Religion damages society?

Some nights, my mind reels after wending my way around the internet. Take, for instance, this story from The Times, "Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side':" (Hat tip Lucianne.com)

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.

The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society. [...]

[The author] said that most Western nations would become more religious only if the theory of evolution could be overturned and the existence of God scientifically proven. Likewise, the theory of evolution would not enjoy majority support in the US unless there was a marked decline in religious belief, Mr Paul said.

“The non-religious, proevolution democracies contradict the dictum that a society cannot enjoy good conditions unless most citizens ardently believe in a moral creator.

“The widely held fear that a Godless citizenry must experience societal disaster is therefore refuted."

My first reaction was that the researcher, Gregory Paul, had confounded causation with correlation. The reporter certainly seems to have fallen for that fallacy! So I went looking for the journal article itself.

If you're so inclined, the full article is "Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies: A First Look", published by the Journal of Religion and Society, Volume 7 (2005). The abstract posits:

Cross-national comparisons of highly differing rates of religiosity and societal conditions form a mass epidemiological experiment that can be used to test whether high rates of belief in and worship of a creator are necessary for high levels of social health. Data correlations show that in almost all regards the highly secular democracies consistently enjoy low rates of societal dysfunction, while pro-religious and anti-evolution America performs poorly.

In the article proper, Mr. Paul states that "it is not the purpose of this initial study to definitively demonstrate a causal link between religion and social conditions." (paragraph 12). Phew!

I can't help thinking, though, that he's asking the wrong questions about the wrong populations. Data in the aggregate about the different nations is one thing, but I don't see that he has looked for data on the behaviors of religious and non-religious sub-populations within those countries. For example, he makes the following observation (para. 16):

Increasing adolescent abortion rates show positive correlation with increasing belief and worship of a creator, and negative correlation with increasing non-theism and acceptance of evolution; again rates are uniquely high in the U.S. (Figure 8). Claims that secular cultures aggravate abortion rates (John Paul II) are therefore contradicted by the quantitative data.

What are the adolescent abortion rates among active church-goers? Among Catholics? Among Protestants, Jews, Muslims, or Wiccans? What about correlations by ethnic population, socio-economic classes, or political persuasion? How do all those compare to the aggregate abortion statistics? Has he controlled for the cultural and racial cohesion of countries like Japan and Switzerland versus the ethnic stew of the United States?

The article concludes:

There is evidence that within the U.S. strong disparities in religious belief versus acceptance of evolution are correlated with similarly varying rates of societal dysfunction, the strongly theistic, anti-evolution south and mid-west having markedly worse homicide, mortality, STD, youth pregnancy, marital and related problems than the northeast where societal conditions, secularization, and acceptance of evolution approach European norms (Aral and Holmes; Beeghley, Doyle, 2002). It is the responsibility of the research community to address controversial issues and provide the information that the citizens of democracies need to chart their future courses.

He does ask some interesting questions, wondering why when the US is so rich it still has "deep social problems". I just don't think he's going to find useful answers using religion and evolution frames of reference.

OTOH, for a strong anecdotal case that religion can adversely affect culture, check out item #10 from the Carnival of the Insanities, posted over at Dr. Sanity:

10. World's highest child mortality rates; 70% of women illiterate...but why bother to change priorities? This is more important. Or this.

I wonder how Mr. Paul's survey results would change if these countries were included? Especially when you have Top ten reasons why sharia is bad for all societies.

[Update] I posted more on this topic in "Religion Damages Society? Take 2".

Stuck on Stupid

Glenn Reynolds thinks the words uttered by General Honore today in a news conference may become the blogosphere's new catch phrase. He discussed it briefly on Hugh Hewitt's show this evening, although he had another reason for being there: discussing Porkbusters.

I think the blogosphere should have a periodic "Stuck on Stupid" Carnival, joining others such as Carnival of the Insanities, New Jersey bloggers, Cotillion, and the Christian Carnival. Blog Carnival has an extensive list for the insominacs among us.

My nomination this week for someone "Stuck on Stupid" would be the Right Reverend Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, and his colleagues. According to a story in the News Telegraph, "Bishops suggest apologising to Muslim leaders for Iraq war:"

The Church of England should arrange a meeting with Muslim leaders to say sorry for the Iraq war, a group of senior bishops suggests today.

In the absence of a Government apology, a "truth and reconciliation commission" involving religious leaders could be formed to apologise for the West's "errors", the bishops say in a new report.

The report, "Countering Terrorism: Power, Violence and Democracy Post 9/11", was written by a working group of the Church of England's House of Bishops, chaired by the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Richard Harries.

The Times (London) also has the story.

The Telegraph's editorial concluded (Hat tip to Lucianne.com):

One more thing. The bishops hope to appeal to "the various religious constituencies of the Iraqi community". As things are going in Iraq, its ancient Christian community will soon be heading, like that of the Holy Land, towards extinction. The bishops should be thinking of them, helping them - even praying for them.

Indeed.

The bishops provide a prime example of the mindset of the liberal intelligensia for whom I wrote the "Litany for Liberal Christians" (at bottom of "Why I didn't go to Church today"). Salient quote:

We have apologized to our enemies for our very existence while rebuking our leaders for fighting that evil.

I can understand preferring reconciliation and peace-making to the bloody reality of the battle field, but the bishops' apology accomplishes little except providing propaganda for the jihadists and publicity for themselves. Some saints do work directly for reconciliation, and I applaud their efforts. My pastor recommends the writings of Elias Chacour (Shah-koor), saying: "As a Christian Palestinian he is quite convincing in word and deed that even bitter enemies can be reconciled – his life and works in Israel are to that end. I was affected by his book, Blood Brothers because it does demonstrate a vision for peace."

Despite the left's keening, if you read President Bush's speech last week at the UN, you'll discover that force of arms is but one of many tools being used in the war.

Yet we know that this war will not be won by force of arms alone. We must defeat the terrorists on the battlefield, and we must also defeat them in the battle of ideas. We must change the conditions that allow terrorists to flourish and recruit, by spreading the hope of freedom to millions who've never known it. We must help raise up the failing states and stagnant societies that provide fertile ground for the terrorists. We must defend and extend a vision of human dignity, and opportunity, and prosperity -- a vision far stronger than the dark appeal of resentment and murder.

There's more than enough work here for everyone, both warrior and peace-maker.

The Great Trailer Debate

Hugh Hewitt spent several segments of his radio program tonight ripping the FEMA decision that it was going to buy 300,000 trailers at a cost of $5 billion (Washington Post story). Hugh wrote:

Look: Give every family a check. A good sized check. Tell them that's their relief payment and to use it wisely. Match them with churches/not-for-profits around the country and ship them out. Creating trailer parks for this many people is just a terrible idea.

Hugh seems cavalier about just shipping people out of the region. His penchant for using vouchers assumes people are in a market with plenty of available housing--or are willing to move to such an area. That doesn't describe the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I have a couple of employees in the Pascagoula area, both of whom, fortunately, still have homes standing after the storm, although their neighbors weren't all so lucky. (See "After the Storm" below.) Both want to return to work at the shipyard, but can't until the shipyard is cleaned up, and that requires workers who, in turn, require places to live, stores to shop at, and banks to cash checks. It's hard to rebuild an area if everyone moves out and there are no facilities to house those doing reconstruction. I am happy to report that the situation improves daily, but there's much yet to be done.

