Summarizing Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives

Bill Berkowitz has done a masterful job of summarizing the work of the Bush administration's faith-based initiatives. Here's the paragraph that leads into more detailed discussion of six of the worst examples of the corruption and cronyism perpetrated by this administration:

Despite the administration’s ceaseless touting of its “compassionate conservativism” and its desire to unleash the “armies of compassion” to deal with the nation’s social ills, Bush’s faith-based initiative never made it out of Congress; no effective legislation was passed. Team Bush was able to establish Faith-Based and Community offices at eleven federal agencies, and the initiative spread its tentacles into a host of other federal, state, and local government agencies. Thirty-five governors and more than seventy mayors, both Democratic and Republican, have established programs modeled on the federal Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, though it was rife with scandal. In short, despite the lack of congressional approval, Bush’s faith-based initiative has burrowed its way into the political landscape.

Unfortunately, as Berkowitz reveals, Obama plans to continue the office. Without doubt, we will be summarizing his administration's abuses whenever he leaves office. Giving taxpayer money to churches is a bad idea. Only the names and political orientations of the abusers will change.

It will be interesting to observe whether the right-wing religionists so eager to receive government funding start singing a different tune when the dollars begin to flow to liberal churches rather than conservative churches.

Regarding the Abortion Issue

The New Republic has posted a valuable essay by Damon Linker, author of The Theocons, discussing why the religious right will not fade quietly into the sunset after this election. The single issue that prompts millions of evangelicals to vote lock-step with the right is abortion. Linker offers some advice to president-elect Obama. Here's some of it:

Obama could follow the lead of Bill Clinton in combining a stalwart defense of the right to choose with an acknowledgement that the decision to have an abortion is a choice that troubles the consciences of many millions of Americans--including many millions who steadfastly support abortion rights. Clinton's "safe, legal, and rare" served him well in this regard, but surely an orator as gifted as Obama could forge an even finer phrase or passage of prose to capture the often tragic moral complexities surrounding this most divisive of issues.

I agree with Linker that finding some middle ground on the abortion issue is what Obama needs to do to address the concerns and allay the fears of American evangelicals. I disagree, at this late stage in the struggle, that "an even finer phrase or passage of prose" will be enough to make a difference.

Most evangelicals in America are too lazy to reseach both sides of an issue. They rely on authority figures to do their thinking for them.

Obama has the weight of office, but his rhetoric on this issue holds no weight in their thinking. The people whose rhetoric holds weight with them on this issue are their pastors. Most of them have already made up their minds. Their positions are now so rigid that foetal life increasingly trumphs maternal life.

Should any evangelicals decide to examine the complexities of this issue, I have a couple podcasts to recommend. They are an interview (split into two parts) that I did with a member of a church I once pastored. Here and here are links to my 11/28/99 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Rose Pena.

Palin Wanted to Ban Baptist Minister's Book

Howard Bess, an American Baptist minister, wrote one of the books that Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin wanted to ban from the library in Wasilla, Alaska. Bess authored the book entitled "Pastor, I am Gay" about his experiences counselling homosexuals.

Here's a brief excerpt from an article about "The pastor who clashed with Palin" by David Talbot in Salon Magazine:

"She scares me," said Bess. "She's Jerry Falwell with a pretty face.

"At this point, people in this country don't grasp what this person is all about. The key to understanding Sarah Palin is understanding her radical theology."

Bess -- a fit-looking, 80-year-old man in a gray University of Illinois sweatshirt and blue jeans – spoke with me over coffee at the Vagabond Blues, a cafe in Palmer with a stunning view of the nearby snow-capped Chugach Mountains. The retired minister moved to the Mat-Su Valley with his wife, Darlene, in 1987, after his outspoken defense of gay rights at Baptist churches in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area and Anchorage landed him in trouble with church officials. In the Mat-Su Valley, Bess plunged into community activism, helping launch an assortment of projects, from an arts council to a shelter for the mentally disabled.

Inevitably, his work brought him into conflict with Palin and other highly politicized Christian fundamentalists in the valley. "Things got very intense around here in the '90s -- the culture war was very hot here," Bess said. "The evangelicals were trying to take over the valley. They took over the school board, the community hospital board, even the local electric utility. And Sarah Palin was in the direct center of all these culture battles, along with the churches she belonged to."

Lieberman Makes the Case for Why He Should Have Been the GOP VP Nominee

Watching the Republican National Convention this evening I felt Joe Lieberman gave the best speech of his life.

I didn't agree with half of what he said, but think Lieberman clearly won over many of the evangelical Christians who were opposed to his nomination.

Should McCain have to throw his current unvetted nominee under the bus, it will be much easier for him to put Lieberman in her place.

Evangelicals Conflicted About Palin

Desmoinesdem at Daily Kos has scoured the "mommy blogs" written by Christian conservatives and has found considerable uneasiness about casting a vote for Sarah Palin as Vice President.

The main concern is that it will send a mixed message that undermines their understanding of family values. They like her political positions, especially on abortion, but are concerned that the prominence of her position would undermine their witness concerning subordinate roles for women and their conviction that mothers should remain in the home and nurture their husbands and children.

