On God and Guns at Church

Ken Pagano, pastor of New Bethel Church in Louisville, Kentucky, says "We're just trying to promote responsible gun ownership and gun safety." That's one of the stated reasons why he is encouraging church members to pack their pistols when they come to church to celebrate the 4th of July.

I've never carried my gun to church. Not even when I was a police officer and required to keep my gun with me at all times. I left it in my car when I went to church when I was a police officer.

In my mind, if there is one place to take the command to put up your sword (John 18:11) and turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-39) literally it is at church.

The Bible issues no command to promote gun ownership and gun safety. It has a lot to say about giving a faithful witness.

Deflation of Hourly Earnings Thru April 2009

The Economic Policy Institute recently published the above graph to demonstrate the degree to which the nominal hourly wage growth collapsed in the first quarter of 2009.

Roeder and the O'Reilly Defense

Rumors are spreading on the internet that defense attorneys for Scott Roeder, who is being charged with assassinating abortion doctor George Tiller, may defend him by saying he was brainwashed from watching Bill O'Reilly and listening to right wing talk radio hate speech.

I doubt that such a defense would be successful, but am inclined to agree that the people watching Fox News and listening to right wing talk radio are being brainwashed. It's not illegal to consent to this kind of brainwashing and it doesn't absolve the guilt of anyone who acts in an illegal fashion in response to the propaganda with which they fill their mind.

On the Profanity of Ten Commandments Monuments

I was interviewed this morning by Mick Cornett and Kent Meyers for a segment of their television program The Verdict that is scheduled to air for the first time on Oklahoma's Cox Cable Network on July 5th. The program was about the Ten Commandments monument that the state legislature recently authorized for installation at the Oklahoma state capitol.

The first question called for an opinion about such monuments. My response to that question took on a more personal and subjective character than usual when the other guest, who spoke before me, closed his remarks with an insinuation that no one who affirms the value of the ten commandments could oppose the erection of the monument.

Under the glare of the lights, in the eye of the camera, and in the heat of the moment, I cannot remember exactly what I said. Here's a close approximation that records what I think I said:

With every fiber of my being I am convicted that it (the monument) is profane. It takes a sacred oath and covenant and converts it into a symbol of profanity. To understand that, you have to understand what the Supreme Court has said about the Ten Commandments.

The Supreme Court ruled that the display of the Ten Commandments in Kentucky was unconstitutional because there it had a religious purpose and meaning. The court ruled that the display of the Ten Commandments in Texas was legal because there it had a secular meaning and purpose.

I believe that the Ten Commandments are a sacred oath and covenant between God and his people. The Supreme Court has no authority to interpret the scriptures and pass judgment on its meaning.

And worse, every one of these displays has the name of God chiseled on it saying "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Violating that command is precisely what the Supreme Court says makes monuments to the Ten Commandments legal. Taking the name of the Lord in vain means taking it lightly -- as though God's name and his person had no ultimate significance and religious meaning. That is why I am convicted that Ten Commandments monuments on public land are taking a sacred oath and covenant and turning it into a symbol of profanity.

6/3/09 Note: This program is scheduled to air on Cox Communications Channel 7 in Oklahoma City and on Cox Communications Channel 3 in Tulsa at the following times: at 9:00 AM on Sunday, July 5, at 9:30 AM on Monday, July 6, at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, July 7, and at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, July 8.

9/11 Did Not Invalidate the Constitution

Rchard A. Clarke, the national coordinator for security and counterterrorism under Clinton and George W. Bush, has published an Op-Ed in the Washington Post challenging the trauma excuse being advanced by former Vice President Dick Cheney as a rationale for why the Bush administration authorized the use of torture. Clarke repeatedly warned Bush and Cheney that an attack was imminent before 9/11, but was ignored by them. Clarke concludes:

"I'll freely admit that watching a coordinated, devastating attack on our country from an underground bunker at the White House can affect how you view your responsibilities," Cheney said in his recent speech. But this defense does not stand up. The Bush administration's response actually undermined the principles and values America has always stood for in the world, values that should have survived this traumatic event. The White House thought that 9/11 changed everything. It may have changed many things, but it did not change the Constitution, which the vice president, the national security adviser and all of us who were in the White House that tragic day had pledged to protect and preserve.

On the Purpose of Ten Commandments Monuments

Over the past few months I've had a lot of media people asking me for an opinion on the legality of erecting a Ten Commandments monument at the state capitol. I usually refer them to the newsletter I wrote about the Ten Commandments monument on the courthouse lawn in Haskell County.

Yesterday I received a query that differs from those I have received in the past. This inquirer asks, "Is the real purpose [of the monument] to promote the teachings of the Ten Commandments or to simply recognize what some would say is the partial underpinning of U.S. law?"

The question derives from assertions by proponents of the bill authorizing the erection of the monument that they merely desire to memorialize the historical foundation for the American system of law and justice.

I believe such assertions exemplify the kind of subterfuge in which some Christian Nationalists are willing to engage to secure a fig leaf of legality for displaying a monument endorsing a text from sacred scripture on public property. Proving that, however, is difficult as long as Christian Nationalists stick to their story and persist in lying about having no religious motivation for erecting the monuments.

If all else fails, there is a way to discover how serious our legislators are about memorializing the historical foundations for our system of law. We will know they are serious when they authorize monuments to the code of Hammurabi, to English Common Law, and to the Bill of Rights to stand side-by-side with the one for the Ten Commandments.

I'd just settle for a monument to the Bill of Rights where the first right of every American is defined as being governed by legislators who respect the prohibition against making laws respecting the establishment of religion:

"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise therof. . ."

On Naked Graduations

David Gushee has posted an Op-Ed about "Graduation and a 'naked public square'" that appears to lament the lack of overtly religious sermonizing to add solemnity to the ritual of high school graduations.

I would rather celebrate the lack of religious sermonizing and wish that it were more widespread. Graduations are not the equivalent a public forum where everyone is equally free to express an opinion. Graduates are not voluntary participants in these events.

Gushee suggests the possibility of religiously pluralist sermons at graduations, but such a suggestion is exceedingly naive. Who can imagine conservative Christian parents and grandparents in Georgia sitting still while being forced to listen to graduation homilies from Muslims, Mormons or Hindus?

Neuhaus's lament about the "naked public-square" has always been a euphemism for lamentations over the demise of a public square monopolized by Christians. He advocated relentlessly for the elevation of the majoritarian faith in public life, not, as Gushee would suggest, for a public square that gives equal voice to every faith.

Metaphors and the Church

Metaphoricity is central to language and understanding.

Interpreting scripture and understanding theology is impossible without paying close attention to the networks of meaning that are conveyed by biblical metaphors.