Hugh had Rick of Stones Cry Out on his program this evening, because disaster prep and recovery is his field of expertise. In fact, Rick is on stand-by to work for FEMA. I left this comment on his blog:

I have employees in the Pascagoula area, where the shipyard is the major employer. There's a problem that people can't get back to work if they don't have a place to live. Hugh Hewitt's suggestion of having people relocate out of the area until it's rebuilt ignores the questions of where the rebuilders are going to live and how people are supposed to coordinate with their insurance agents and contractors if they're not in the area? Besides, dispersing the workforce won't help the shipyard and other businesses reopen faster so people can have a real income again. Fortunately, the big companies like Northrop Grumman are providing salary continuation for the nonce.

I know that some folks working with their insurance companies to rebuild their homes plan to start with a trailer on their own lot as shelter while the construction goes on. It would be ironic if they couldn't get the trailers they need because FEMA cornered the market.

Trailers aren't the only option, either. According to the Sun-Herald, FEMA is working to get a cruise ship docked in Mobile so people can move out of Red Cross shelters in Jackson county.

Bowman said FEMA officials hope to move the cruise ship to Pascagoula within two weeks.

"The governor, MEMA and FEMA are very sensitive to the fact that a lot of people do not want to be in Mobile because they want to be close to where they live to deal with things like insurance claims," Bowman said.

Bowman said evacuees would be allowed to bring their own vehicles. For those without transportation, a shuttle system would be developed.

"We will not strand them in Mobile," Bowman said.

It sounds like Mr. Bowman of FEMA has a better grip on the reality of the front-line situation than Hugh Hewitt.

Overcoming Evil with Good

I've been exchanging emails with my pastor this week, a conversation precipitated by my ire at the litany chosen last Sunday. I sent him the beautiful poem that Presbypoet left in the comments:

"On Loving Our Enemy"

You demand we love our enemies.
How can we love the killers of Fallujah?
What do You mean when You say to forgive?
Does love do nothing and ignore evil?

What did You mean when You said.
"Let he without sin cast the first stone."
Do we sit silent and do nothing
when evil shows its full face?

Is this what it means to turn the other cheek?
Is that what You demand?
How can we approve what they did?
How can we endorse what they did?

Is it that we should not react but respond?
Not simply seek revenge but justice?
Is this the hard lesson we must learn?
We cannot do it on our own.

You did not remain silent
in the temple that day.
Your righteous anger showed us
sometime response is required.

Lord teach us to hear You
when revenge tempts us.
Help us learn how to forgive
and when to overturn tables.

(Matthew 5:38-39,43-47, 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, 23:34, John 2:14, 8:7)
(c) Presbypoet, April 2, 2004

His poetry blog is at http://poemsfromgod.blogspot.com/. He has some very profound verse there.

My pastor wrote back, asking some semi-rhetorical questions about the imperative for Christians to overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21 states "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." I decided to explore the topic some more.

I don't know how to present the case that warfare, per se, is not necessarily evil. Perhaps the Catholic teachings on the Just War Doctrine should be considered. I found this explanation at EWTN.com very interesting. It distinguishes between individual responsibilities and government responsibilities (emphasis added):

All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war. Despite this admonition of the Church, it sometimes becomes necessary to use force to obtain the end of justice. This is the right, and the duty, of those who have responsibilities for others, such as civil leaders and police forces. While individuals may renounce all violence those who must preserve justice may not do so, though it should be the last resort, "once all peace efforts have failed." [Cf. Vatican II, Gaudium et spes 79, 4]

As with all moral acts the use of force to obtain justice must comply with three conditions to be morally good. First, the act must be good in itself. The use of force to obtain justice is morally licit in itself. Second, it must be done with a good intention, which as noted earlier must be to correct vice, to restore justice or to restrain evil, and not to inflict evil for its own sake. Thirdly, it must be appropriate in the circumstances. An act which may otherwise be good and well motivated can be sinful by reason of imprudent judgment and execution.

If the doomsayers had been correct in their fears about hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq, millions of refugees, chemical warfare, pestilence and disease running rampant, then certainly history would judge the invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Saddam Hussein a gross mistake. For perspective, read Victor Davis Hanson's pre-invasion article and his retrospective from last March. While you're at it, go read his piece on "Evil over Good."

My pastor prefers peace-making to warfare, and wanted some examples of "mustard seed" activities. To see what some of the "mustard seed" activities have been, you need to go way beyond the New York Times. Arthur Chrenkoff has been compiling roundups of good news from Afghanistan and Iraq periodically for the past 18 months; OpinionJournal.com has been carrying the posts. The latest from Iraq is at here, and the latest from Afghanistan is here.

I think that there is no single "Christian response" to evil in the world; every person faces different circumstances and opportunities, with differing sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Some are called to be healers, some warriors; both are needed in the present dispensation. Read I Corinthians 12:14-26. I cede the point that "warrior" was not on Paul's list!

Finally, a Google search on "Ecclesiastes season" dug up the article "ECCLESIASTES AND THE SEASON OF WAR: COMMENTS FROM TOWARD TRADITION," published on Sept 25, 2001. Rabbi Daniel Lapin wrote:

“Forgiveness is Divine and a wonderful trait to emulate. However, right now, the only people with the ability to forgive are mostly buried beneath tons of rubble. The rest of us must humbly shoulder the burden of a nation unified for war just as we have been unified for peace in the past, and God willing, will again be so in the future.

“As soldiers sail, fly, and march off to combat, and as civilians pledge their support of the America’s warriors, both should do so with a full heart, knowing that - like birth and planting and falling in love - war can be the seed of a future that is much to be desired. It is the season of war, and who knows what good things will be born of it? The defeat of wickedness is a very good thing indeed.”

Amen.

After the Storm

Pictures from Bobbie, taken 8/29-9/1 in Ocean Springs and Moss Point, MS.

























Update: Welcome Polipundit readers! Two related posts about Bobbie are here and here.

Thank-you note from Bobbie in Mississippi

Our company brethren in Virginia Beach sent a truck with relief supplies to the Pascagoula area over Labor Day weekend. Bobbie's grandson Nick literally had no clothes of his own after the storm, so Bobbie had asked for clothes for him--a request I relayed to the VA Beach team, and they came through with style!

Kate,

This is the picture of my two little homeless urchins. Right after a bath these are the clothes they put on that came from the NGDMS truck. Nick's are from a book bag that was sent to me from Sarah Cooke. Lexi Girl has on a pair of PJs from that truck with her stuffed animal. (also from the truck) They thought they were something and my Nick said," Look Gran, these are the clothes that your nice friends sent to me"! I don't think those kids know exactly what has happened to them yet!! With the Grace of God and people like all of you, they may never!!

Lexi has on a pair of thong sandals that light up when she walks and does she think she is the Queen of Sheba or what. They even asked me, "Gran don't we have any of our clothes anymore?" I said, No baby, but it's OK, you'll get whatever you need. He just said OK Gran and went about his business as only a child can. Maybe when you see the smiles on the Joys of my Life along with their 4 cousins, how I feel will shine through. I truly hope so. My love and appreciation is felt for all of you everyday. Thank you and Thank you.

Love

Bobbie

Why I didn't go to Church today

My church was having a 9/11 tribute & remembrance this morning. Being a choir member, I got a copy of the service bulletin last Thursday and read through it. I was by turns angry and appalled when I read the "Litany of Remembrance, Penitence, and Hope", written by The Reverend Eileen W. Lindner and Reverend Marcel A. Welty, National Council of Churches, in 2002.

This post is adapted from a letter I just sent my pastor explaining my absence.

Dear Pastor,

You might have noticed that I was absent from church on Sunday and the 9/11 remembrance. It was a deliberate choice on my part, and you deserve to know why.