Ironically, James Dobson, Richard Land and other vocal advocates for "family values" are also the most enthusiastic supporters of Sarah Palin.

Land's support for Palin is fairly strong evidence that the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention -- a takeover that was fueled by conservative opposition to both the equal rights amendment and the acceptance of women in the ministry -- was more about politics than theology. Among contemporary Southern Baptist fundamentalists, theology always takes a back seat to secular politics.

On the Dangers of Religious Radio

Ethics Daily is reporting that a Pew Forum Survey reveals that "Listeners of Religious Radio are Below Average in Knowledge of Current Events." Here's an eye-opening quote:

People who view "fake" news shows like "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are better informed than readers of "real" news programs like "O-Reilly Factor" and "Lou Dobbs Tonight." The highest knowledge of current events was found among readers of The New Yorker and The Atlantic (48 percent), NPR (44 percent), MSNBC's "Hardball" (43 percent), and "Hannity & Colmes" at 42 percent.

Unfortunately, a lot of religious people are too lazy to either think for themselves or stay abreast of current events. They trust their preacher or some radio or TV preacher to do their thinking for them.

That kind of trust is always misplaced -- no matter who they let do their thinking for them.

Pistol Packing Teachers?

I thought I would never hear news that would top reports that a Baptist preacher's wife packs a pistol to protect herself from homosexuals, who she believes are worse than terrorists, as she goes to work as an Oklahoma State Representative. I was wrong.

Today, the Dallas Morning News is reporting that the trustees of a school district in Texas have approved a policy that will permit teachers and staff at their schools to carry concealed firearms to protect themselves from their students.

Every time I start to think that people in Oklahoma are carrying their conservative values to an extreme, people in Texas do something to make them look like centrists.

PFAW's Take on Richard Land

Kyle at People for the American Way has posted an expose of some of Richard Land's most recent electioneering activity. Land is Director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Here's a quote:

Land goes on to rule out potential VP’s like Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge while praising Mike Hucakbee, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Eric Cantor, and reiterating his attack that Barack Obama is the “most radically pro-abortion candidate to ever be nominated by a major party” and predicting that Obama will have no success in his efforts to “peel off a sizeable chunk of white evangelicals” because they have no intention of “surrendering their pro-life values.”

But still Land insists that not only is he not endorsing any candidate, he’s not even supporting one, while still making his preference clear to anyone who can connect the dots:

Why do Southern Baptists put up with someone who shades the truth as the head of their ethics agency? Why would people supposedly concerned with ultimate truth put up with anything but absolute honesty from any of their leaders.

What kind of witness is this?

On Summum Foetii

Kudos to Ethics Daily for calling attention to the extremes to which some opponents of abortion will go to hold their position.

On several occassions I have held discussions with men who refused to concede that abortion is permissible to save the life of the mother. For them, the defense of foetal life seems to be equated with their summum bonum.

So far, I've not held such a discussion with a woman.

Is Obama Harbinger of the AntiChrist?

Hal Lindsay, the premillenial dispensationalist fortune-teller who made his fortune telling people the world would end around 1988, thinks Obama is a harbinger of the AntiChrist. Here's a link.

If old dispensationalists won't die, I wish they would at least fade away.

What Would Jesus Carry?

Sally Kern, the Oklahoma State Representative who thinks that homosexuals are worse than terrorists, is also a pistol packing preacher's wife. Yesterday this wife of a Southern Baptist minister was caught trying to enter the state capitol with a pistol in her purse.

Kern has a permit to carry a gun, but weapons are not permitted in the state capitol.

No one checked to see if her Bible has been revised to have Jesus say, "Take up your pistol and follow me."

Obama's Running for President, Not Prophet!

Somebody needs to tell Cal Thomas and Baptist Press that Barak Obama is running for President, not prophet.

In an essay posted by Baptist Press today, Cal Thomas examines statements about Obama's faith and finds them wanting. Here's a quote:

Obama can call himself anything he likes, but there is a clear requirement for one to qualify as a Christian and Obama doesn't meet that requirement. One cannot deny central tenets of the Christian faith, including the deity and uniqueness of Christ as the sole mediator between God and Man and be a Christian. Such people do have a label applied to them in Scripture. They are called "false prophets."

Someone also needs to remind Cal Thomas and the editors at Baptist Press to reread Matthew 7:1-5 and Matthew 7:15-27.

Criticize Obama's policies, challenge his credentials, critique him on political issues, but, to quote a fellow blogger, for God's sake 'Shut up' about his theology.

Constitutionally, there's no religious test for holding public office in this country. Obama's running for President, not pastor or prophet.

