Gay Friendly Contracts

Kudos to Bob Allen at Ethics Daily for his article about Mohler's defense of Southern Seminary's contract with a gay friendly firm. Mohler said,

We want to be faithful to our own convictions, but we recognize that we will inevitably be doing business with companies and individuals whose convictions on some of these issues may differ from our own.... This is not a surprising phenomenon.

Mohler also said he would see a problem if the seminary had to "violate its own conscience . . . change its convictions or be silent about its convictions, but that is not required here."

I commend Mohler for his logical and ethical response on this issue. I just wish he would extend the same logic to contracts between homosexuals. Gay "civil unions" pose no more threat to society than seminary contracts with gay friendly firms.

Another Republican Breaks Code of Silence

A week ago, U.S. Representative Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) broke the code of silence among Republicans about the Religious Right's takeover of the Republican Party. He admitted, "This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy."

Today, former U.N. Ambassador and Congressman John Danforth (R-Mo.) has issued the most outspoken admission of the takeover by a Republican to date. In an Op-Ed in the New York Times, Danforth said,

In America, everyone has the right to try to influence political issues, regardless of his religious motivations.

The problem is not with people or churches that are politically active. It is with a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement.

. . .

During the 18 years I served in the Senate, Republicans often disagreed with each other. But there was much that held us together. We believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive. We believed that judges should interpret the law, not legislate. We were internationalists who supported an engaged foreign policy, a strong national defense and free trade. These were principles shared by virtually all Republicans.

But in recent times, we Republicans have allowed this shared agenda to become secondary to the agenda of Christian conservatives.

It is good to see that Republican politicians are awakening to the theocratic agenda of the Religious Right. I hope they will be able to help rank-and-file moderate Republicans wake-up. I doubt that they will be any more successful than moderate Baptists were when many of the same people took over the Southern Baptist Convention.

Bibliolatrous Baptists form International Network

ABP is reporting that Southern Baptists and Conservative Baptists have formed a new International Baptist Network to compete with the Baptist World Alliance. This network will be held together by Fundamentalist doctrine.

For them, first and foremost is the belief that "the Bible is the inerrant, inspired Word of God without error, and is the only authority for Christians and churches."

The Mainstream Baptists website has posted several articles that expose the heresy of the doctrine of "inerrancy." Here are a couple links where readers can find the material:

Inerrancy Test
Baptist Faith & Message Revision

All that I would add to the present conversation is the observation that moderate, Mainstream Baptists have never affirmed a doctrine of "sola scriptura" as formulated by the International Baptist Network. Instead we have affirmed a doctrine of "suprema scriptura."

Anyone who knows the details about how and when the scriptures were written, collected and canonized cannot plausibly deny that tradition is also a source of authority for Christians and the churches.

Philosophy and Intelligent Design

Personally, I think the "Intelligent Design" argument was carefully crafted by a lawyer (Phillip Johnson) to bring creationism back before the courts and give the Religious Right another political wedge issue to rally hordes of "values voters."

Ono Ekeh, however, on his Ono's thoughts blog offers a very good discussion as to whether "Intelligent Design" deserves to be categorized as philosophy or science. It is well worth reading.

It's a shame that last year Ono lost his job with the U.S. Conference of Bishops for openly supporting John Kerry's presidency.

Before the Shooting Begins

Paul Krugman's essay "What's Going On?" in Today's New York Times ends with a dire warning:

What we need - and we aren't seeing - is a firm stand by moderates against religious extremism. . . .

The closest parallel I can think of to current American politics is Israel. There was a time, not that long ago, when moderate Israelis downplayed the rise of religious extremists. But no more: extremists have already killed one prime minister, and everyone realizes that Ariel Sharon is at risk.

America isn't yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren't sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here.

Krugman's warning reminds me of a similar warning that James Davidson Hunter gave in his book, Before the Shooting Begins. The casual use of military metaphors and talking about conscientious differences of judgment and opinion as "culture wars" can easily incite some minds to respond with literal violence.

Podcast: Keith Parks Interview, Part 2

Part 2 of 2 of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 9-22-02 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Dr. Keith Parks. Dr. Parks is a past President of the SBC's Foreign Mission Board and the retired Coordinator of CBF's Global Missions Program.

Near Miss on Constitutional Crisis

Editor and Publisher has published a story about a near miss on a constitutional crisis in Florida.

The story says State Police were sent to Terri Schiavo's hospice to take her to a hospital and re-insert her feeding tube. Local police stationed at the hospice refused to let them enter unless they brought a judge with them. A "showdown" was averted when State Police backed down.

In related news, late last week a man was arrested for offering $250,000 for the murder of Terri Schiavo's husband and $50,000 for the death of the judge that ordered her feeding tube removed.

Motivating these actions is a lot of right-wing rhetoric that equates the removal of feeding tubes with "murder." I predict that the rhetoric will continue long after Terri passes away.

I pray that it ends before other lives end in tragedy.

Podcast: Keith Parks Interview, Part 1

Part 1 of 2 of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 9-22-02 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Dr. Keith Parks. Dr. Parks is a past President of the SBC's Foreign Mission Board and the retired Coordinator of CBF's Global Missions Program.

OBU fires PR Director

Tim Sean's latest blog discusses one of the neglected costs of discipleship. An earlier blog is also helpful.

There was a time when Baptist churches grew uncomfortably large and deliberately called out members to leave and start new churches in their community. That was in the 1940's and 50's and 60's when ministers were more concerned about building God's kingdom than their own.

Today, many Baptist ministers just seem to be interested in building bigger barns. To human eyes, money spent on brick and mortar seems more durable than resources invested in transient and fragile flesh and blood.