I picked up a bulletin on Thursday night before choir practice, and read through the NCC litany. I was absent from church because I could not, in good conscience, participate in that litany. Let me share some of my observations:

We light a candle in penitence, recognizing that we have not done enough to address the sources of anger, hate, dehumanization, rage, and indignation that lead to acts of violence.

This is a noble sentiment if we're talking about the slums of Camden. It has nothing to do with the motivation of jihadists who want to kill us to cleanse the planet for Allah (although it could be argued that the US government has turned a blind eye to Saudi support for the Wahhabbis and their murderous teachings, which are a root cause of today's terrorism). It has nothing to do with official policies in Zimbabwe or Sudan that sanction state-sponsored violence against their own citizens. Go read Victor Davis Hanson, "Keep Quiet And Listen!"

In our sadness, horror and shock we acknowledge that our own fears turned murderous and we have sought revenge, sometimes against even the innocent.

This one I'll grant you since I do remember some incidents against Sikhs, for example. I suspect, however, that the authors of this litany are also casting stones at the military response set in motion to root out the terrorists, their training camps, and the organizations and regimes that supported them. What is easy to forget is that Osama bin Laden and his ideological allies have been active terrorists for decades, even before the first Gulf War brought US troops to Saudi soil. We have finally acknowledged that jihadists are waging war against our civilization (again!), and it's time to fight back (again!). The Army has a comprehensive timeline at http://www.army.mil/terrorism/.

We confess and regret our own anger and recognize its dangers to our spirits, our health, our community, and others.

Anger is a problem only when it festers and has no constructive outlet. I'm angry at the social pathology that was on display in New Orleans after the hurricane, but there's not much I can do about it. I can, however, channel that anger and frustration into positive action locally by participating in our Habitat for Humanity work team, which will help alleviate similar problems that exist in Camden. Rather than induce guilt that we have human emotions, I would much rather you preach anger as a prelude to action. Think about Jesus's anger while overturning the moneychangers' tables in the Temple.

In the midst of the aftermath of the events of September 11th, 2001 we have been tempted to seek only our own good, hear only our own truth, acknowledge only our own suffering.

Even in 2002, this was no longer true. Since then coalition forces have liberated more than 25 million people from the yoke of tyranny in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most recently there were huge outpourings of government and private aid after the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Personally, I think the self-centered keening of Cindy Sheehan and her ilk represents a tiny minority of Americans.

We know that peace will come to us and to our children only when the concerns of justice anywhere become the subject of political and social will everywhere, and that no justice leads to no peace.

Western "justice" isn't what the jihadists are aiming for. "Justice" is a loaded term, and the rights we expect as citizens of a modern democracy are quite at odds with the "justice" under Sharia that the Taliban practiced. Are the authors willing to live as Christians under Sharia?

In striving for national security and domestic peace we run the risk of confusing might for right and participating in the very behaviors we condemn.

Which behaviors are those, exactly? Beheading our enemies and broadcasting the video on the Internet? I'm afraid we're more at risk of confusing political correctness with right action. Michelle Malkin pointed out recently how absurd it is for the government to avoid "profiling" in law enforcement while insisting on it for government contracting.

Guard and guide our country that in our search for security we may not trample the rights of the innocent nor disregard the rule of law. Let us not confuse leadership within the global community as the voice for the whole community.

Not a chance of the latter while the Main-stream media is so antagonistic to the Bush Administration.

Repentance means to turn away from wrong deeds. Repentance means choosing instead deeds which require moral restraint, and are more beneficial to all persons who suffer.

Huh? This definition of repentance doesn't match John Wesley's. Even if you go with Webster's first definition of repent, "to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life," the authors are still stretching the meaning to relate it to benefiting "all persons who suffer".

We light a candle to light the way to a better world for our children and our children's children, and all the children of God.

Gee, that accomplishes so much.

We recall with joy the unity we felt in the outpouring of help, kindness, thoughtful words and deeds from at home and around the world. We must hold firmly to our unity, borne forward now not of tragedy but of loving kindness. We place fresh confidence in international organizations and conversations that bring the diverse gifts of the world to the problems of poverty, injustice, terror and strife.

Do they remember the celebrations in the streets of Palestine over the fall of the Twin Towers? Unity is over-rated. To wait for total unity is to wait forever. International organizations are only as effective as the people who lead them, and even then, good intentions don't necessarily equate to good results. Since 2002, we've learned a lot about the scandalous Oil-for-Food program at the United Nations, and the evidence that nations on the Security Council itself were profiting from the "sanctions". See Claudia Rosett's latest article.

We long for wise policies that forego short term gain for long term stability, justice and peace.

Sounds like realpolitik. However, realpolitik also means tolerating bad situations in the name of "stability" and "peace", as was done during the Cold War. Stability and lack of armed conflict do not guarantee "justice" nor prosperity nor freedom.

In a time marked by tragedy and war we can hope for an era yet to come in which the slaughter of innocents, greed, the ambitions of power, and cultural and religious bigotries are but memories of a dim and unenlightened past.

The Second Coming of Christ? Somehow, I don't think that's what they mean.

God of the ages, before your eyes all empires rise and fall yet you are changeless. Be near us in this age of terror and these moments of remembrance. Uphold those who work and watch and wait and weep and love. By your Holy Spirit give rise in us to broad sympathy for all the peoples of Your earth. Strengthen us to comfort those who mourn and work in large ways and small for those things that make for peace. Bless the people and leaders of this nation and all nations so that warfare, like slavery before it, may become only a historic memory.

Sympathy is a nice sentiment, but changes little. War is ugly, messy, and destructive, which is why we would rather avoid it. (Consider the Star Trek episode "A Taste of Armageddon"). But there are times when the "peace" of inaction is a worse choice. We ignored the terrorists for decades, which only emboldened them because they perceived us as weak and weak-willed.

I suggest an alternate "Litany for Liberal Christians", something along these lines:

We have focused on our own short-comings as individuals and as a nation with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but failed to move forward and seek constructive ways to build a better world.

We have been fearful of change, clinging to failed policies and ideologies, unwilling to face realities that don't fit neatly into how we understand the world works.

We have learned the wrong lessons from history, focused on our mistakes and ignored our victories.

We have cheered when cartoon heroes fight evil doers, but declined to call evil by name in the real world. We have apologized to our enemies for our very existence while rebuking our leaders for fighting that evil.

We have been hypocrites, piously intoning our commitment to freedom and self-determination for all people, freedom of religion, economic justice, and women's rights, while castigating those who are working to achieve those lofty ideals in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and elsewhere.

We have been timid in our Christianity, instead making sacrifices at the altars of "multi-culturalism" and "political correctness" that have sapped our strength and undermined the Great Commission to proclaim to the world that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Great God, forgive us.

Update: Welcome readers from The Anchoress and Desperate Preacher. Thanks for stopping by. You might also be interested in my Labor Day reflections.

Update II: Welcome Brutally Honest readers! And check out the lovely poem Presbypoet left in the comments.

Update III (9/14/05): Welcome Photon Courier readers!

Update IV: See my follow-on post "Overcoming Evil with Good"

Update V (9/20/05): See a related post "Stuck on Stupid"

Angels in Disguise

Bobbie S., one of my employees in Pascagoula, has been busy this past week. It took them two days to chop their way back to their neighborhood, where her house was one of the few left standing. With that miracle, she provided shelter to 26 people for several days.

She estimates she has cooked meals for more than 500 people, including the 17 homeless colleagues of her daughter's at the local hospital, and disaster relief workers.