That is why Rob Hewell's critique of Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt's choice of a metaphor for the church is of more than passing significance.

In a recent interview, Hunt said "the church is king." Here's are excerpts from Hewell's critique:

Hunt was obviously seeking to clarify what he perceives to be an issue related to accountability, but it's curious that the convention president would use a non-biblical analogy for the church in order to make his point.

The apostle Paul compared the church to a body. While all parts are necessary, even the most seemingly insignificant, the parts are necessarily directed by the head. He concluded that Christ is the head of the church. While the mantle of authority does, indeed, rest appropriately on confident shoulders, the mantle is of little value minus the crown on the head of the sovereign. In yet another analogy, Paul wrote that the church is a bride, and that Christ himself is the bridegroom. No doubt the bride receives honor, yet that honor is bound up in her relationship to the groom. . . .

Christ, not the church, should be king in Baptist life. So referring to the church as king, even to make a point about the church-denomination relationship, aggravates the problem rather than mitigates it. Using a descriptor for the church that is reserved for the church's Supreme Ruler does not serve the church well.

Well said, Brother Hewell.

Podcast: Dr. J. Michael Pontious Interview

Podcast (6.8MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 5-24-09 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Dr. Mike Pontious, Professor in the Department of Family and Preventative Medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Program Director for OU/Enid Family Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association. We talk about proposals and possibilities for health care reform, the need for universal health-care coverage and the dilemmas that Christian physicians often face in trying to meet the needs of those with limited resources.

Bush and Bible Prophecy

Clive Hamilton in a post at Counterpunch asserts that French President Jacques Chirac has confirmed stories that Bush believed he was fulfilling end-times Bible prophecies when he launched the war in Iraq. Here's an excerpt:

Bush believed the time had now come for that battle [the Apocalyptic battle of Gog and Magog], telling Chirac:

"This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins".

The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elysée Palace, baffled by Bush's words, sought advice from Thomas Römer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Römer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university's review, Allez savoir. The article apparently went unnoticed, although it was referred to in a French newspaper.

The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush's invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and "wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs".

In the same year he spoke to Chirac, Bush had reportedly said to the Palestinian foreign minister that he was on "a mission from God" in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and was receiving commands from the Lord.

If this story is true, then it clearly demonstrates how dangerous it is for Americans to trust politicians who lack the wisdom and prudence to separate their contemporary foreign policy from their peculiar interpretations of biblical prophecy.

The Value of Information Gained from Torture

Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern has offered a most succinct explanation of the value of the kind of information that is to be gained from torture:

In his speech, Cheney mentioned 9/11 about 30 times — for reasons that by this stage are obvious to all. Referring specifically to waterboarding, Cheney said that waterboardee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, “the mastermind of 9/11 … also boasted about beheading Daniel Pearl.”

(Here, I thought, is a really good example of “disingenuous” — a nice concrete example for my grandson. For the only thing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed did NOT take responsibility for, after being waterboarded 183 times, was climate change.)

Put Down the Patriot Bible

Brian Kaylor has posted a story at Ethics Daily about some strong criticism of the "American Patriot's Bible" that is being promoted by a former President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Pastor's Conference and sold by the SBC's Life Way Resources.

The article already gives an indication of my revulsion toward this kind of idolatrous fusion of nationalism and religion, so I won't repeat it here. I'll just offer another observation.

I am repeatedly struck by the similarity between the religious sentiment of American Christian Nationalists and the Nazi Deutsche Christians. The mindset is the same. Only the nationalities have changed.

To tell the truth, the relentless rising crescendo of religious nationalism in this country scares me more than the threat of Islamic extremism. The only time I was ever face-to-face with a Muslim extremist, he wasn't armed. I'm face-to-face with armed-to-the-teeth Christian Nationalists, Dominionists, and Christian Identity adherents on a daily basis.

On his weblog today Wade Burleson is praising God that SBC fundamentalists are not using stones to assassinate the character of their fellow Baptists.

The way gun sales have increased since Obama's election, I'm beginning to think it would be better to see a shortage of stones.

Newsweek Defames Gulen

Newsweek has published an essay entitled "Behind Turkey's Witch Hunt" by Soner Cagaptay that appears to be a thinly disguised attempt to defame the character and intentions of Fetulah Gulen and his movement.

Comprehending the internal political machinations of factions and parties within foreign countries is always challening for an outsider, but I am reasonably certain that the following observations hold true:

1. The form of secularism that has prevailed in Turkey until recently has been hostile to religion and not neutral. Secularist cabals within the military have repeatedly overthrown and executed democratically elected leaders for being too religious.

2. All the evidence that I have seen -- in his writings, in his disciples, and in the institutions that he has created -- indicates that Fetulah Gulen is promoting a moderate and enlightened form of Sufi Islam that encourages interfaith dialogue and respects religious pluralism. There is no doubt that he is one of the most popular religious leaders in Turkey.

3. The real witch hunt began in 2000 when secularist state officials accused Gulen of plotting to overthrow the secular government and create a theocratic state. In 2008, after eight long years of litigation, Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals finally confirmed Gulen's acquittal by a lower court in Ankara.

4. Mr. Cagaptay's essay is as careful to perpetuate suspicions about Gulen's political influence as it is careless about taking note of any suspicious relationship between Turkan Saylan and the women working for the Society for Contemporary Life (CYDD) and the secularists.

The flaws in Cagaptay's essay are so egregious that Newsweek owes Fetulah Gulen an apology.

Beyond Tolerance

Linda Brinson at Ethics Daily has posted a helpful story entitled "More than Tolerance Needed to Achieve Interfaith Integration." Of all the people she interviewed, including myself, Roy Medley summarized the issue best:

A. Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, said that "live and let live" tolerance "does not rise to Jesus' standard of 'loving my neighbor as I love myself.' We do not choose our neighbors, but we are nonetheless called to live and work for their well being as the expression of love. As neighbors in a common society, that means at least ensuring the full rights and participation of the other in civil society.

Mohler Contemptuous of Islam

While the Pope makes a visit to the Middle East trying to defuse conflict between Christians and Muslims, Southern Seminary President Al Mohler fans the flames of conflict with a religiously arrogant and contemptous blog that denounces extending any respect to Islam.

After the arrogant and contemptuous way Mohler and other fundamentalist takeover leaders treated the Mainstream and moderate Baptists in their own denomination, I have exceedingly low expectations for civility from any of them. But, lives are at stake in the Middle East and around the world when people like Mohler persist in fomenting a clash of civilizations.

