The Latest: March 2007 Archive

3/31, 8:12p CT: Here’s an item I initially was about to ignore, before realizing that’s precisely the problem. – JL

3/31, 8:04p CT: I can’t imagine that U.S. soldiers in Fallujah have genocidal intentions, but the fact that the population lives in abject terror of being killed by Americans is yet another reason we have to get the heck out of there.  Speaking of which, let’s not let this Bush inanity from last year go down the memory hole, either.

3/30, 5:42p CT: Bush: “I apologize” to patients at Walter Reed.  Watch the video; he really didn’t want to say those words. 

3/30, 4:45p CT: Reverend and blogger Chuck Curie interviews John Kerry about faith and his new book.   Here at FD, Stan Moody lays into the wackos.

3/29, 11:14a CT: Dobson seems to think he has the power of excommunication.

3/29, 8:05a CT: Oh, my good sweet Lord.  MC Rove?  Yes, that’s Karl, doing his best imitation of an 80s rapper.  Meanwhile, Rumsfeld is let off the hook for authorizing torture.

3/28, 7:56a CT: Even at Brigham Young — in the reddest of red country —  people are protesting Dick Cheney.

3/27, 1:35p CT: Simply referring to our misadventure in Iraq as a “just war” doesn’t make it so; there are actual criteria, almost none of which the Bush administration met.

3/27, 8:14a CT: Stan Moody asks, is our nation, in effect, worshipping Baal? 

3/26, 9:51a CT: Supporting the troops now means forbidding students from performing a recitation of the troops’ own words.

3/25, 7:22p CT: Disgusting reaction at some righty blogs over Elizabeth Edwards’s cancer.  The original post has been taken down, presumably because of the hateful display, but see the comment by Valdron at 9:57pm; he captured some of the bile.

3/23, 6:10p CT: John Edwards on his personal faith.  Among other things: “Jesus would be appalled,” “God is neither a Democrat nor a Republican,” and, after a period of falling away from his faith, it “came roaring back” after his son died. 

3/23, 2:50p CT: Can schools teach the Bible without preaching it?  Time magazine poses the question this week.  Meanwhile, the public is drifting from the Republicans and toward the Democrats on both party ID and ideology.

3/22, 8:11p CT: The Christian left is here to stay.  FYI, posts will slow down over the next few weeks.

3/22, 12:31a CT: Pro-worker is pro-family. 

3/21, 5:35p CT: Al Gore sticks it to the global warming skeptics on Capitol Hill. 

3/21, 12:53p CT: I keep forgetting just how much I detest this president. 

3/21, 9:08a CT: Focus on the Family shills for Tom DeLay’s new book.  Where in the Bible do you think DeLay gets his faith in money laundering and corruption?  (Thanks for the tip, KB.)

3/20, 5:11p CT: More on the “Torture Christians” who want to make God in man’s image. 

3/20, 12:20p CT: Oooh!  Who’s this mysterious ParkRidge47 that made the risque pro-Obama, anti-Hillary ad on YouTube?  Oooh!  Even more mystifying: why does anyone care?  Aren’t there issues to discuss?  Like, you know, the war or something?

3/20, 11:02a CT: Barack’s and Hillary’s people trade jabs on a Harvard panel discussion.  Here’s the audio.  One choice argument is over whether Obama’s early opposition to the war even matters.

3/20, 9:54a CT: Global warming is already reducing the yield of the world’s most important crops.

3/20, 9:13a CT: I have a feeling that if Isaiah were around, he would have railed against this guy.  Meanwhile, Iraqis are pessimistic about the situation there. 

3/20, 8:24a CT: CNN covers the growing divide between pro-environment, pro-justice evangelicals and the old news, narrow-minded religious right.

3/19, 4:05p CT: Andrew Sullivan points out that the leading Democratic candidates are once-married family folks who, as far as we know, aren’t adulterers, while the Republican group — Rudy, McCain, Newt — is full of philandering divorcees.  So much for the usual frame of moral Republicans vs. loose Democrats.

3/19, 11:14a CT: More on how “supporting the troops” is about belief, not actions — this one from Bob Herbert, though it’s behind the Times Select wall.  Short version: the military and VA do little to ease the psychological pain of returning soldiers, and a marine commits suicide.

