America has never been a Christian nation…

…so says Reb Bradley at World Net Daily.

               

Pres. Obama retakes oath of office

Since Justice Roberts flubbed the oath of office, President Obama later retook the oath so as to keep everything above board.

               

Why We Bristle at Talk of Multiculturalism

Words associated with Christianity, monarchy, and British history dropped from leading children’s dictionary:

Oxford University Press has removed words like “aisle”, “bishop”, “chapel”, “empire” and “monarch” from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like “blog”, “broadband” and “celebrity”. Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.

The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.

And what better way to show you’re a multifaith society than by ignoring one of those faiths?

               

Leviticus, The Onion, and Homosexual Conduct

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The Onion has a column in its current issue entitled, “I’m Not One Of Those ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ Christians.” Like many Onion articles it is funny and takes conventional rhetoric and twists it to reveal a truth. It lacks some of the subtler shades of nuance of many other Onion pieces, which is often the case for their pieces which focus on Christianity (no doubt because they are too unfamiliar with the subject matter to properly mimic the tell-tale details necessary for really good satire).

The premise of the column, as can likely be gleaned by the title, is that a Christian is defending herself from unfair stereotypes people have of Christians. The joke is that all the stereotypes she lists are things that are more or less universally admired about the Christian message (but which we often, it is assumed, do not regularly practice): love the neighbor, turn the other cheek, serve the poor, etc. The writer is clearly supposed to be a typical member of the Religious Right.

We’re not all “Jesus Freaks” who run around screaming about how everyone should “Judge not lest ye be judged,” whine “Blessed are the meek” all the time, or drone on and on about how we’re all equal in the eyes of God! Some of us are just trying to be good, honest folks who believe the unbaptized will roam the Earth for ages without the comfort of God’s love when Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior returns on Judgment Day to whisk the righteous off to heaven.

One line in particular is particularly revealing of how the Left views traditional Christians (and it gets to the main point of this post):

And although we believe that the moral precepts in the Book of Leviticus are the infallible word of God, it doesn’t mean we’re all obsessed with extremist notions like “righteousness” and “justice.”

What is it with the Left and the book of Leviticus? Time, and time again I hear defenders of homosexual activity make arguments premised on the idea that Christian opposition to sodomy is based on Levitical prohibitions. Usually such a person thinks they’ve really ended all discussion when they make some sort of snarky comment along the lines of, You must support the death penalty for people who wear polyester and cotton. This argument became especially popular after President Bartlett made it in the TV show the West Wing when he confronted a Laura Schlessinger clone.

Two things baffle me about this line of thought: First, where the heck did they get the idea that Leviticus is the basis upon which Christians oppose homosexual acts? Second, the basic understanding among almost all Christians that many of the rules of the Old Testament are no longer operative in Christianity is not an obscure or difficult to understand Christian doctrine – in fact it plays a pretty central role in the New Testament.

Regarding the first. I was raised in a fairly fundamentalist/evangelical Christian environment.  I heard little about the natural law, the procreative ends of the conjugal union, or even the traditional family as the basic cell of society. I did hear plenty of Biblical proof texts for what kind of behavior is right and what is wrong. I recall very little reference to the Old Testament when it came to homosexuality. There was some I guess, but for the most part we heard about the New Testament passages (there were several). I recognize that there is controversy surrounding the interpretation of these texts. And I recognize the perils of doing moral theology by means of proof texting. My point is only that the idea that Christian opposition to homosexual activity is rooted in a single Old Testament verse is absurd.

More baffling to me, is the seemingly complete ignorance those on the Left have of Christianity and its relationship to Old Testament law. I say this because to understand that Christians believe that certain obligations under Old Testament law were jettisoned with the life, death and resurrection of Christ does not require a high level of scholarship. It’s pretty much right there in any English translation of the New Testament. One need not know Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic to understand that Christians were no longer obligated to follow Jewish dietary restrictions. Extensive studies of biblical exegesis are not necessary to see that circumcision was no longer required. New Covenant/Old Covenant distinctions are pretty common among most practicing Christians.

Once again, my point is not to say that the relationship between the Mosaic law and Christianity is a simple subject. (Indeed I would commend Taylor’s own excellent work on the Jewish roots of our faith as an example of why ordinary Christians need and can greatly benefit from the solid and difficult scholarship of scholars.) What I am saying is that no Christian with halfway decent formation is going to find his whole world view shattered upon hearing some passages from Leviticus prohibiting conduct considered acceptable today.

I suppose what I really wonder is whether or not the Left is sincerely misguided as to Christian belief on the topic or if they are being entirely disingenuous when they make these arguments.

               

Alexandra Windsor Considers Obama’s Victory

There is much to be said about Barack Obama’s win last night. The
breadth of his ambition and the enormity of his political talents have
been underestimated from the start of his campaign. And I believe
what happen last night represents a real and long-lasting change in
America. But for now I will not dwell or expound on that. I wish
instead to return to the topic of abortion – the same, old, tired
topic that most people would be happy to never hear about again. That
topic that seems to have been written about over and over by Christian
conservatives this election. These are not new insights but here is a
short summary of where we stand:

- Every year between 1.2 and 1.3 million humans are killed in our
country by an act that is not only tolerated but protected as a
constitutional right – a right so important to protect, says the high
court, that states have no interest in interfering with it in almost
all instances.