Mohler would not consider it respectful to him as a person if an Imam had said:

"We can respect Christian people for their contributions to human welfare, scholarship, and culture. We can respect the brilliance of Christian scholarship in the Roman era and the wonders of Christian art and architecture. But we cannot respect a belief system that denies that Mohammad was a prophet, insists that he was a demon-possessed pedophile, and encourages soldiers to evangelize millions in occupied lands." (Note: This is a hypothetical quotation, not an actual quotation)

Why would he think that any Muslim feels respected when he says:

We can respect Muslim people for their contributions to human welfare, scholarship, and culture. We can respect the brilliance of Muslim scholarship in the medieval era and the wonders of Islamic art and architecture. But we cannot respect a belief system that denies the truth of the gospel, insists that Jesus was not God's Son, and takes millions of souls captive. (Note: This is an actual quotation)

Frankly, in my experience, I find Muslims more respectful of Christianity than I find Evangelical Christians respectful of Islam.

When will Evangelicals learn that it is possible to respectfully disagree?

Podcast: Interview with Jim Wallis

Podcast (6 MB Mp3) of excerpts from Dr. Bruce Prescott's 6-4-2000 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Jim Wallis. We talk about his book Faith Works and about the need for a "living wage."

Painfully Slow Economic Recovery Predicted

Paul Krugman and Simon Johnson are both predicting a painfully slow economic recovery for the United States.

Krugman, a nobel prize winning economist, speaking at a meeting in Beijing, China said the "U.S. Risks "lost decade" due to half steps."

Johnson, formerly the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, has an essay published in Atlantic Magazine that decribed "The Quiet Coup" in which the finance industry has effectively captured our government. He explains why the U.S. has begun to resemble a banana republic:

In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets): South Korea (1997), Malaysia (1998), Russia and Argentina (time and again). In each of those cases, global investors, afraid that the country or its financial sector wouldn’t be able to pay off mountainous debt, suddenly stopped lending. And in each case, that fear became self-fulfilling, as banks that couldn’t roll over their debt did, in fact, become unable to pay. This is precisely what drove Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy on September 15, causing all sources of funding to the U.S. financial sector to dry up overnight. Just as in emerging-market crises, the weakness in the banking system has quickly rippled out into the rest of the economy, causing a severe economic contraction and hardship for millions of people.

But there’s a deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite business interests—financiers, in the case of the U.S.—played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them.

Top investment bankers and government officials like to lay the blame for the current crisis on the lowering of U.S. interest rates after the dotcom bust or, even better—in a “buck stops somewhere else” sort of way—on the flow of savings out of China. Some on the right like to complain about Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or even about longer-standing efforts to promote broader homeownership. And, of course, it is axiomatic to everyone that the regulators responsible for “safety and soundness” were fast asleep at the wheel.

But these various policies—lightweight regulation, cheap money, the unwritten Chinese-American economic alliance, the promotion of homeownership—had something in common. Even though some are traditionally associated with Democrats and some with Republicans, they all benefited the financial sector. Policy changes that might have forestalled the crisis but would have limited the financial sector’s profits—such as Brooksley Born’s now-famous attempts to regulate credit-default swaps at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in 1998—were ignored or swept aside.

How the Religious Right Unchurched America

ABC News has run a story about "Young Americans Losing their Religion" that reveals the long term effects of conservative religion's thirty-year war on separation of church and state:

Historically, the percentage of Americans who said they had no religious affiliation (pollsters refer to this group as the "nones") has been very small -- hovering between 5 percent and 10 percent. However, Putnam says the percentage of "nones" has now skyrocketed to between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans. . . .

"Many of them are people who would otherwise be in church," Putnam said. "They have the same attitidues and values as people who are in church, but they grew up in a period in which being religious meant being politically conservative, especially on social issues."

Putnam says that in the past two decades, many young people began to view organized religion as a source of "intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views," and therefore stopped going to church.

This movement away from organized religion, says Putnam, may have enormous consequences for American culture and politics for years to come.

"That is the future of America," he says. "Their views and their habits religiously are going to persist and have a huge effect on the future."

Better Late Than Never

In July of 2006 I wrote a blog about "Richard Land as Heir to Torquemada" that called Richard Land to task for defending the Bush administration's use of torture. Richard Land heads the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission with an office in Washington, D.C. As such he is charged with guiding 16 million Southern Baptists on ethical issues and raising a prophetic voice when moral issues are ignored in the public square.

While George W. Bush was in office, Richard Land relentlessly offered rationales for the war he launched in Iraq, publicly condoned the use of torture, and led cheers for nearly every aspect of the Bush administration's domestic and foreign agenda.

Now that Bush is out-of-office, Richard Land has found time to devote to the job that Southern Baptists have been paying him to do for nearly twenty years. The Religious News Service is now reporting that Richard Land has decided that waterboarding is torture. He also denounced President Obama for releasing documents that revealed that the Bush administration authorized the use of torture.

Better late than never on the issue of torture, Rchard. Now, could you please stop shooting at the messengers, whistleblowers and public servants who faithfully fulfill thier duties toward God, humanity, and the Constitution of the United States?

Podcast: Slayden Yarbrough Interview

Podcast (7MB Mp3) of excerpts from Dr. Bruce Prescott's 9-2-02 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Dr. Slayden Yarbrough, Retired Professor Emeritus of Religion from Oklahoma Baptist University. We talk about the restructuring of the Southern Baptist Convention and the elimination of the Southern Baptist Historical Commission, about the Baptist History and Heritage Society, about the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message and about Dr. Yarbrough's book Southern Baptists: A Historical, Ecclesiological, and Theological Heritage of a Confessional People.

Confronting Hate Speech

Robert Parham has posted an Op-Ed that deserves wide circulation. He's concerned that Baptists are doing too little to contain an outbreak of hate speech against immigrants:

While Baptists are rushing about trying to protect themselves from the swine flu virus, we are letting another virus go unchecked. We are witnessing a pandemic in conservative America of hate-speech against Mexicans. Unless we contain that virus, it will replicate itself a hundredfold in Baptist churches—if it hasn’t already done so.

Food Shortages and the Threat of Failed States

The Scientific American has published a prescient essay that asks "Could Food Shortages Bring Civilization Down?" This is more than a merely academic question:

As demand for food rises faster than supplies are growing, the resulting food-price inflation puts severe stress on the governments of countries already teetering on the edge of chaos. Unable to buy grain or grow their own, hungry people take to the streets. Indeed, even before the steep climb in grain prices in 2008, the number of failing states was expanding. Many of their problems stem from a failure to slow the growth of their populations. But if the food situation continues to deteriorate, entire nations will break down at an ever increasing rate. We have entered a new era in geopolitics. In the 20th century the main threat to international security was superpower conflict; today it is failing states. It is not the concentration of power but its absence that puts us at risk.