She's been making supply runs to Pensacola, and helping distribute the goods trucked in by our company brethren in Virginia Beach this past weekend.

Bobbie feels that God spared her and her family for a reason, and she has to share what she can with those less fortunate. Life is slowly improving: she got power back at her home this afternoon. However, there is still tremendous need and thousands are homeless in the region.

Some have called her an angel in disguise. She denies that she's an angel, insisting that she's just one of many who are helping their neighbors.

I've asked her to email me stories I can post, so stay tuned.

UPDATE [9/7/05 7:45 pm]: I was on Hugh Hewitt's show this past hour talking about how Bobbie is helping those in greater need than herself. If you'd like to help people like her in the area (and there are many), I suggest working through your churches and synagogues; Hugh is encouraging partnering efforts. Also long term, Habitat for Humanity is launching "Operation Home Delivery" to help people rebuild their homes and their lives.

Labor Day Thoughts

"Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country." —— U.S. Department of Labor

Given the lessening clout of the labor unions in general, I propose that we think instead about the labors we have as a country to improve our national well-being. With the desolation wrought by Hurricane Katrina across four states, and the remembrance of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks next weekend, it seems worthwhile to meditate on where we as a people need to improve.

Several writers have commented on the moral collapse in New Orleans:

• "In New Orleans, moral levees are inundated too," by Tunku Varadarajan
• "Sermon for today - Moral levees," by Donald Sensing (Hat tip to Hugh Hewitt)
  
• "Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State," by Robert Tracinski (Hat tip Lucianne.com)
• "Assigning blame? Don't. People must take responsibility for themselves," by Rod Thomson

This is a meme that will likely continue for a while. I know it's something I've been thinking about this week while looking for some concrete way to turn frustration into positive action.

Although I work in New Jersey, I supervise two employees who live and work in the vicinity of Pascagoula, MS. Both were incommunicado for several nerve-wracking days; one checked in on Wednesday morning, the other on Friday morning. Praise God both are safe and have homes they can live in. Last Wednesday morning, before I knew they were safe, I was anxious and frustrated that I couldn't do anything to help them other than pray and send money (I'm donating via the Salvation Army, UMCOR, and our company relief fund).

Seeing the pictures of the disorder in New Orleans got me thinking, though, because they reminded me of the ghetto riots in the late sixties as well as the riots in Los Angeles following the Rodney King beating trial. The pathology on display in New Orleans is hardly unique to that city, but exists all over the United States, especially in large urban areas.

I happen to live near Camden, where even dedicated social workers and church activists are starting to admit that after forty years and millions of dollars spent on welfare and social services, they haven't made an appreciable difference in the city's slums. I heard one minister comment that the only thing left to do is pray, since nothing they've been doing works anymore —— if it ever did. He went on to say that perhaps the church's efforts (in our case, United Methodist) had gone too far in providing value-neutral assistance just like the government, leaving out the Gospel message and its emphasis on an individual's salvation and accountability. This is pretty much the approach prescribed in the denomination's Social Principles. For example, this paragraph on Poverty states,

Therefore, we do not hold poor people morally responsible for their economic state. To begin to alleviate poverty, we support such policies as: adequate income maintenance, quality education, decent housing, job training, meaningful employment opportunities, adequate medical and hospital care, and humanization and radical revisions of welfare programs.

I sometimes wonder if mainline Protestant professional do-gooders hold poor people responsible for anything: victimhood is writ large in the policies supported above. Note the emphasis on creating utopia through government policies, with no imperative for direction action such as missionary work. I think John Wesley (not to mention William Booth) would be appalled. At least the United Methodist Committee on Relief is rather more pragmatic.

Fortunately, there are direct ways to improve society. My favorite is Habitat for Humanity, with its emphasis on providing a hand up rather than a hand-out. Our church has covenanted with Metro Camden HFH to build a house this year. I intend to be on that work team, as well as supporting it financially.

It's easy to focus on just one catastrophe such as Katrina or the tsunami, and forget to support the day-to-day efforts of charities closer to home. While I was writing checks this week, I also dropped a couple to my local Salvation Army and American Red Cross chapters. Won't you?

P.S. If you'd like some positive news about your tax dollars providing relief on the Gulf Coast, check out DefenseLink.

Thursday Tidbits

Odds 'n' ends from around the web:

• Powerline posted excerpts from President Bush's speech in Idaho this week. A sample:
  

  The stakes in Iraq could not be higher. The brutal violence in Iraq today is a clear sign of the terrorists' determination to stop democracy from taking root in the Middle East. They know that the success of a free Iraq, who can be a key ally in the war on terror and a symbol of success for others, will be a crushing blow to their strategy to dominate the region, and threaten America and the free world. They know that when their hateful ideology is defeated in Iraq, the Middle East will have a clear example of freedom and prosperity and hope. And the terrorists will begin to lose their sponsors and lose their recruits and lose the sanctuaries they need to plan new attacks.

  And so they're fighting these efforts in Iraq with all the brutality they can muster. Yet, despite the violence we see every day, we're achieving our strategic objectives in Iraq. The Iraqi people are determined to build a free nation, and we have a plan to help them succeed. America and Iraqi forces are on the hunt, side-by-side, to defeat the terrorists. And as we hunt down our common enemies, we will continue to train more Iraqi security forces.
  ***
  The battle lines in Iraq are now clearly drawn for the world to see, and there is no middle ground. Transforming a country that was ruled by an oppressive dictator who sponsored terror into a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror will take more time, more sacrifice, and continued resolve. Terrorists will emerge from Iraq one of two ways: emboldened or defeated. Every nation -- every free nation -- has a stake in the success of the Iraqi people. If the terrorists were to win in Iraq, the free world would be more vulnerable to attacks on innocent civilians. And that is why, for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, the terrorists will be defeated. (Applause.)

  
  
• Powerline also posted "Some Thoughts on Casualties in Times of War and Peace"
  

  Sometimes it becomes necessary to state the obvious: being a soldier is a dangerous thing. This is why we honor our service members' courage. For a soldier, sailor or Marine, "courage" isn't an easily-abused abstraction--"it took a lot of courage to vote against the farm bill"--it's a requirement of the job.

  Even in peacetime. The media's breathless tabulation of casualties in Iraq--now, over 1,800 deaths--is generally devoid of context. Here's some context: between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died accidentally in the service of their country. That death rate of 1,286 per year exceeds the rate of combat deaths in Iraq by a ratio of nearly two to one.

  That's right: all through the years when hardly anyone was paying attention, soldiers, sailors and Marines were dying in accidents, training and otherwise, at nearly twice the rate of combat deaths in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 to the present. Somehow, though, when there was no political hay to be made, I don't recall any great outcry, or gleeful reporting, or erecting of crosses in the President's home town. In fact, I'll offer a free six-pack to the first person who can find evidence that any liberal expressed concern--any concern--about the 18,006 American service members who died accidentally in service of their country from 1983 to 1996.

  The statistics from the "Atlas of Injuries in the U.S. Armed Forces" (AUG 1999) indicate that accidental deaths counted weren't necessarily in the line of duty. Rather, the military keeps track of off-duty incidents as well; reducing all causes of death and injury means improved readiness and a better ROI for our tax dollars. The Navy, for example, is pushing a Designated Driver program called the HERO Campaign, which is just one of many ongoing safety-related efforts.
  