3/18, 3:31p CT: Tom Donnelly invokes Pope Benedict on loving our neighbor; Stan Moody accuses the Republicans of spelling God G-O-P.

3/17, 4:36p CT: Thousands march against this godforsaken war. 

3/17, 10:36a CT: Jesse Lava identifies a theological difference between the parties when it comes to supporting the troops: words vs. deeds.

3/16, 9:03a CT: Megachurch pastor John Hagee is pushing for Armageddon (his word) via a war with Iran.  These people are dangerous.

3/15, 12:20p CT: Jesse Lava slams anti-peace Christian leaders: are they ashamed of their faith?

3/14, 9:04p CT: Here at FD, Stan Moody has issues with the state having the right to ordain the religious covenant of marriage.

3/13, 5:38p CT: The National Association of Evangelicals is on the move: they’re condemning torture and standing up to right-wingers who insist that protecting God’s creation doesn’t matter.

3/13, 5:27p CT: Is there a “black agenda” — and why don’t some academics think Barack Obama is black enough?

3/9, 3:45p CT: Jesse Lava: Ann Coulter talks tough, Ann Coulter faces consequences. 

3/9, 11:59a CT: David Brody at the Christian Broadcast Network honors Hillary Clinton’s Methodist faith.  A choice moment is when he recounts a story about how conservatives in a Bible study apologized to Hillary for not treating her as Jesus would have.

3/9, 11:47a CT: Faithful Progressive has a poem in response to Bush’s assertion that he feels sad for Scooter Libby.

3/8, 4:18p CT: The New York Times profiles Rev. Jim Ball, an original green evangelical who played a leading role in the “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign.

3/8, 1:33a CT: Aaron Krager on HUD’s first-ever report to Congress assessing homelessness in the U.S.

3/8, 1:16a CT: Thanks to Bush’s war, Christians in Iraq are sacrificing more than meat this Lent.

3/7, 9:23a CT: When it comes to religious practice, the “God gap” between Ds and Rs isn’t as wide as is commonly assumed, according to a new Barna poll.

3/7, 7:43a CT: John Edwards says Jesus would be appalled at our treatment of the suffering in this country.  Meanwhile, the problem of civilian deaths in our wars is not going away.

3/7, 12:11a CT: Albert Mohler, the conservative president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has the decency to condemn Ann Coulter for calling John Edwards a faggot.

3/6, 1:30p CT: Jesse Lava hits Joe Klein for assailing religious arrogance and then committing it.

3/5, 10:57p CT: Our board member Mara Vanderslice was just on the Colbert Report and got out the right message: caring for the least, the lost, and the last is a religious value.  And that’s exactly what Democrats offer voters who want their politics to be consistent with their faith.  Link coming when it’s available.  Late update: Here’s the link.

3/5, 11:01a CT: Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee blames Jews for the Holocaust.  This kind of talk really should have no place in our common Christian life.  Meanwhile, here’s more on how Tony Perkins, Don Wildmon, and others are trying to get Richard Cizik fired from the NAE because he’s pro-environment.

3/4, 12:18a CT: Bono brings the NAACP audience to its feet: “God, my friends, is with the poor — and God is with us if we are with them.  This is not a burden; this is an adventure.”

3/3, 9:32p CT: Just saw this: an evangelical debate between our own Randall Balmer and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land.

3/2, 6:10p CT: Eric Sapp devours a deliciously absurd argument from James Dobson: caring about God’s creation hurts the poor.

3/2, 12:01p CT: At FD, Stan Moody counts down (not really) to Armageddon, and Aaron Krager finds corporate profits and severe poverty both on the rise.

3/2, 9:40a CT: James Dobson seems to be trying to get Richard Cizik — a great advocate for protecting the environment and ending genocide — fired from the National Association of Evangelicals .  He’s not slavishly focused enough on the narrow agenda of gays and abortion.

3/1, 12:26p CT: The issue of whether Bush’s faith-based initiatives may be shielded from legal challenges is before the Supreme Court.  The New York Times says no.