States fail when national governments can no longer provide personal security, food security and basic social services such as education and health care. They often lose control of part or all of their territory. When governments lose their monopoly on power, law and order begin to disintegrate. After a point, countries can become so dangerous that food relief workers are no longer safe and their programs are halted; in Somalia and Afghanistan, deteriorating conditions have already put such programs in jeopardy.

Failing states are of international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons and refugees, threatening political stability everywhere. Somalia, number one on the 2008 list of failing states, has become a base for piracy. Iraq, number five, is a hotbed for terrorist training. Afghanistan, number seven, is the world’s leading supplier of heroin. Following the massive genocide of 1994 in Rwanda, refugees from that troubled state, thousands of armed soldiers among them, helped to destabilize neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (number six).

Our global civilization depends on a functioning network of politically healthy nation-states to control the spread of infectious disease, to manage the international monetary system, to control international terrorism and to reach scores of other common goals. If the system for controlling infectious diseases—such as polio, SARS or avian flu—breaks down, humanity will be in trouble. Once states fail, no one assumes responsibility for their debt to outside lenders. If enough states disintegrate, their fall will threaten the stability of global civilization itself

Torture and the Disgrace of American Christianity

CNN has posted the single most damning sentence I have ever read about American Christianity:

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

In modern America, the unchurched clearly have more respect for basic human rights than white evangelical Protestants:

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

Southern Baptists are far and away the largest white evangelical Protestant denomination in America.

All those predictions by the Southern Baptist takeover leaders that they were ushering in another "Great Awakening" have been proven false. They ushered in a "Great Disgrace."

James' First Pic

Josh & Candi's First Pic as Parents

Kylene's First Grandmother Pic

First Grandfather Pic

My first picture as a grandfather. Candi smiles. James William Rex Clark yawns.

What's Happening to the Price of Oil?

The Oil Drum has posted and interview with Colin Campbell, founder and honorary chairman of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO). Here's the dialogue about the price swings in the price of oil:

NJ: There is a lot of debate about why oil prices were so high during this summer, why they've dropped so quickly since then. What is the explanation for this? Were high prices due to "speculation" as many have argued or was it supply and demand, or both, or something else?

CC: I think that Regular Conventional oil peaked in 2005 and prices began to rise, although the shortfall was partly made up by costly tarsands and deepwater production. The rising price trend attracted the interest of the traders who started buying futures and so forth. It might also have made sense for the industry to keep the tanks full, watching them appreciate in value.

But eventually the rising price had an adverse impact on the real economy and the shrewd traders started to unload, selling short on the futures market. The industry too might have started draining its tanks.

But perhaps more important was the flood of petrodollars that the high prices delivered to the governments and royal families of the Middle East, where it still costs $10-15 to produce oil. They probably sent the surplus to western banks who promptly loaned it out on ever less sure collateral. The petrodollars were not really money in the sense of representing work or barter, but simply profiteering from shortage.

The whole flimsy financial edifice has now crashed, and some of the sillier governments are now pumping yet more fictional money into the system to encourage new consumption. Such policies may briefly succeed, but will only make the subsequent crash worse.

The most alarming thing Campbell had to say concerns the future of our oil based economy:

But now we face the dawn of the Second Half of the Age of Oil when supply declines from natural depletion, meaning that debt goes bad (as is already happening) and the economy contracts. Today's oil supply support 6.7 billion people, but by 2050 the supply will be enough to support no more than about 2.5 billion in their present way of life. So the challenges of using less and finding other energy sources is great.

If Campbell is correct about the dire future for the petroleum economy, perhaps Petroleum Geologist Bill Cleary is right about the need for us to get serious about boosting nuclear energy. Here's what Cleary says about concerns over nuclear energy:

Unlike coal, oil and gas, nuclear power plants emit essentially no atmospheric contaminants. As for reserves, the United States has uranium reserves to meet our expanded needs for 100 years.

"Nuclear waste" is misnamed. The initial usage cycle depletes only two-thirds of the fuel. The partly used uranium fuel is safely contained on site, in water and eventually in concrete. It can be reprocessed to supply more energy. Our U.S. "power plant nuclear waste" for the next century could be contained in a 300-acre area.

Inhofe Threatens to Filibuster Judicial Nominee

Thanks to Michael Salem for calling my attention to a blog post at the "Overruled" weblog discussing Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe's threat to filibuster the nomination of Judge David Hamilton.

Inhofe objects to a ruling by Hamilton that required the Indiana State legislature to abide by the disestablishment clause of the First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion . . ."

Hamilton's ruling followed Supreme Court decisions authorizing "non-sectarian" prayers but prohibiting "sectarian" prayers at government functions.

In effect, Inhofe is insisting that judges ignore the authority of both the Constitution and the Supreme Court in regard to the disestablishment clause.

Born on a Bard's Birthday (With Picture)

Today is the day that has traditionally been recognized as the birthday of William Shakespeare. Today is the 445th year since his birth.

Step aside Shakespeare, James William Clark has arrived. All seven pounds, eleven ounces and 21 1/4 inches of him.

That makes me officially a grandfather.

Brian McLaren on Christian Nationalism

On Faith has posted an outstanding Op-Ed by Brian McLaren about Christian Nationalism. McLaren says "A 'Christian' Nation Wouldn't Act This Way." Here's a quote:

When people tell me that we are or have been a Christian nation, I want to ask, "When?" Was it in the colonial era or during westward expansion, when we began stealing the lands of the Native Americans, making and breaking treaties, killing wantonly, and justifying our actions by the Bible? Was it in the era of slavery or segregation, when again, we used the Bible to justify the unjustifiable? Was it in more recent history, when we dropped the first nuclear bomb and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, when we overthrew democratically elected governments in the Cold War era, when we plundered the environment without concern for the birds of the air or flowers of the field, or when we sanctioned or turned a blind eye to torture earlier this decade? Was it earlier this week, when I turned on the TV or radio and heard people scapegoating immigrants and gay people and Muslims?

Amen, brother McLaren. Preach on!

Parham Exposes Deception in Inhofe's List

On Ethics Daily today Robert Parham examines Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe's list of supposedly "prominent scientists" who oppose the scientific consensus about man made climate change.

He reveals that one name on the list, Chris Allen, is a Southern Baptist "creation scientist" who works as a TV weatherman and has no college degree.

Here's a quote from Parham:

Not only is the Oklahoma senator being deceptive; he is spreading misinformation in the public square. Again and again, the increasingly unhinged deniers of global warming point to Inhofe’s report to validate their theocratic worldview or selfish economic interests at the expense of the global good. It only takes a village of global warming deniers to slow down the needed initiatives to address climate change.