  
• Powerline also pointed me to Katherine Kersten's touching column in the StarTrib, "In Iraq, Grace takes amazing hold":
  

  Pastor Ghassan Thomas was overjoyed on April 9, 2003, when coalition forces toppled Saddam Hussein. For four years, in the face of relentless persecution, he had operated an underground Christian church of about 50 members in the heart of Baghdad.

  Saddam's police had tortured him repeatedly, Thomas says -- beating him, suspending him from a ceiling fan and attaching electrodes to his tongue.

  Though Saddam's fall brought an end to official persecution, it also brought challenges. The living quarters where Thomas' fledgling flock had worshipped couldn't accommodate his swelling congregation, and he lacked resources to address their daunting needs.

  As his frustration mounted, Thomas says, "I prayed to God for a sister church to stand with me and help me."

  The answer to Thomas' prayers came from half a world away: Eden Prairie, Minn.

• If you're looking for a roundup of good news from Iraq, check out All Things Conservative and the official Pentagon roundup. Chrenkoff is winding down his blog now that he has a new job, but promises another roundup next Monday.
  
  
• John Fund of the Wall Street Journal was on Hugh Hewitt's show the other night, discussing his piece "Resurrecting Jim Crow for Political Gain," among other topics. He reported on a recent rally in Atlanta on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. The lede:
  

  The Voting Rights Act, whose 40th anniversary we celebrate this month, has helped minorities elect 81 sitting members of Congress and thousands of local officials. But the rally civil rights groups held in Atlanta earlier this month to push for extension of the act's key temporary provisions downplayed those gains and instead pushed wild claims that some state laws requiring an ID to vote are the functional equivalent of Jim Crow poll taxes.

  Both Judge Greg Mathis, the star of a syndicated courtroom TV show, and California Rep. Barbara Lee claimed that the last two presidential elections had been "stolen." Judge Mathis told the rally Republican leaders "need to be locked up because they're all criminals and thieves." Other speakers claimed Georgia's new photo ID law would suppress poor and elderly minority voters who might lack such a document. When the bill passed the Georgia House in March, black legislators sang slave songs and one even slammed a prisoner's shackles on the desk of the sponsor.

  Juan Williams, a National Public Radio correspondent and author of "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years," is "stunned" by such vituperation. He told Fox News that it is "reacting to devils that have been slain 40 years ago." He says that "in service to having no fraud elections, I think you could say to people, go and get a legitimate ID. I don't think that's too much to ask."

  Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador who spoke at the rally, believes that in an era when people have to show ID to rent a video or cash a check "requiring ID can help poor people." He noted that Georgia is deploying a mobile bus to issue voter IDs and allowing groups like the NAACP to arrange for it to go to specific sites.

  
  
• Speaking of voter fraud, NY Times columnist Paul Krugman has been factually challenged in a couple of recent op-eds about the Florida recounts in 2000. As The American Thinker reports:

  Paul Krugman, the former Enron advisor, New York Times op ed columnist, and presumably in his spare time, “educator” at Princeton, has made a habit of distortion, and half truths in his twice-weekly columns in the “paper of record.” Several website have sprung up to deconstruct each Krugman column,and others respond to specific errors, which are routine. But Krugman's column on Friday, August 19 marks a remarkable descent into outright dishonesty, a new low. What is most astounding is that the dishonesty involves Krugman's deliberately mistaken interpretration of a study in which his own paper, the New York Times, was a participant, and from which the Times ' reporters drew entirely different conclusions from those which Krugman trumpeted in his article.
  

  A follow-up commentary is here. (Hat tip Patterico). More dissecting at Powerline and NRO.
  
  
• One simmering scandal you may not have read about (especially if your main news source is the New York Times) concerns a $800k "loan" from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club to the corporate parent of Air America. The New York City Department of Investigations is investigating Gloria Wise for misuse of government grants in making the loan. Air America is being sued for non-payment of air time, with allegations of fraudulent corporate maneuvers. All the earmarks of a classic whodunit! Key reports are the following:
• New York Sun's entire series of articles by David Lambino (Hat tip to Captain's Quarters).
• Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney (aka Radio Equalizer) teamed up for a multi-part series. Today's installment is "INSIDE AIR AMERICA: THE SHELDON DROBNY FILES", with Part 2 on Brian's site. Michelle lists her previous related posts at the bottom.
• Professor Bainbridge examines the merits of the civil lawsuit against Air America. (Hat tip to Hugh Hewitt)
  
  
• The latest chapter in the ongoing "Able Danger" controversy is Senator Specter's memo to the FBI's Director seeking information (via Captain's Quarters). Captain Ed has run a series of posts on Atta and Able Danger this month, along with various AQ intelligence reports from overseas, such as France and Germany. He has a roundup post today with more links, "Able Danger: The Strange Spanish Interlude."
  

Rocket attacks in Jordan

This morning, several rockets were fired in the direction of two US Navy ships in port at Aqaba, Jordan. They missed the USS Kearsarge and USS Ashland, but killed a Jordanian soldier.

While the AP story has been getting more detailed throughout the day, the blogosphere is providing context, connecting dots, and raising questions. Some salient posts:

• Captain's Quarters Blog: "Terrorist Attack On US Navy Misses Target"
• Michelle Malkin: "THE JORDAN ROCKET ATTACK"
• Athena at Terrorism Unveiled: "Terrorist Attack in Aqaba, Jordan" (via MM)
• EagleSpeak: "Harassing Fire on US Navy Ships" (via Trackback at TU)
  
• The Counterterrorism Blog: "Jordan Missile Attacks: Al Qaeda & Hezbollah Working Together?" (via EagleSpeak)
  
• Bubblehead: "USS Kearsarge ESG Attacked by Rockets" (via EagleSpeak). ESG is the Navy acronym for "Expeditionary Strike Group".

Quick reads

Some of the articles I found interesting this week:

• A number of bloggers recommended Charles Krauthammer's article in Time Magazine, "In Defense of Certainty", which was in the June 1st issue.
  

  The Op-Ed pages are filled with jeremiads about believers--principally evangelical Christians and traditional Catholics--bent on turning the U.S. into a theocracy. Now I am not much of a believer, but there is something deeply wrong--indeed, deeply un-American--about fearing people simply because they believe. It seems perfectly O.K. for secularists to impose their secular views on America, such as, say, legalized abortion or gay marriage. But when someone takes the contrary view, all of a sudden he is trying to impose his view on you. And if that contrary view happens to be rooted in Scripture or some kind of religious belief system, the very public advocacy of that view becomes a violation of the U.S. constitutional order.

  What nonsense. The campaign against certainty is merely the philosophical veneer for an attempt to politically marginalize and intellectually disenfranchise believers. Instead of arguing the merits of any issue, secularists are trying to win the argument by default on the grounds that the other side displays unhealthy certainty or, even worse, unseemly religiosity.

• Neo-Neocon takes a look at "The International Criminal Court as theater." She concludes:
  

  The international justice system regarding war crimes is highly subject to abuse by special interest groups. In a sense, it is a polite fiction that such a system can exist and be meaningful, because it lacks the true characteristics of a functioning legal system. As such, we are correct to have opted out of the game.

• The Anchoress writes, "The Holy Spirit stirs, then ravishes:"
  

  We read, increasingly, a tone of wonderment in the press as reporters who have long-ago shrugged off religion as unsophisticated and tres uncool discover that people - even young people - not only are seeking faith, but embracing it and commiting to it, and living it. And yes, loving it.

  There is so much going on. There has been so much going on for a while, but it has come into sharper focus, I think, since the death and funeral of John Paul the Great and the election of his successor, Benedict XVI.

  Something is stirring.