Desperately Seeking a Second Naivete Church

Christine Wicker's new book, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation, tells two stories very well. First, it explains how Americans have been duped into believing that evangelicals comprise a significant and growing percentage of the population. She demonstrates, using evangelicals' own statistics and reports, that committed evangelicals comprise only about 7% of the U.S. population and the percentage is declining, not growing. Here's a quote:

For the past thirty years, 7 percent of the population has swayed elections and positioned itself as the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong. By puffing its numbers and its authority, it has gotten legislation passed that opposes the popular will and has divided the country into acrimonious camps. It has monopolized the media so effectively that other religious voices have been all but silenced. It has been feared and loathed, revered and loved. It has been impossible to ignore. But underneath its image of power and pomp, the evangelical nation is falling apart. Every day the percentage of evangelicals in America decreases, a loss that began more than one hundred years ago.

The second storyline is about the desire that she and millions of other Americans have for a faith that does not require them to surrender their intellect.

Wicker describes her own childhood conversion experience as a Southern Baptist and the crisis of faith she experienced in college as she examined her faith and began to question what she had been taught. She has been exposed to critiques of religion by what Paul Ricoeur calls "the masters of suspicion" -- Darwin, Freud, Marx, Nietsche. It's a familiar story and one of the reasons why evangelicals lose most of their converts after they leave High School.

In our society, more and more are learning to view religion from some form of critical perspective. Wicker and many of the people she describes in her book are among them. The naive faith of their childhood is no longer adequate but their critical perspectives often lead them into a lonely wilderness of diffused, unconnected spirituality. That worries Wicker. In essence, she and millions beside her are searching for a church where people are moving beyond a first naivete faith, are willing to wade through the desert of critical thought, and are striving toward a second naivete faith where, as Ricoeur describes it, they are "called again."

Wicker's book is essential reading for all Baptists. She understands us, both fundamentalist and moderate, better than many of us understand ourselves. What she doesn't seem to realize is how eager and close some of us were to fostering the kind of churches she longs to find. Then, fundamentalists purged our denomination of everyone with the courage to think.

Falwell, Baptist Press Perpetuate Moral Majority Myth

Baptist Press is quoting Jonathan Falwell perpetuating a myth about the origins of the Moral Majority. Jonathan says,

When Dad started the Moral Majority back in the late '70s, he had a vision, he had a plan to bring our country to the point where abortion on demand would no longer be legal.

The truth is that the Moral Majority began with a conversation between Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich, a co-founder of the Moral Majority. Weyrich was encouraging Falwell to lead a movement of evangelicals into secular politics. Here's what Weyrich said according to Rice University Sociologist William Martin, author of With God and Our Side and the companion PBS documentary series by the same name:

Paul Weyrich emphatically asserted that, "what galvanized the Christian community was not abortion, school prayer, or the ERA. I am living witness to that because I was trying to get those people interested in those issues and I utterly failed. What changed their mind was Jimmy Carter's intervention against the Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called de facto segregation." Weyrich explained that while Christians were troubled about abortion, school prayer, and the ERA, they felt able to deal with those on a private basis. They could avoid having abortions, put their children in Christian schools, and run their families the way they wanted to, all without having to be concerned about public policy. But the IRS threat, "enraged the Christian community and they looked upon it as interference from government, and suddenly it dawned on them that they were not going to be able to be left alone to teach their children as they pleased. It was at that moment that conservatives made the linkage between their opposition to government interference and the interests of the evangelical movement, which now saw itself on the defensive and under attack by the government. That was what brought those people into the political process. It was not the other things." (With God on Our Side, p. 173)

Aging Patriarch Labels Obama Fruitcake Interpreter

The newswires and blogosphere are buzzing about James Dobson's quip that Barak Obama holds "fruitcake interpretations" of the Constitution.

James Dobson has a degree in child psychology. Unlike Obama, he has no education or training in constitutional law.

Dobson's opinions on issues outside his area of expertise are worthless.

Many of us think his opinions within his area of expertise aren't worth much either.

Southern Baptists Urge "Takeover" of Public Schools

Bob Allen at Ethics Daily has posted a story highlighting a tension within the hearts of Southern Baptists.

Some want all Southern Baptists to pull their children out of public schools.

Others want Southern Baptists to "takeover" the public schools.

Both strategies are evident in school districts all around the country.

Both strategies are evidence that Southern Baptists have lost confidence in the "foolishness of preaching" to share the gospel. Having turned their pulpits into political platforms, Southern Baptists look for political solutions where they are in power. Where they lack political power, they are withdrawing.

The world and all heaven is still waiting for Southern Baptists to learn that the gospel is "good news" about the love and grace that God revealed in Jesus Christ. They still think that it is "bad news" about ignorance of evolution and fear of homosexuals.

Oklahoma's Monument to American Theocracy

This is a four part series about the Ten Commandments Monument on the Haskell County Courthouse lawn in Stigler, Oklahoma.

Part One, gives an opinion on whether the monument is religious in nature and whether it endorses biblical religion.

Part Two, gives and opinion on whether the monument endorses a sectarian interpretation of the Bible and whether it endorses a Christian covenant.

Part Three, gives an opinion on whether the monument could be perceived to endorse a Christian theocracy.

Part Four, gives and opinion on whether the monument strongly endorses a Christian democratic theocracy.