Podcast: Wade Burleson Interview

Podcast (7MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 4-19-09 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Rev. Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma and author of "Hardball Religion: Feeling the Fury of Fundamentalism."

We talk about Burleson's transition from being a trusted foot soldier in the post-1979 Southern Baptist Convention to being a dissident blogger against SBC fundamentalism. His blogging proved so controversial that he became the only Southern Baptist trustee to ever be "recommended for removal or officially censured." Despite that, Burleson and other dissident SBC bloggers were instrumental in electing Frank Page as President of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006 and 2007.

Moyers Interviews David Simon

Bill Moyers Journal tonight was an interview with David Simon, the producer of the HBO television series "The Wire."

It is satisfying to know that Moyers and others appreciate that series as much as I do. Here's how Moyers introduced Simon:

Remember, you heard it here — what Edward Gibbon was to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, or Charles Dickens to the smoky mean streets of Victorian London, David Simon is to America today.

Moyers is not exaggerating. Simon's work is brilliant and this interview is the best possible introduction to a five season series available on DVD.

Pete Singer and Al Mohler Together

Al Mohler begins his blog today with apology for finding himself in agreement with Pete Singer regarding his opposition to the UN resolution that would make defaming Islam a crime.

I have as much difficulty finding myself in agreement with Mohler as I do when I find myself in agreement with Singer, but in this instance I agree with both of them.

Defaming Islam is rude and insensitive and is a faux paux for which many Southern Baptists are guilty, but it certainly should not be criminalized.

At their best, both Christianity and Islam recognize that open inquiry permitting honest critique is central to the search for truth.

Obama's South Central High Speed Rail Plan

Obama has unveiled a proposed high speed rail plan. Ten corridors are planned around the country. Here are the cities that will be linked in the South Central region:

South Central Corridor: (Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Little Rock)

All Aboard?

New Baptist Covenant Regional Website Preview

I've been working on the website for the New Baptist Covenant Regional Meeting in Norman for the past few days.


Our website is not quite ready for prime time, but you can find links to pre-register, to make hotel reservations and to learn about the study course being offered to students.

The Red Cross Report About the CIA and Torture

Here's a link to the 2007 report from the International Red Cross about "The Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody."

We need to pray that our neighbors realize that any lip service America gives to the Golden Rule is not to be taken seriously.

Otherwise, they would have reason to believe that we expect to be treated as we have treated others.

Mitch Randall on the End of Christian America

Mitch Randall, pastor of NorthHaven Church in Norman and a member of the board for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, wrote an insightful blog in response to Jon Meacham's recent article on "The End of Christian America" in Newseek. Here's a quote:

First, the blame for the decline of self-identified Christians rests uncomfortably at the doors of the church. For decades now, the church has spent much of its focus on changing culture through the political process. In many cases, the church attempted to lay traditional Christian orthodoxy on the entirety of the American culture. Bogged down in political elections and denominational strife, the church lost its mission into the world. Somewhere along the way, the leaders of the church took us for a ride we were not meant to take. It is time to return to the way of Jesus and the first century church. It is time to love those around us (and yes, even our enemies) and recapture the missional fervor of the Apostle Paul.

Overcoming Fear of Islam

I saw my Muslim friend Imad Enchassi yesterday and learned that he and another good Muslim friend, Saad Mohammad, were featured in an award winning short film (1 minute) entitled "Let the Conversation Begin."

I think it deserves a wide viewing.

Moyers on Blame for the Meltdown

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship have a valuable essay on Common Dreams about the need to change the rules of the blame game for the current world economic crisis. Here's their conclusion:

In the preface to his 1939 memoir, Wall Street Under Oath, Ferdinand Pecora told the story of his investigation and described an attitude amongst the Rich Uncle Pennybags of the financial world that will sound familiar to Bill Black and those who seek out the guilty today.

"That its leaders are eminently fitted to guide our nation, and that they would make a much better job of it than any other body of men, Wall Street does not for a moment doubt," Pecora wrote. "Indeed, if you now hearken to the Oracles of The Street, you will hear now and then that the money-changers have been much maligned. You will be told that a whole group of high-minded men, innocent of social or economic wrongdoing, were expelled from the temple because of the excesses of a few. You will be assured that they had nothing to do with the misfortunes that overtook the country in 1929-1933; that they were simply scapegoats, sacrificed on the altar of unreasoning public opinion to satisfy the wrath of a howling mob..."

According to Politico.com, at his March 27 White House meeting with the nation's top bankers, President Obama heard similar arguments and interrupted, saying, "Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn't buying that... My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."

Stand aside, Mr. President, and let us prod with our pitchforks to get at the facts.

Campolo Diminishes Himself in Oklahoma

I went to Oklahoma City yesterday to hear Tony Campolo speak on "Volunteerism" in an event sponsored by the Oklahoma Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and its parent organization the Oklahoma Department of Human Services along with the United Way and the University of Oklahoma.

I used to be a big fan of Tony Campolo. Until yesterday, I thought his form of faith and mine were nearly identical. In times past, I've heard him speak as an advocate for separation of church and state. Yesterday, however, his actions did not match his previous rhetoric on that subject.

The sermon that was delivered yesterday was vintage Campolo. It was a great sermon. It was an explictly Christian sermon. It was engaging and entertaining. I personally agreed with everything he said.

I even laughed heartily when he said, "You know the difference between a Baptist and a terrorist? -- you can negotiate with a terrorist," while suspecting that some of the event's organizers would think that the Baptist he was referring to was an ardent church-state separationist like myself.

I readily admit that I am reticent to negotiate about the dissolution of the disestablishment clause of the First Amendment. Campolo's sermon was the first sermon I've ever heard from a moderate or progressive Baptist that was solicited, endorsed and introduced by an agent of the state acting in an official capacity and supported by funding from U.S. and/or State of Oklahoma tax dollars.

I remain as strenuously opposed to the state using its power to endorse and support the faith of moderate and progressive religion as I am to the state using its power to endorse and support fundamentalist religion. The state must maintain a benevolent neutrality in regard to religion.

Religion is always diminished when it permits itself to be coopted and utilized by the state.

Video Cast: "Verb Play" by Nathan Brown

Brief video (90 seconds -- wmv) of Poet Nathan Brown reciting his poem "Verb Play."

The recital was part of the "Poetry and Praise" event at NorthHaven Church in Norman, Oklahoma on March 29, 2009.

Harvard Whistleblower Fired for Questioning Derivatives Trading

Talking Points Memo has posted a story about Iris Mack, a former quantitative analyst at Harvard Management Company, who was fired by then Harvard University President Larry Summers for questioning whether the people trading derivatives for the University knew what they were doing.

Summers in currently the Director of President Obama's National Economic Council. Not exactly, a comforting bit of information.