  The Holy Spirit is never static, she is ever at work, ever on the move.

• Dr. Sanity looks at "The Left's Pervasive Tyranny:"
  

  [T]he Left has made it their primary modus operandi to use the force of the government to give clout to their cultural, social, political and moral and quasi-religious beliefs in all areas. Of course, they do it because they understand that they are much more knowledgable than you or I are about what is right.
  
  It is the pervasive tyranny of the elitist.

• Hurl's Blog muses on the ramifications of Bush-bashing in "Thanks Bush:"
  

  It seems we have come to a place in the world where two scapegoats exist – Jews and Bible-believing Christians. One group is generally represented by Israel, the other by America - described by radical Islam as the “Little Satan” and the “Great Satan” respectively. There also seems to be an unwritten alliance of sorts between radical Islam and those on the left who regularly bash, ridicule and demonize Bible-believing Christians as well as are becoming increasingly hostile to Israel. They share the same enemies…..

• And for policy wonks, The Employment Policy Institute published a paper by Dr. Aaron Yelowitz - University of Kentucky, and Dr. Richard Toikka - Lewin Group, entitled "Effective Tax Rates and the Living Wage:"
  

  Overall, the authors have found that living wage ordinances do little to actually increase the standard of living for low-income families. The $55-a-month increase in total family earnings represents a less than 2 percent increase for the average family. In terms of an increase in earnings, the $16-per-month increase represents an increase of approximately one-half of one percent. The authors state, “a reasonable reading of our results is that the living wage has a limited capability in improving the economic status of the poor.” This limited capability is important because decades of studies clearly show that mandated wage floors create disemployment effects—particularly for the low-skilled employees these laws are intended to help. Pushing the intended beneficiaries out of a job while providing minimal benefits to remaining employees makes living wage ordinances an ineffective anti-poverty policy.

Of course, data alone won't stop the politicians any time soon...

Monday Notes

I'm back from a quick vacation over the weekend, visiting my sister and her husband in Massachusetts. While I was there, I read most of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell, which was on their coffee table. He has an interesting thesis, explaining sudden societal changes in terms of epidemics. I need to get my own copy so I can finish reading it!

I took them out to dinner Friday night at Blue Ginger in Wellesley, which is owned by Chef Ming Tsai. While pricey, with entrees at $21-35, it was worth every penny! The food was delicately flavored and presented beautifully by the attentive staff. If you're in the area, I recommend it for an exceptional treat. They take reservations, but also set aside tables for walk-ins.

Last Tuesday, Robert Plant's [warning: that site is a bandwidth beast!] new album "Mighty Rearranger" came out in the US. I had put it on my "must-buy" list when I first heard the single "Shine It All Around" a couple of months ago, so I hied myself to Best Buy on Wednesday and bought the last copy in the rack. I've been listening to it—some would say OD'ing—ever since, especially on the drive to and from MA. One thing I haven't seen any mention of is his use of Christian imagery in several songs. Of course, I might be reading too much into lyrics like this from "Shine It All Around":

This is the heart of the man
This is the heart of the matter [man?]
Break a little bread now, spread it all around

Perhaps it just goes to an old-fashioned liberal British education where students read the classics? At any rate, I get a charge every time I hear the song. The rest of the album is musically diverse and I discover something new in every listening, whether it's harmony, lyrics, or rhythms. A reasonably friendly fan site is at Robert Plant Homepage.

Over at the NRO Corner, a couple of items caught my attention:

• IRANIAN REVELATIONS [Michael Ledeen] posts a remarkable email that purports to translate parts of a letter to "Rafsanjani ... written by a Karaj based cleric. He says in the letter that he is ill and near death, so presumably that is what has given him the extra ordinary courage needed to write this letter." Ledeen comments, "I think it is enormously important, because it shows the depth of the hatred of the regime from a leading Shi'ite mullah, in a degree of detail I think most of us would find amazing. And it also provides very useful information about the official presidential candidate, Rafsanjani, who is often described as a "moderate.""

• THEOCRATS AND ALL THAT [Andrew Stuttaford] highlights an article by Mark Lilla in the NYT, as well as a book review in the Financial Times, that is "a nice little example of the way in which liberalism has swapped reason for dreams, fantasy and paranoia."

OpinionJournal, meanwhile, posted a prescient WSJ editorial "Liberal Fundamentalism: Who are the intolerant extremists?" that was originally published on Sept. 13, 1984. It opens,

We have been following the extensive theological commentary in the press on the subject of politics and religion in the current presidential campaign. It might not otherwise have occurred to us that so many editorialists and columnists harbored so many deep, pent-up opinions on religious worship, voluntary school prayer or Christian fundamentalism.

What we have been looking for but have so far missed in this great awakening of religious writing is a short sermon on the subject of liberal fundamentalism. And so in the spirit of Samuel Johnson, who once wrote homilies for his church pastor so as not to fall asleep during Sunday services, we would like to offer a few thoughts on what has been far and away the most messianic religion in America the past two decades--liberal politics.

Plus ça change, plus ça même.

John Hinderocker (of Powerline) has a column up at The Weekly Standard that looks into the oddities of the UN's proposed $1.2 Billion renovation project. The verdict?

It appears there are serious questions about the U.N.'s renovation project. Depending on which assumptions one accepts about cost and square footage, anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion in expense is unaccounted for. Given the U.N.'s history, is there any reason to doubt that the costs projected by that organization include substantial sums representing, as Trump put it, incompetence or fraud? Given what we know about the oil-for-food program, is there any reason to trust the U.N.'s business or accounting practices?

American taxpayers have a legitimate interest in knowing the answers to these questions. The renovation is to be financed by a low-interest, 30-year, $1.2 billion loan from the U.S. government. (Kofi Annan's original request for an interest-free loan was turned down.) And, of course, the loan will then be repaid largely by American taxpayers, who foot a little over 20 percent of the U.N.'s bills.

A few congressmen and senators have finally begun to ask whether the U.N. building project is a boondoggle. It's about time.

Also check out the Powerline post: "Anything goes if you're planning to attack believing Christians." They summarize a Robert Novak piece, noting that "NARAL Pro-Choice America hired two operatives to obtain and probe the financial disclosure records of 30 appellate court judges considered potential nominees for the Supreme Court," a move that Novak terms "a fishing expedition to find irregularities in potential selections for the Supreme Court." Not a promising development, to say the least.

The Theocracy Debate

My pastor and I have been having some wide-ranging philosophical conversations after study group the past few weeks. One evening, he commented that he was becoming increasingly concerned about the Theocracy movement and the threat it represents. That piqued my blogging instincts, to see who was saying what out in the blogosphere and MSM.

It's rather curious when you think about it: the media attention about the "theocracy threat" vilifies certain religious viewpoints in a manner that would be un-PC if the religion were anything other than Christianity or Judaism. John McCandlish Phillips summarized the recent "rhetorical heavy artillery" in an Op-Ed for the Washington Post on May 4 (also available here). Hugh Hewitt opined:

The main thrust of [Phillips'] column is to throw a spotlight on the absurd hysteria among MSM as to evangelicals, and on what ought to be --but is not-- the embarrassing lack of knowledge about American history that undergirds that hysteria. It is a wonderful piece. Not that it will change a single mind among the MSMbots, but worth your time nonetheless.

There's lots of hot air being expended on the topic, with some writers engaged in on-going debates with each other, such as James Taranto (4th item) and Max Blumenthal; Nooilforpacifists has the box score. Frequently, the cogent arguments on side A are totally opaque to those on side B and vice versa. Part of the problem is that there are actually several related debates going on at the same time.