OBU's former PR Director seems to have suffered from an attack of truth-telling. He asked whether it was healthy for the community-at-large for an established, influential church to abandon an inner city. He questioned the value of spending more than ten million dollars to build new facilities in an affluent neighborhood and wondered whether it would drain scarce resources that might best be used improving the spiritual atmosphere of an impoverished neighborhood.

Shawnee is not the first city to see it's churches abandon the impoverished neighborhoods where the needs are greatest. This is not the first truth-teller to lose his job for failing to hold his tongue. Many moderate Baptists will find the truth he tells as offensive as do Fundamentalist Baptists. We know how to follow the money as much as they do.

Still, we ought to be wondering whether this former PR Director is not right for pointing out the foolishness of our churches. What does it profit if we gain the whole world, and lose our own souls?

Good Friday with Sister Dianna Ortiz

Sister Dianna Ortiz, a victim of government sponsored torture in Guatemala, offers a Good Friday devotion about our having "No Blood on Our Hands."

As the Jewish scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel said, "Only a few are guilty, but we are all responsible."

(Thanks to Rabbi Arik Ascherman, "The Rabbi who Pricks Israel's Conscience," for calling my attention to the Heschel quote.)

The Plot over "Temple Mount"

Kudos to Bryan Peters at the Young Evangelical blog for posting a number of links about a recent plot by Jewish extremists to takeover the "Temple Mount" in Jerusalem.

I still haven't seen anything in the U.S. media about this recent plot.

If there is a human trigger that could actually lead to Armageddon, this is it.

Interfering with the Peace Process

Common Dreams has posted a story about Christian Zionists and Jewish extremists making preparations to stand in the way of peace in the middle east.

I must confess that I am disturbed by Christians who insist on giving more weight to some obscure and fanciful interpretations of end-times prophecies than to the clear and direct teachings of Jesus' sermon on the mount.

Israeli's are also troubled by U.S. extremists meddling in their affairs. Gershom Gorenberg, the associate editor of The Jerusalem Report and the author of "The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount," is quoted as saying,

"U.S. Jewish radical right groups have a very bad image here (in Israel) -- a combination of resentment of the radical right with a generalised dislike of people who don't live here, don't serve in the military, don't take the risks, then try to force Israel to take their positions."

A National Endowment for Religion?

Bill Berkowitz has written an interesting article about the Bush administration's program to fund religion. While the President is cutting the budget everywhere else, he is committed to expanding payoffs for his political base.

Nothing demonstrates America's moral bankruptcy more than the way some of our religious leaders are lining up for a chance to get some "easy money with loose accountability." It's surprising how many people will sell their birthright for a bowl of pottage.

Reclaiming our Heritage

Perhaps moderates and progressives can regain our voice if we will reclaim our heritage.

Today's post at the Young and Relentless blog might be a good place to start.

Moving Toward Theocratic Oligarchy

The filibuster in the Senate is one of the last checks and balances between the democratic form of government that we have known and the theocratic oligarchy that the Religious Right and Tom DeLay are working to create.

Apparently, Bill Frist is preparing to sweep away the filibuster. E. J. Dionne reveals what is really going on here,

Regime change disguised as a narrow rules fight. We could choose to institute a British-style parliamentary system in which majorities get almost everything they want. But advocates of such a radical departure should be honest enough to propose amending the Constitution first.

Frist and DeLay to Push Theocratic Agenda

Americans United is providing audio from a Family Research Council conference in which Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R. Tenn.) and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R. Texas) pledge to push the theocratic agenda of the Religious Right through congress.

"Religious Right leaders are determined to run all of our lives, from the moment of conception through the end of life," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. "And top congressional leaders are conspiring behind closed doors in Washington to help them do it. It's appalling.

Christians for Change

There's a new organization of moderate Christians who hope to help change the political climate of our nation. This group adds a studied, thoughtful, mainstream voice to the mix of evangelical Christians who are rising up to speak about the relation of religious values and politics.

Here are some links to their blog and to their website. I expect to be linking to them a lot in the future.

Pardon me, but your Theocracy is showing

Finally, a Republican is speaking about the theocratic takeover of the G.O.P.

Today's New York Times quotes U.S. Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, one of five House Republicans who voted against the Schiavo bill:

"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy," Mr. Shays said. "There are going to be repercussions from this vote. There are a number of people who feel that the government is getting involved in their personal lives in a way that scares them."

When are true Republicans going to rise up and clean the theocrats out of their house?

Regarding the Schiavo Case

There are a lot of things worse than death. Fifteen years in a comatose state with a body sustained by machines is one of them. I try to live with a clear conscience in relation to God, so death holds no fear for me.

On the other hand, I can understand the reluctance of some to pull the plug. A glance at Baptist Press will show that Southern Baptists have been on a frenzy supporting Tom DeLay and those who are working to prolong Terri Schiavo's death. Those whose conscience in relation to God is troubled may have deep reasons for enacting laws to assure that technology postpones face-to-face relations with God for as long as possible.

Considering the way Southern Baptists have mistreated their moderate educators and missionaries and their women called to ministry, they need as much time as they can get to repent, confess their sins, and make amends. Still, time is running out.

Myopic Moderates

Fred Clarkson's blog on Sunday, March 20, 2005 about "How to Beat the Christian Right, Part I" is loaded with valuable information and advice. It is advice that I take very seriously.

I wish some other Mainstream Baptists would stop giving lip service to the Baptist legacy for supporting church/state separation and start doing something to preserve the first amendment. Unfortunately, most think the Baptist Joint Committee can do everything that needs to be done from Washington, D.C. Like Moderate Baptists during the Fundamentalist takeover of the SBC, they won't recognize the need for grass roots organizing until it is too late.