Is the USA a “Christian nation”? Depends on what you mean by that, I suppose. But its origin in Judeo-Christian principles is clear, based on founding documents, acts of congress and presidents, and the writings of the founders. The recognition and celebration of that heritage has been nearly universal among US national leaders until very recent times. You can decide if that was a good thing, or a bad thing, but you can’t pretend it is a non-thing.
May 15 2009
Conflicted Christians
As previously observed, President Obama will receive an honorary doctorate from Notre Dame in a few days, and address a commencement exercise. And although there is a considerable amount of Outrage Over Obama Speaking at Notre Dame, the plain fact is that 53% of Catholics voted for him, in direct contravention of their bishops’ advice and admonition.
One graduating senior, Matt Degnan, is selling T-shirts he designed that say “Obama? Fine By Me.” When I asked him whether the shirts represented enthusiastic support of the president or merely tacit ambivalence, he simply responded, “I think that the shirts speak for themselves.”
But he told the paper that faculty members have been the most frequent buyers, which comes as no surprise to anyone who’s ever met a college professor.
Furthermore, Catholics themselves helped put Obama in office, after voting for him 53 percent. Obama secured the largest advantage among Catholics for a Democrat since Bill Clinton.
So although I’m empathetic toward the outrage, and a Catholic school honoring a pro-choice activist like Obama is nothing short of outrageous, the numbers tell a different picture. The state of Indiana, St. Joseph’s County, South Bend, and the University of Notre Dame all supported candidate Obama, with alacrity, as did Catholic America.
Right-to-life issues are important, but this supposed scandal is muddied by the inconvenient underlying facts: Obama has huge support here, and some of the groups that are railing against his visit are the very groups that helped put him in office, in a position to then be invited.
But voting him into office was apparently one thing, and allowing him to speak at a college commencement, another. Catholics should get their message straight if they want to regain the kind of influence that makes them a credible voice of reason, compassion, clarity, and morality. Right now they just seem tongue-tied.
Christians should not be tongue tied. Ever. They should be willing to speak out on straight-up moral issues, especially those involving life and death of the most innocent. Shame on us. And count me as one evangelical who feels more in common with the other 47% of Roman Catholics than with all too many protestants.
In the meantime, here’s a protestant to admire, for his conviction, and his willingness to tell simple, unobstructed, unconflicted truth:
May 12 2009
Deconstructing the Deconstructor
Bart Ehrman’s “Jesus Interrupted” is another in the line of books attempting to challenge orthodox understandings of the nature of the Bible and the validity of faith, more or less on the line of the Jesus Seminar approach.
Ben Witherington has a multipart blog/essay essentially taking on Ehrman on his own ground, in his own terms. It seems to this layman to be excellent reading, and so I link to it below.
May 09 2009
Altered States
At this place, on the front page:
You get this ad for “church,” United Methodist style.
And this one for sex toys, hookups, and pornography. Don’t bother to click it, I didn’t link it.
I’m trying to remember the last time I saw an ad for church and an ad for sex services in the same place. Oh, yeah. The LA Times. Craigslist. The Yellow Pages.
But really: wouldn’t you think ONE of these groups would think this wasn’t the place to advertise?
Oh well. Welcome to the modern Christian Left. Crackpot politics, sexual liberty, and a feeling of moral superiority, all in one.
It would seem that the United Methodists really know where to advertise to find like-minded folk.
So I went to “RethinkChurch” (just click the graphic above and you can, too). In the search engine on the site, I typed in the word “Jesus.”
Here’s what I got:
I typed in “salvation,” and got even less. So, let’s see. This is a United Methodist Church website, with no mention of “salvation”, and almost none of “Jesus.” I wonder if that “Carnal Nation” website links to a seminary.
Mar 08 2009
Catholics under attack in NY
Newsmax.com – N.Y. Catholics: Dems Trying to Bankrupt Church
Democrats have declared war on the Catholic Church, with new laws that threaten to bankrupt Catholic schools, hospitals, charities and parishes. Thus far, the worst attacks have come in New York.
“We’ve taken a lot of hits this year,” Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, the policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops, tells Newsmax. “Outside the government, the Catholic Church is the largest provider of health, human services and education in [New York]. But some legislators are so driven by malice that they’re willing to see our charities and schools go under.”
The Empire State’s Democrats are attacking on three fronts.
# A proposal to require all hospitals to perform abortions, or lose their state license would put Catholic hospitals out of business.
# Major funding cuts for Catholic schools by Gov. David Paterson, who continues to force the parochial schools to run state-mandated programs at their own expense.
# An effort by Democratic lawmakers to abolish the statute of limitations on sex abuse lawsuits against the Church, allowing people to sue over decades-old cases in which the alleged perpetrators are dead.
The proposed sex-abuse law applies only to private institutions such as the Church and the Boy Scouts. Public schools are exempt. Yet sex abuse is more common in public schools than in private institutions.
Read the whole thing.
But consider:
1) The Freedom of Choice Act, if passed by Congress and signed by Obama (who has already promised to do so), would institute even greater assaults on the freedom of Catholic and other religiously founded hospitals not to do abortion, nationwide, not just in New York. And it would create a situation where no medical personnel would have a “freedom of conscience” protection so they would not be forced to participate in abortions of convenience.
2) The current budget proposal in Congress, favored by Obama, removes the charitable giving deduction from the tax code, which would surely significant reduce giving to all kinds of charitable organizations, hospitals, churches, relief organizations, orphanages, schools, you name it.
So New York State is just a little bit ahead of federal policy… but only a little bit.
The all out assault on the church, which has been gaining steam for awhile now, is on with a vengeance. And make no mistake, vengeance is the intent of the perpetrators.
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