One debate is about whether the President and the Republican Party have been taken over by the ultra-conservative religious Right. Some of this paranoia goes back to the angst over the Terry Schiavo travesty, and the attempted intervention by Congress and the President, while others such as Andrew Sullivan are still smarting from last fall's elections and the results of various referenda.

Typical of this strain is the reporting on the conference entitled "Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right". All of the conservative commentary I saw was based off the same Washington Times article, which had a followup here.

NEW YORK -- Secular humanists and leftist activists convened here over the weekend to strategize how to counter what they contend is a growing political threat from Christian conservatives.

Understanding and answering the "religious far right" that propelled President Bush's re-election is key to preventing a "theocracy" from governing the nation, speakers argued at a weekend conference.

"The religious right now has an unprecedented influence on American politics and policy," said Ralph White, co-founder of the Open Center, a New York City institution focused on holistic learning. "It is incumbent upon all of us to understand as precisely as possible its aims, methods, beliefs, theology and psychology."

Dr. Sanity writes, "Here we are in a war on Islamic fundamentalism, and the Left seems to think that the U.S. is at risk for a Christian theocracy" (hat tip to MOM). She continues,

However comforting it is to believe that Christianity is the religion that poses a threat to freedom and democracy, the Real World will eventually intrude on such fantasies. While these clever people "bravely" confront the straw man they have set up, the real danger will slip in unnoticed and without hindrance.

When do you suppose the "secular humanists" and Leftists will organize a conference to discuss the threat that Islam poses to their political freedoms? Don't hold your breath.

I would suggest that if "smiting theocracy" is the goal, then they need to grow up and deal with the anxiety, helplessness, anger, and rage they are feeling; then focus on the real danger we face as a country.

Captains Quarters and Powerline commentaries both derided the motives of the panelists and organizers. I shared the CQ post with my pastor, and he then shared an email he had received which provided a different perspective. It was forwarded to him as the anonymous reflections of a pastoral counselling colleague of a staff member at another Methodist church:

...I think that whether you are a conservative republican, an evangelical, a moderate, a liveral or a democrate of any kind the material discussed in this conference should scare you to death. Many conservative republicans have been very concerned that our present government is not "conservative" and does not represent conservative values of smaller government, no deficits and moving many areas of government to the states. The conference characterized what is replacing these conservative values and has come into control of the Republican Party.

To summarize the carefully documented conclusions of the excellent speakers at the conference: There are two streams of far right that have converged through an "elective affinity" in President George W. Bush, who was describe (sic) by one presenter as an extrememly intelligent leader of deep passion and ambition, an oral intuitive style and dyslexia which causes him to appear foolish and unlearned. One of these streams is Dominion Theology or Christian Reconstructionism. Leaders like Tim LeHay (sic), Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, Paul Weyrich, the late Rausea Rashddony and James Dobson. The Dominionists began in the 1970's to move to take over the government. They ultimately organized by going into individual districts of the Republican Party and slowly moving the conservative political leaders out and replacing them with Dominionist leaders thereby taking over the party from the bottom up. Their goal is to "reclaim" the United States as a Christian country under the rule of God and the values of God's law. Last year, 41 Republican senators and one Democratic senator voted 100% of the time for their policies, according to the Christian Coalition. The second stream is the Neoconservatives represented by Irving Kristol, William Kristol, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and others. They see this as the American Century and consider that it is the century of American rule. In the early 1990's they developed a plan to invade Iraq as the jump off point to securing the oil prodictuion of the Middle East in order to establish this American rule. However, they were pushed aside by Bush I and generally ignored by Clinton. They belived that only a Pearl Harbor-like event would bring the populous (sic) behind their plan. That came with 9/11. At first the President was stunned by this event but within days found his footing. He turned to his fundamentalist world view and this ideological group of leaders and we have seen the road he has followed.

I'm definitely behind the times. Here I'd been thinking that the Trilateral Commission was the power behind the throne! Fortunately, MaxedOutMomma has better research skills (and wit) than I:

So I went in search of this theocracy, because frankly I'm feeling a bit peeved at being left out. Not only was I left out, but I have asked among my acquaintances and friends who are dedicated church goers, and we've all been left out. I asked Mormons, Brethren, Assembly of God'rs, Catholics (and considering the amount of money I've dropped in the plate over there, they owed me an honest answer), Baptists, Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, even a Methodist - the list goes on and on. I could find no one who had been invited to be a part of this theocracy. No one. I have located a couple of extremely progressive northeastern Episcopalians who believed in the theocracy and blamed it for the declining membership of the ECUSA. But I could find not one person who had been invited to participate. Now that's security.

Not a single one of us got the memo:

Go read the whole funny piece.

Another debate is whether the Religious Right has the right to participate in the political process like any other organized interest group, since their views are just so "wrong". This is where James Tarato weighed in with his Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal, "Why I'm Rooting for the Religious Right":

One can disagree with religious conservatives on abortion, gay rights, school prayer, creationism and any number of other issues, and still recognize that they have good reason to feel disfranchised. This isn't the same as the oft-heard complaint of "anti-Christian bigotry," which is at best imprecise, since American Christians are all over the map politically. But those who hold traditionalist views have been shut out of the democratic process by a series of court decisions that, based on constitutional reasoning ranging from plausible to ludicrous, declared the preferred policies of the secular left the law of the land.

For the most part, the religious right has responded in good civic-minded fashion: by organizing, becoming politically active, and supporting like-minded candidates. This has required exquisite discipline and patience, since changing court-imposed policies entails first changing the courts, a process that can take decades. Even then, "conservative" judges are not about to impose conservative policies; the best the religious right can hope for is the opportunity to make its case through ordinary democratic means.

Which brings me to the third thread: the debate about Bush's judicial nominees, the Democrat's filibustering, and the "nuclear option". Are the Republicans, as a party, really this devious or stupid? Here's a commentary I came across on those nasty Republicans who propose the "nuclear option" for changing the filibuster rules:

What they want is to establish a theocracy with their brand of Christianity running everything. Then you will have to become their brand of religion, or leave the country for fear of violent reprisals, just like how the Taliban ran things in Afghanistan. If you listen to the rhetoric of the religious folks the Republicans are following, you will hear all sorts of things about this. (from Maags Blog)

Great shades of The Handmaid's Tale! And that came out in 1985.

As you wander around the internet, you'll discover that claims about the religious far right are being applied to conservatives and Republicans as a generality, rather than as specifically describing a small, but vocal, minority. Fortunately, conservatives aren't afraid of the political tension this might create. William F. Buckley observes,

"Whether Bush owes his election to any explicit connection with evangelical Christianity is sheer speculation, as noted. But a derivative point, made by Wilfred McClay and of quite general interest, is: What has happened to the political idealism associated with the liberals? He refers to Martin Peretz of The New Republic, whose views he summarizes. “Liberals, he argues, find themselves today where conservatives were a half-century ago, without ideas, without a vision of the good society, bookless, forced to feed on stale ideas from the 60s, and therefore, dying.”

Let them die. Meanwhile, conservatives will keep our eyes on President Bush, and stop him before he campaigns for compulsory baptism." (emph. added)

Since I have more material than time to post, let me give you some other links to follow:

• Glenn Reynolds linked to Michael Barone and Jon Henke on the issue of religion and politics in America. Glenn also has a related piece at TechCentralStation.
  
• My sister pointed me to Jim Wallis of Sojourners, and Dr. James Forbes, Jr., as representative of those who have theological issues with the Fundamentalists. More on Dr. Forbes can be found here and here.
  