Why Do Fundamentalists Oppose Climate Science?

Robert Parham, in an essay that focuses on fundamentalist opposition to climate science, asks, "Why are American Christian fundamentalists waging a war on science?" I'll give a hearty amen to Parham's conclusion:

Whatever the reason, American Christian conservatives are waging a war on the science of global warming. Their war marginalizes the Christian faith among educated, intelligent people. Moreover, it creates collateral damage in faith communities that hold both a deep respect for the Bible and a high view of science. Fundamental extremism smears the pro-science commitments of other Christians.

And worse than that, the conservative Christian war against the science of climate change is morally unfaithful to God’s call to care of the environment. The Bible is a profoundly green book that repeatedly prioritizes earth stewardship. And Christians may be running out of time to hear the will of God and to do it.

Climate Change Made Simple

Joseph F.C. DiMento and Pamela Doughman, editors of Climate Change: What it Means for Us, Our Children, and Our Grandchildren, have produced a book that makes the science of climate change easy to understand. The chart above is reproduced from the second essay in the book, "A Primer on Global Climate Change and Its Likely Impacts." Here's a quote from the fourth essay, "The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change: How Do We Know That We're Not Wrong:"

"As early as 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had concluded there was strong scientific evidence that human activities were affecting global climate. By 2007, the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report noted it is "extremely unlikely that the global climate changes of the past fifty years can be explained without invoking human activities" (Alley et al. 2007) Prominent scientists and major scientific organizations have all ratified the IPCC conclusion. Today, all but a handful of climate scientists are convinced that earth's climate is heating up and that human activities are a significant cause."

Another Gem from Oklahoma's Ignoramus in the U.S. Senate

Jim Inhofe, a real estate developer with a B.A. degree, pontificates about the lack of evidence for global warming on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Watch him grin like an idiot as he demands that those concerned about climate change need to explain the recent late spring snowstorm to people in Oklahoma.

No one needs to explain it to me. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand how ice melting in the Arctic and rising sea levels could have an effect on the climate in Oklahoma.

Inhofe's ignorance is deliberate. The world's premier school of meteorology and the National Weather Center are in his district. There are plenty of experts around who could explain the evidence for global warming to him. Inhofe doesn't care to listen to experts who disagree with him.

He also has enough power to influence the careers of those who either agree or disagree with him.

Podcast: Bill Leonard Interview

Podcast (6.94MB Mp3) or Dr. Bruce Prescott's 3-29-09 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Dr. Bill Leonard, Dean of the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University. We talk about Wake Forest's Divinity School, about the New Baptist Covenant Southeast Region Meeting that will be held on April 24-25, and about trends and developments within American Christianity.

Non-Profit Sector in Decline

Robert Parham at Ethics Daily has posted a story about "America's Nonprofits Running Out of Cash." Parham says a seismic shift is taking place in America's non-profits:

Key findings from a survey of over 950 nonprofit leaders show that 31 percent of nonprofits lack enough operating cash to cover expenses for more than one month. Another 31 percent can't cover even three months. A whopping 93 percent of "lifeline" organizations -- nonprofit agencies that provide food and other basic services to the vulnerable -- anticipate increasing demand this year with decreasing funding. These startling numbers spell a seismic shift in the nonprofit world.

In the 1990's, when the safety net we created to meet these emergencies was dismantled, John Ashcroft (the architect) and Bill Clinton (the promoter) called the system that replaced it "charitable choice."

Now it looks like those choices are going to be severely limited.

Shadow Economy Measured at $684 Trillion

David Corn, Chief of the Washington Bureau for Mother Jones Magazine, says he is "officially scared."

If the $684 trillion figure for over-the-counter derivatives recorded by the Bank for International Settlements is accurate, we all have reason to be scared.

Now I know why Nobel Prize Economist Paul Krugman says he is in despair over the Obama administration's bank rescue plan and the European Union President says the bailout plan is "the road to hell."

More than anyone else, we can thank former Texas Senator Phil Gramm for assuring that these derivatives were unregulated.

Obama and Politics on the Web

The Tulsa World has published a story about how "Obama turns to Web to bypass news media." This is a development that is sure to infuriate the Rupert Murdochs of the world who have been manipulating and monopolizing the way that issues are framed for public consumption. Here's a quote from the Tulsa World:

In a way, it's part campaign-style politics and part "American Idol," said political strategist Simon Rosenberg.

"Barack Obama is going to reinvent the presidency the way he reinvented electoral politics," said Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network and a veteran of presidential campaigns. "He is allowing everyday people to participate in a way that would've been impossible in the old media world."

Obama's campaign allowed supporters to organize themselves to go door-to-door and raise money. Because of that, many felt an ownership of the campaign and devoted countless hours to giving Obama the Democratic Party's nomination and then the presidency.

Obama's aides are taking that step forward, incorporating tools that let visitors to the White House Web site pick the questions Obama will answer, turning the president's Thursday event into a democratic press conference.

"Average people get to shape the outcome, like 'American Idol,'" Rosenberg said. "This is not a couch-potato age. Average people are expecting to be part of the process."

Here's a link to the White House website. Log on and ask a question or vote on a question for the President to answer. The internet press conference begins in 10 minutes.

OK State Legislator Investigating OU's Invitation to Richard Dawkins

Greg Lukianoff, in an entry at the Huffington Post, reveals that Oklahoma State Representative Rebecca Hamilton has demanded that University of Oklahoma President David Boren provide her with an exhaustive list of information about the invitation to speak at the University that was extended to Dr. Richard Dawkins.

This is the same State Representative who has laundered more than $100,000 dollars of state money to support select politically active churches in her district.

It should be no surprise to learn that someone actively engaged in subverting both the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma would also be opposed to free speech and academic freedom.

Someone with some legal authority needs to demand an equally exhaustive list of information from Representative Hamilton about the state money that she has been diverting from legitimate public purposes to fill the coffers of churches.

Podcast: Kathryn Joyce Interview

Podcast (7 MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 3-22-09 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Kathryn Joyce, author of "Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement." This movement, with strong ties to the homeschool movement and to Christian Reconstructionism, takes a spectrum of extreme positions on patriarchal authority within the family and the subjugation of women in society. We talk about their opposition to contraception and touch on the influence this thought wields within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Baptists and Muslims in Jordan and Beyond

Ethics Daily has a report about Baptists and Muslims meeting in Jordan to discuss the opening and dedication of a Baptism Center in Bethany beyond the Jordan. They have also posted a story about a Baptist Church in Columbia, Tennessee that spoke out and took up a love offering to help a small Muslim community when their Mosque was firebombed.

