Elizabeth Castelli, a religious historian, has an article at The Revealer analyzing the recent War on Christians conference in Washington DC.
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Here's another account from the "War on Christians" conference. These people are scary and weird.
Perhaps the most explicit call to arms came from Ron Luce, the president and founder of Teen Mania, a Christian revivalist youth ministry, and the author of Battle Cry for a Generation, a multimedia…
Elizabeth Musselman, an historian of science at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, produces a wonderful series of podcasts called The Missing Link. You should all know about it.
(It's Bertrand Russell)
Of The Missing Link, she writes that it is:
A monthly program about science and its…
As I've said elsewhere, I think that the idea that creationists are master communicators is a myth; they are successful because they are tapping into a religious majority that is feeling antagonized and marginalized by secular culture. Even though most of the population of this country would…
The Denver Post reports on a talk by hyperconservative Justice Antonin Scalia at a religious conference:
The 75-year-old Scalia said that today one can believe in a creator and the teachings of Jesus without being the brunt of too much ridicule, but that to hold traditional Christian beliefs that…
I was listening to C-Span yesterday and Washington Journal had Rick Scarborough on talking about the role of relighion (specifically Christianity) in politics. While most of what he said wasn't that surprising (he thinks if you are a Christian it is your duty to be involved in politics and to push forward the "Christian agenda")he said one thing that really got my attention. Now this is as best a recreation as I can do from memory but... They got on the subject of illegal immigration and Scarborough made a direct connection from abortion to illegal immigration. he said somethin along these lines.
"I think that abortion is directly responsible for the lack of workers that would be doing the jobs that the illegals do now."
uh...scary
Ed: thanks for the pointer. I would never have seen the essay otherwise. Speaking to teachers tomorrow on the persistence of the Colonial period in modern American politics and culture and the essay will be useful in that regard. But that aside, informative and blessedly [no pun intended... well, maybe a little one] well-writen.
Here's an interesting addendum to Castelli's article which shows how easily the religious right forgets how things really were in early American history: Talk To Action
flatlander wrote:
That sounds interesting, can you give more details on what you'll speak about? In many ways, we are still refighting the battles that were fought during the formation of the nation. The same three sides of the separation question were represented then by accomodationists (Washington, Adams), separationists (Jefferson, Madison) and outright theocrats (Patrick Henry and others). The real difference is that the religious right position back then was that the Constitution was a godless document that would bring down the wrath of God upon us. Sometime in the mid-20th century, they suddenly reversed themselves and began arguing that the Constitution was a Christian document all along and "leftists" and "secularists" have distorted that history. It's not much question which side is really distorting history.
Here's one of my favorite bits:
But what of the biblical Jesus and his message of nonviolence and nonresistance? As Rick Scarborough explained it at the end of the panel on persecution, all of those demanding gospel values -- submission, tolerance, turning the other cheek -- are fine in one's private life, but they have nothing to do with the public mission of the church. As for those who draw attention to the gospel's message of nonviolence, this is simply a matter of "the Left using our own tradition against us."
So "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" only applies when you're alone? And "Cut up the concubine!" is how you're supposed to behave in public?