about like that for spitting on the sidewalk

Category: arab,Fatah,Hamas,Islam,Israelharmonicminer @ 9:13 am

The sentences for so called “honor killings” in Islamic nations are so light, when they are imposed at all, as to be an insult to the value of human life. In this case, a Gazan father killed his 27 yr old daughter by beating her to death with a chain over 40 minutes,  for using a cell phone to talk to a man.

In such killings, a woman’s life is taken by male relatives who suspect her of inappropriate conduct. Such killings are still widespread in the Middle East, where a woman’s perceived misconduct can hurt the standing of a family and where tradition says the “stain” can only be removed by shedding her blood.

Traditionally, assailants have received light sentences, but the killing of Najjar shocked even activists used to detailing such crimes.

Mezan and the PCHR said that Najjar’s father used an iron chain to beat her, while also kicking and punching her for about 40 minutes until she died of a fatal blow to the head, said Mezan and the PCHR.

“It’s shocking,” said Samir Zakout of Mezan. “But it’s not surprising because killers know they won’t be punished harshly.”

In the West Bank and Gaza, “honor killing” assailants serve between six months and three years in prison, said Mona Shawa of PCHR.

In Jordan, officials said Wednesday they have set up special tribunals to deal with honor killings, hoping to speed up trials.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch reported Wednesday that the Syrian government abolished a law that waived punishment for some honor killings and now allows judges to sentence perpetrators to at least two years jail.

This is simply beyond sad and horrifying. And it is a measure of how very far the world view of Islam is from that of the West.

However, do not expect “justice week” at your local university to have “honor killing” as a topic.  They’ll be too busy bashing Israel for defending itself.  Or maybe being concerned about global warming or something really important like that. 


Aug 19 2009

Iran raping jailed protesters?

Category: Iran,Islamharmonicminer @ 9:08 am

Under Sharia, a rape victim must produce FOUR MALE MUSLIM WITNESSES who will testify to the rape.  Otherwise, the guilt is assumed to be on the part of the victim.

And now, it appears that Iran’s ruling Mullahs are telling detained protesters of the recent “elections” that if they want to complain of being raped while in jail, they must produce FOUR MALE MUSLIM WITNESSES to prove it, or risk further punishment for sexual misconduct themselves.

If you’re not familiar with the origin of the FOUR MALE MUSLIM WITNESS policy in Sharia, it arose because one of Mohammed’s wives was accused of adultery.  Mohammed happened to like that particular wife, and soon reported that Allah had revealed to him that such cases could only be prosecuted if there were FOUR MALE MUSLIM WITNESSES.  Thus, he saved his favorite wife from punishment, and made it essentially impossible for Muslim women to ever prove rape in an Islamic court.

In Islamic countries, most women who allege rape are themselves imprisoned for adultery or fornication….  or worse.

Very convenient for the Iranian mullahs who want those protesters to be taught a lesson, both male and female, it seems.

Obama wants to negotiate with these guys without pre-conditions.  Better keep the Secret Service really, really close.


Aug 19 2009

Legislative Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 8:34 am

54% Say Passing No Healthcare Reform Better Than Passing Congressional Plan

Thirty-five percent (35%) of American voters say passage of the bill currently working its way through Congress would be better than not passing any health care reform legislation this year. However, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that most voters (54%) say no health care reform passed by Congress this year would be the better option.

This does not mean that most voters are opposed to health care reform. But it does highlight the level of concern about the specific proposals that Congressional Democrats have approved in a series of Committees. To this point, there has been no Republican support for the legislative effort although the Senate Finance Committee is still attempting to seek a bi-partisan solution.

The Congressional plan in its current form, especially with a “public option,” is going to do the same thing for health care that leeches did for George Washington, if it passes.