- This is the case because of the Supreme Court cases Roe v. Wade and
Doe v. Bolton.

- Last night’s election put a man into office who will almost
certainly effect the composition of the Supreme Court in such a way
that Roe and Doe will remain in force for the foreseeable future.

- And in that time, more than 1 million humans a year will be legally
killed on an annual basis.

- That this happens is not the fault of the small minority who boldly
proclaim their support for abortion rights. It is the fault of the
hundreds of millions of Americans who regularly say, “I’m personally
against it but . . .” Those hundreds of millions of Americans who
would just prefer not to bring it up – to not have to think about it.
They are moral cowards and because of their cowardice a million humans
will die this year.

I have been pondering all this now for the last 24 hours and I find it
very, very sobering.

               

Where Are the 527’s?

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It’s a question I keep asking myself.

Have we forgotten about “bitter” Americans clinging to God and guns?

Have we forgotten about Rev. Wright? Obama gave $53,000 to Wright’s church — the same one where Wright declared, “God D–n America!”

When will we begin to see nightly commericals?

               

“Look at the text of the statute!”

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It’s something law professors are fond of telling you when you can’t produce an good answer to a question they have posed.

Well Marquette Law professor Rick Esenberg actually takes a look at the sex-ed bill Barack Obama supported as an Illinois state senator.  Turns out it’s not just about protecting your children from being molested.

               

Southern Baptist Leader Tells Faithful That Obama Supporters Act Out of Fear

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Not really. Because if that had happen we would have all heard about it by now. But here is what did happen at the 128th annual session of the National Baptist Convention, USA, where Michelle Obama delivered a speech on Tuesday:

By the time she took the stage, the floor of the Grand Ballroom at the Duke Energy Center downtown was literally bouncing. The energy continued throughout her speech.

“We are in these days witnessing the making of history,” said William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA. “We do not call the senator and his wife Jesus, but in his candidacy, the hopes of generations are finding expression. And in that same candidacy, the fears of many are finding fresh life. But it is our prayer always, that hope overrides fear.

“When history is made you can say, “I was there.”

“Michelle Obama talks ‘faith and values’ at local convention,” Dayton Daily News.

               

State of the Race: What Are the Swing States?

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Fivethirtyeight.com is the best election projection site that I know of.  It’s run by Nate Silver who is a trained statistician and an Obama supporter.  Silver takes state-wide polls and national tracking polls to project which way the states will go in November using complex models which takes momentum, strength of polling company, demographics, and other factors into account.  Despite his political affiliation I think his models and approach are fair even if at times I think his analysis is a little off.

Above is a chart I created of swing states – all those states classified as either leaners or toss-ups by Fivethirtyeight.com.  The result is that we currently have eight swing states: Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, and North Dakota.

Combined they total 98 electoral votes.  McCain needs 77 of those electoral votes to win (assuming he and Obama both win their likely states and safe states which are listed below).

You can slice and dice these states in a number of ways to get to 77.  You can get there with as few as four states (Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia, the four most populous of our swings states).  But regardless of how you divide them up you must have Florida.

Florida seemed solidly red when this election season started.  But the latest Rasmussen poll of the state has it tied.  That poll may very well be an outlier based on past results but I still think it is cause for concern.

We know Palin helps white women, specifically those white women with children in the home.  And we know she seems to be helping with rust-belt voters.  Unfortunately neither of these are particularly plentiful in Florida.  So it’s not a surprise that Florida didn’t show a post-convention bounce for the GOP.

I think Florida is still McCain’s to lose but I think a Florida-specific strategy needs to be developed by McCain.  But that shall be a topic for another post.

Safe and likely states listed below the fold.

Read more

               

Think Globally, Act Locally: A Lesson from Palin

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The story of Gov. Palin is instructive for Christians dissatisfied with the temporal order.

Her rise to become governor of one of the 50 states in the union began with getting involved in local politics. A successful run for city council, was followed by two terms as mayor. And with that she became a player in Alaska state politics.

Local politics matters. If you are dissatisfied with your government or your party, get involved. Call your local GOP headquarters and volunteer to help out at phone banks or by dropping off literature at homes. The popularity of Palin means lots of people will want to help out with the presidential campaign but smaller races need help too. Find out who is running for county commissioner or your state legislature. The people seeking these offices are usually very accessible and they usually have a genuine interest in public service. Helping out their campaign may provide you with the chance to form a true friendship. It may also give you the chance to effect how they carry out the duties of their office. These are small things but we aren’t called to be great, only faithful.

I truly believe that what I am proposing here is a genuine opportunity for the laity to transform the temporal order and to practice apostolate. And who knows, you may discover you have real talent, just like a Sarah Palin did.

               

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