There is much labor to build bridges and find common ground between Baptists and Muslims -- if you know where to look. Thanks to Ethics Daily for keeping us current on efforts like this.

On Being a Brother to a Heretic Dog

Miguel De La Torre has written a response to his critics (of which I am one) of his column about Jesus and the Canaanite woman. De La Torre uses the word heretic both in its etymological sense (in Greek hairesis means "to choose") and in the modern sense (to go against tradition) in an essay entitled "Why I am a heretic." In his response, he clearly demonstrates that he has a keen imagination, a sense of humor, and a willingness to receive constructive criticism with humility.

Miguel chose to interpret the passage about Jesus and the Canaanite woman literally. Literalism is the predominant hermeneutical tradition for most Southern Baptists. They apply it to nearly every passage of scripture except their understanding of the meaning of Christ's body in the Lord's Supper. Paradoxically, De La Torre received much of his harshest criticism from those who are most adamant about the requirement that scriptures be interpreted literally.

One the other hand, moderate Baptists like myself (not all moderate Baptists are like me), while not inclined to discard the literal meaning of scripture, do expect to find deeper meanings and higher levels of significance than surface readings achieve. Miguel got his share of criticism from us, but I hope he felt that we intended for it to be constructive.

De La Torre concludes with some sound advice and a question. He writes:

The good news is that Jesus is not afraid of our honest inquiry. He is also patient when we get it wrong (and we all do). The real question here today is if you are willing to be the sister or brother in Christ of a heretic dog like me?

Let there be no doubt that I consider Miguel my brother in Christ and I'm happy to find a place for him in the doghouse for Southern Baptist heretics. There are a lot of us in here already, but the Lord seems to add a room everytime another dog arrives.

Lawrence Wilkerson Critiques Dick Cheney

Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, has posted a sharp critique of former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent interview with John King. Wilkerson, a retired Army Colonel, doesn't pull any punches:

Recently, in an attempt to mask some of these failings and to exacerbate and make even more difficult the challenge to the new Obama administration, former Vice President Cheney gave an interview from his home in McLean, Virginia. The interview was almost mystifying in its twisted logic and terrifying in its fear-mongering.

As to twisted logic: "Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo (sic) during the Bush administration...have gone back into the business of being terrorists." So, the fact that the Bush administration was so incompetent that it released 61 terrorists, is a valid criticism of the Obama administration? Or was this supposed to be an indication of what percentage of the still-detained men would likely turn to terrorism if released in future? Or was this a revelation that men kept in detention such as those at GITMO -- even innocent men -- would become terrorists if released because of the harsh treatment meted out to them at GITMO? Seven years in jail as an innocent man might do that for me. Hard to tell.

As for the fear-mongering: "When we get people who are more interested in reading the rights to an Al Qaeda (sic) terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry," Cheney said. Who in the Obama administration has insisted on reading any al-Qa'ida terrorist his rights? More to the point, who in that administration is not interested in protecting the United States -- a clear implication of Cheney's remarks.

But far worse is the unmistakable stoking of the 20 million listeners of Rush Limbaugh, half of whom we could label, judiciously, as half-baked nuts. Such remarks as those of the former vice president's are like waving a red flag in front of an incensed bull. And Cheney of course knows that.

Cheney went on to say in his McLean interview that "Protecting the country's security is a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business. These are evil people and we are not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek." I have to agree but the other way around. Cheney and his like are the evil people and we certainly are not going to prevail in the struggle with radical religion if we listen to people such as he.

The way I read this, Wilkerson is saying that we have more to fear from people like Cheney than we do from radical Muslims. I agree. It is encouraging to find someone who was inside W's administration saying so publicly.

What is Obama Stimulating?

The Center for American Progress has posted an "Infographic" that shows where the money from Obama's economic stimulus plan is going and when the money will be distributed.

Frankly, I would have rather seen less money going to tax cuts and more money going to green investments and help for those in need.

Who is Bearing the Burden of Taxes in Oklahoma?

The Oklahoma Policy Institute recently updated their report about "Oklahoma's Fiscal Outlook."

They provide a valuable chart on page 52 that reveals the percentage of total income that families of differing income levels are paying for state and local taxes in Oklahoma. It show that families in the lowest income bracket (representing 20% of the state's population) pay 12% of their income in state and local taxes while families in the highest income bracket (representing 1% of the state's population) only pay 8% of their income in state and local taxes.

Sooner or later, the poorest among us are going to realize that almost all of the tax cuts that have been enacted have gone to the wealthiest among us.

Karen Armstrong on Sympathetic Imagination

On Bill Moyer's Journal last week Karen Armstrong gave one of the best explanations of a historian's use of sympathetic imagination that I've ever heard. Here's what she said:

KAREN ARMSTRONG: I learned a vicious form of rhetoric from my religious superiors. and also, from my teachers at Oxford. You know? And people used to say to me, "I would really hate to be your enemy," because I have this very sharp tongue that I knew how to use it. And I get in first before someone put me down. That kind of thing.

I found that, in my studies I had to practice, what I found called in a footnote the "science of compassion." There was a phrase coined by great Islamist, Louis Massignon. Science, not in the sense of physics or chemistry but in the sense of knowledge, scientia, the Latin word for knowledge.

And Latin--the knowledge acquired by compassion. Feeling with the other. Putting yourself in the position of the other. And this footnote said that a religious historian, like myself, must not approach the spiritualities of the past from the vantage point of post enlightenment rationalism. You mustn't look on this in a superior way and look at the author of "The Cloud of Unknowing," a 14th century text as, poor soul. You know?

And you had to recreate in a scholarly fashion, all the circumstances which had resulted in this spirituality or this teaching and not leave it, or certainly not write about it, until you can imagine yourself putting yourself in that position. Imagine yourself feeling the same. So when I wrote about Muhammad, for example, I had to put myself in the position of a man living in the hell of seventh century Arabia, who sincerely believed he had been touched by God.

And unless I did that, I would miss Muhammad. I had to put clever Karen, edgy Oxford educated Karen on the back burner. And go out of myself and enter into the mind of the other. And I found, much to my astonishment, it started changing me. I couldn't any longer be quite as vicious as I was or dismissive as I was in the kind of clever conversations-

BILL MOYERS: Why? This is the first time I've heard of a born again experience beginning with a footnote. Was it your imagination that said, "I have to see this world the way Muhammad saw it and experienced it?"

KAREN ARMSTRONG: I said that this footnote is right. If I go on writing, as I had been doing up to this point for saying, "This is all rubbish." You know, I know it all. These poor benighted souls in the past didn't know what they were talking about. I was not fulfilling my job as a historian.