Aug 19 2009

The public option always WAS “stealth single payer”

Category: healthcareharmonicminer @ 8:07 am

How The Public Option Became The Core Of Obamacare  Read it all for details and quotes, but here’s the gist:

For those of you that have been following the health care debate through this blog, the fact that a well respected liberal like Schmitt is ready to admit that the public option was always “a kind of stealth single-payer” should be no surprise. We have already extensively detailed how Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein, and Noble Prize winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have all been caught on video explaining to single-payer advocates that the public option is nothing more than a Trojan Horse for single payer health care. And just to add another to the list, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) also admitted as much on MSNBC yesterday.

The Left always did intend for this to end up as a purely nationalized, single payer system like Canada or Britain. Everything else, including all the talk of “choice,” was and is a smokescreen to dupe the public until it’s too late to back out.


Aug 18 2009

Is there such a thing as conservative sociology?

Category: higher education,societyharmonicminer @ 9:24 am

Some of have suggested that “conservative sociology” is an oxymoron.  Sociology at most universities, even ostensibly more conservative “Christian” universities, is essentially a free bully pulpit for faculty bent on “progressive” social change, meaning let’s all move Left in quick march, double-time.  That’s the norm, like it or not.  It seems that having Karl Marx as one of the founders of your discipline does have a certain effect.  Here are a few excerpts from a very interesting conversation between some “conservative sociologists” on the topic (conservative being a relative term, of course).  But compared to the run of the mill sociology prof, these folks do seem a bit more reasonable, and I recommend the whole thing for a fuller flavor:

Continue reading “Is there such a thing as conservative sociology?”


Aug 17 2009

Government-Sponsored Health Care: Searching for the right words

Category: healthcare,Obamaharmonicminer @ 9:00 am

So much confusion about the role of government in health care reform.  So much misinformation and angry rhetoric.  Let’s just take a moment, sit back and listen to the president clear all this up for us.  Take it away, Mr President! (..and, without a teleprompter too – such easy calm, and reassuring mastery of the subject!)

Someone should report this guy to flag@whitehouse.gov


Aug 16 2009

Guess who wants to be re-elected? UPDATE: Backing away from backing away

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 4:25 pm

W.H. backs away from public option

President Barack Obama and his top aides are signaling that they’re prepared to drop a government insurance option from a final health-reform deal if that’s what’s needed to strike a compromise on Obama’s top legislative priority.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Sunday that the public option was “not the essential element” of the overhaul. A day earlier, Obama downplayed the public option during a Colorado town hall meeting, saying it was “just one sliver” of the debate.

He even chided Democratic supporters and Republican critics for becoming “so fixated on this that they forget everything else”, a dig at some liberals in his own party who have made the public option the main rallying cry of the health reform debate.

UPDATE: And it seems the White House is NOW backing away from having backed away from the public option. This whole thing appears to be one of those “trial balloons” the White House sends up just to see how much outrage it generates among the leftier supporters of the public option, in an attempt to calibrate the political cost of jettisoning the public option. The president’s “druthers” are clear…. and he’s trying to find out now what he can sell, so he can claim that he did SOMETHING.

Even being outspent five to one by some measures, the anti-nationalized-health-care public opinion is growing, both in numbers and commitment. Let’s hope it’s enough to stop this pig in a poke.


Aug 16 2009

President Obama, meet Rev. J. Wright

Category: church,Democrat,government,Republican,theologyharmonicminer @ 9:11 am

No, no, no, I meant the OTHER Rev. J. Wright, Rev. Joe Wright, who prayed this prayer to open a session of the Kansas legislature in 1996. Wrongly attributed in a circulating email to Billy Graham, this appears to have been borrowed from a 1995 Kentucky Prayer Breakfast, where it was prayed by Bob Russell.

Heavenly Father,
We come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.
We know your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we’ve done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbors’ possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state.
Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will.
I ask it in the name of your son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

It would, of course, be lovely to hope that such a prayer might ever have been prayed Rev. Jeremiah Wright, not just Rev. Joe Wright.

What’s sad is that this is not a partisan prayer.  Some of the items in it might easily be applied to the Right as well as the Left.  But in it’s Kansas legislature appearance, it was Democrats who got up and walked out.

Alas.


Aug 15 2009

Watch this and wonder

Category: musicharmonicminer @ 10:59 pm


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