• Dale Franks of QandO Blog has an excellent post "The Theocrats Are (Not) Coming!". The comments are well worth the read too, and are what led me to MaxedOutMomma and Nooilforpacifists.
• Don Feder writes about "The Left's 'Dominionist' Demons" at Front Page Magazine.
• George Will pens "The Christian Complex" at Townhall.com.
• Of course, there's the whole separation of church and state debate. On my journeys, I came across mentions of the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797. A couple of thoughtful analyses on what the diplomats really meant by "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen;..." are here and here.

Friday reads

Victor David Hansen writes in National Review Online, "Democratic Suicide":

Philosophically, two grand themes explain the Democratic dilemma. One, the United States does not suffer from the sort of oppression, poverty, or Vietnam nightmares of the 1950s and 1960s that created the present Democratic ideology. Thus calcified solutions of big government entitlements, race-based largess, and knee-jerk suspicion of U.S. power abroad come off as either impractical or hysterical.

Second, there is the widening gulf between word and deed — and Americans hate hypocrites most of all. When you meet a guy from the Chamber of Commerce or insurance association, you pretty much know that what you see is what you get: comfort with American culture and values, an upscale lifestyle that reflects his ideology and work, and no apologies for success or excuses for lack of same.

But if you listen to Dr. Dean and his class venom, it hardly seems comparable with how he lives or how he was brought up. John Kerry's super power boat, Teresa Kerry's numerous mansions, Arianna Huffington's gated estate, George Soros's jet, Ted Turner's ranches, Sean Penn's digs — all this and more, whether fairly or unfairly, suggest hypocrisy and insincerity: Something like, "High taxes, government regulation, racial quotas, and more entitlements won't hurt me since I have so much money at my own disposal anyway, but will at least make me feel good that we are transferring capital to the less fortunate."

With the opening of the movie "The Crusades", American Thinker ran a chilling two-part history lesson this week: Jihad begot the Crusades (1) and Jihad begot the Crusades (2). A sample:

The Iberian peninsula was conquered in 710-716 C.E. by Arab tribes originating from northern, central and southern Arabia. Massive Berber and Arab immigration, and the colonization of the Iberian peninsula, followed the conquest. Most churches were converted into mosques. Although the conquest had been planned and conducted jointly with a faction of Iberian Christian dissidents, including a bishop, it proceeded as a classical jihad with massive pillages, enslavements, deportations and killings. [...]

Al-Andalus represented the land of jihad par excellence. Every year (or multiple times within a year as “seasonal” razzias [ghazwa]) raiding expeditions were sent to ravage the Christian Spanish kingdoms to the north, the Basque regions, or France and the Rhone valley, bringing back booty and slaves. Andalusian corsairs attacked and invaded along the Sicilian and Italian coasts, even as far as the Aegean Islands, looting and burning as they went. Many thousands of non-Muslim captives were deported to slavery in Andalusia, where the caliph kept a militia of tens of thousand of Christian slaves, brought from all parts of Christian Europe (the Saqaliba), and a harem filled with captured Christian women.

A much faster read is the commentary by military historian John B. Dwyer.

Over at TechCentralStation, Ryan Sager pens "The Left Catches On":

Three years after the passage of McCain-Feingold (a.k.a. the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, a.k.a. the End of Free Speech As We Know It), a smattering of Democrats and liberal activists are slowly coming to the conclusion that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let the government decide who can and cannot engage in political speech.

After all, what would prevent incumbents in Congress from passing laws to secure their jobs by making it harder for their opponents to criticize them? And what would prevent a political party -- holding, say, power in both houses of Congress and the White House -- from using election laws to try to smother the opposition?

Right: Nothing.

Daniel Henninger writes about the policy effects of the CDC's statistical gaffe on the obesity non-epidemic:

Public officials will always ride in the slipstream of an evident crisis. But there is a cautionary tale here. The informational world we inhabit has become a volatile mixture of news, rumor and often incomplete science. This or that threat, need or cause comes at us constantly. But there may be a limit to how often politicians can lower a bucket into the well of public credibility, asking people to alter their behavior and pay handsomely for the privilege--as here, or climate change or fuel alternatives. There might not be much left when the authorities most clearly must ask people, for example, to prepare for an avian flu pandemic before it arrives from Asia.

When the 400,000-dead obesity study unraveled, the CDC's director called it a "lesson in humility." In a world that is evermore complex, busy and costly, it would be a good thing if the people in Washington with the power to impose solutions to the problems of life on all of us made their new watchword "humility." Fat chance.

Tech Central Station has related articles here, here, and here.

Down Under, Arthur Chrenkoff's roundup of Good News from Afghanistan is in its 12th edition, and I expect he'll post another Good News From Iraq on Monday. He also has a pictorial on "The disadvantages of pissing off America, or Why life as a top Al Qaeda operative is not good for your health and well-being, not to mention your skin."

And finally, Mudville Gazette posts a handy guide to the "knobology" of blogging, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Blogging (But were Afraid to Ask)"

New Jersey's Next Governor?

I met Bret Schundler yesterday evening at a campaign appearance in Merchantville, about 3 miles from my house, which meant I had no reason at all to not show up! The event was organized by the Merchantville and Haddonfield Republican Clubs, and while many of the 65-70 people attending got emails, I heard about it from an automated phone message from the candidate himself.

Like other Republicans, I've been subject to mailings from one or more of the 7 Republican candidates weekly for the past three months. So I was curious to meet Bret in person, and hear firsthand how his plan to lower property taxes differs from the other candidates' plans.

Bret spoke and answered questions for about 30 minutes. I was impressed by his plan for reform, which combines property tax relief with constitutional amendments to constrain spending at the local, county, and state levels. He's working to get the amendments on the November ballot--regardless of whether he gets the nomination. As he states on his site:

Most campaigns offer vague proposals and empty, breakable promises.

NOT US!

We're focusing this campaign on passing specific property tax, spending, and anti-corruption reforms now – before Election Day!

After all, the corrupt politicians who are blocking reform in the New Jersey State Legislature each have to run for re-election next year.

That gives us, the people of New Jersey, an opportunity to put real pressure on these legislators by informing them, in no uncertain terms, that if they do not pass our “Reform NOW Agenda” before Election Day we will vote against them!"

He compared his plan with that of Doug Forrester, emphasizing that with his program, the spending constraints come first, and the lower taxes follow naturally, while claiming that Doug's program didn't deal with spending limits (not entirely true, according to the info on this page, although it's vague on any implementation details). Bret's recommendations are quite specific, based on research at the University of Pennsylvania to find the "magic" multiplier that allows a "rate of spending growth [that] is fast enough to enable government not only to cover the rising costs of existing programs, but also to create some brand new programs, or otherwise improve services, each year," even while property taxes fall (full text here).

As I mentioned, it was a fairly small gathering, so Bret spent time before and after his speech meeting everyone and engaging in conversation. I happened to be talking with a newly-elected Cherry Hill school board member and her husband when Bret came over. The two men started talking about Bob somebody-or-other who was going to be the subject of a documentary. Bret's social skills are such that he stopped, looked at me, and asked, "Do you know who we're talking about?" (He already knew I was fairly new to the state, from our conversation before the speech.) I admitted that I was clueless, so he took the time to fill me in on the remarkable story of basketball Coach Bob Hurley of St. Anthony's in Jersey City. A gracious gesture by a gracious man to make sure I was included in the group.

I suggest you check out his campaign site and blog for yourself. I've become a believer!