It was my job to go in and recreate it, enter into that spirit. Leave myself behind and enter into the mind and society and outlook of the other. It's a form of what the Greeks called ekstasis. Ecstasy. That doesn't mean you go into a trance or have a vision. It means-- ekstasis means standing outside yourself. Putting yourself behind. And it is self, it's ego that hold us back from what we call God.

Why Stock Markets are Worse than Casinos

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, explains how hedge fund operators (like himself) manipulate the stock market. For him it's a game. For the rest of us, it was supposed to be a retirement income.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where wall street tycoons manipulate the markets. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destoys, and tycoons have no markets to manipulate; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 6:19-21 -- 21st Century Paraphrase.

Full Quiver Theology Examined

Buzz Flash has posted an interview with Kathryn Joyce, author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Here's a quote:

I think also there's a milder version of this [Christian patriarchy] that often raises a few eyebrows but doesn't seem as too dangerous within the broader Christian community. They sometimes call themselves complementarians, and they speak about submission and headship, but, really, it is more in their speech than in actual practice. I think there's really a continuum. It's not that they're not taking those ideas seriously, but they use gentler language among people who are promoting it, in a more mainstream sense -- more mainstream being like the Southern Baptist Convention, which is very mainstream in numbers, but they speak explicitly about the need for wives to submit to husbands.

And this is getting some very prominent play. Mike Huckabee signed on to their 1998 doctrinal statement that women need to submit to their husbands, so this is something that's very much a part of mainstream faith. But it's tied much more closely than people acknowledge with these much more extreme elements.

On the Hazards of 401(k)s

The warning sign speaks for itself.

Here's a link to the related article at the Economic Policy Institute.

Podcast: Joe Trull Interview

Podcast (28 MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 3-8-09 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Joe Trull, Editor of Christian Ethics Today. We talk about the work of the Christian Ethics Today Foundation, about the work of the T.B. Maston Foundation, and about the influence of T.B. Maston.

On Dawkins in Oklahoma

Bob Stephenson and I went to hear Richard Dawkins last night. The crowd was larger than we expected which made it hard to find a seat with a view of the screen for his powerpoint presentation.

Dawkins clearly enjoyed the notoriety connected with the resolution against him at the Oklahoma State legislature. He used it as an opportunity to make a sizeable donation to Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education (OESE) and to encourage others to do the same. I support that organization and am a member of its board of governors.

Frankly, I was not very impressed with Dawkins. His explanation of evolution was succinct and acurate, but I've heard better presentations from members of the faculty at OU.

Whenever discussion digressed from science to religion, Dawkins was generally caustic and superficial. His response to religion is merely the flip side of the reaction of fundamentalists to evolution. Neither have any place for ground in the middle.

Most disconcerting to me was the image he displayed of a mushroom cloud along with an alarm about Muslims in possession of nuclear or biological weapons. In this respect, his fear of Islam is as indiscriminate as that of most Christian fundamentalists and Jewish neocons. Such stereotyping and fearmongering does nothing to promote understanding and reduce hostility among people of goodwill who hold different convictions.

Are We Bankrupt?

Forbes Magazine has published an essay by Nouriel Roubini that concludes that "The U.S. financial system is effectively insolvent."

Roubini, professor of economics as the Stern Business School at NYU and labeled "Dr. Doom" in 2006 for his prescient predictions of the current global meltdown, also says the debate over nationalizing banks is "surreal." Here's a quote:

In the meantime, the massacre in financial markets and among financial firms is continuing. The debate on "bank nationalization" is borderline surreal, with the U.S. government having already committed -- between guarantees, investment, recapitalization and liquidity provision -- about $9 trillion of government financial resources to the financial system (and having already spent $2 trillion of this staggering $9 trillion figure).

Thus, the U.S. financial system is de facto nationalized, as the Federal Reserve has become the lender of first and only resort rather than the lender of last resort, and the U.S. Treasury is the spender and guarantor of first and only resort. The only issue is whether banks and financial institutions should also be nationalized de jure.

On the Hoax in the Arctic

Richard Land, Director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, thinks global warming is a "hoax" and a "scam" because sunspots are fading and the sun is going into a quiescent period. Instead of global warming, Land expects global cooling in the future.

Meanwhile, the Arctic ice keeps melting down and and sea water keeps absorbing more heat from Land's "quiescent" sun. Today, scientists in Quebec are predicting that the Arctic sea ice will be completely melted in the summer of 2013.

It doesn't look like it will take much longer to learn who it is that is perpetrating a hoax in their predictions of climate change.

Religious Right Weak on Social Justice

Ethics Daily has posted an outstanding essay by Jim Evans about the inconsistency of the religious right when addressing social issues.

This one should be read in its entirety. Here's a link:

Baptists Bet Casinos, not Taxes, are Moral Issue

On Humorless Hermeneutics

I'm generally a fan of Miguel De La Torre, but his recent essay asking "Was Jesus a Racist?" appears to me to be an example of a hermeneutic that lacks imagination and a sense of humor.

Miguel's interpretation of Jesus' conversation with a Canaanite woman seeking healing for her daughter in Matthew 15:21-28 assumes that Jesus was gravely serious when talking to her. Jesus said "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It is not good to take the bread of the children and throw it to the dogs." Miguel views Jesus as both condoning and reflecting a Jewish prejudice that equated Canaanites with dogs.

Elton Trueblood in his book The Humor of Christ offers a significantly different interpretation of this encounter. Trueblood notes that humor rarely translates well cross-culturally and that the biblical writers fail to make note of vocal tone and facial expressions when recording conversations. That means that words that may well have been spoken with a smile on the face and a wink in the eye will appear harsh and cruel when written down. By its nature, the language of humor is ironic and not meant to be taken literally.

Trueblood makes much of the way the Canaanite woman reacted to Jesus. She did not take offense at what he said. Instead, her witty response, "Even the dogs feed on the crumbs from the Master's table" demonstrated both an ability to transcend racial stereotypes and a sense of humor. That Jesus was clearly delighted with her retort reveals that he also transcended racial stereotypes and had a sense of humor.

The Second Baddest Bear

Doug Short at the dshort.com website updated his "Four Bad Bears" chart indicating the relative severity of bear markets since 1929.

It's not a pretty picture, but it makes it clear that we are in the second baddest bear market in U.S. history.

Podcast: Interview with Micheal Salem

Podcast (6.8 MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 3-1-09 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Micheal Salem, Oklahoma's leading constitutional lawyer. We discuss the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in the Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum case. That decision declared that all monuments on government property represent government speech.

We also discuss the relevance of this decision to the pending case before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the Ten Commandments monument on the courthouse lawn in Haskell County Oklahoma. We touch briefly on legislation before the legislature to erect a Ten Commandments monument at the Oklahoma state capitol.