The story of Tyler Clementi is tragic and deeply saddening. A talented violinist, a sensitive, shy young man, a freshman who had just recently come to live on the Rutgers campus, his privacy was violated and he was profoundly humiliated in front of all the people he might have hoped would become his friends. When Tyler reported that his sexual encounter with another young man was captured on video and distributed to other students, early indications are that Rutgers did... Read more
This week I have offered a series of posts reflecting on Gallup’s stunning recent survey on approval ratings for the Obama presidency. The results are chock-full of bad news for Democrats, but not all of it is bad or unflattering. Democrats might be encouraged that young folks support Obama at a higher rate than older folks — a result I discussed here — and that the more educated a person is, the more likely he or she is to approve... Read more
I’ve begun to assemble my post on why those with post-graduate degrees support Obama, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. I just got off the phone with Jedd Medefind, who briefly headed President Bush’s office of faith-based initiatives. Jedd is an exceptionally articulate, intelligent, good-hearted man who now heads the Christian Alliance for Orphans. He addressed all of the questions I posed, including one or two that put him in a tough spot. The interview will be published... Read more
In yesterday’s post I mentioned a recent Gallup poll that supplies helpful details on those who support Obama and those who do not — and I examined whether the results are evidence that blacks approve of the President because of the color of his skin. Today I want to consider a different issue – why the young approve of Obama. Here are the results of the survey: Since the results are jumbled together, let’s pull them out according to category:... Read more
I’ve been wondering when we would have a serious conversation about the astronomically high approval rates amongst African-Americans for Barack Obama, and what those rates mean. Today there comes a poll, helpfully featured at Drudge, that may provoke precisely that conversation. I will offer a few more thoughts on these results tomorrow, particularly: Whether the higher support for Obama amongst younger voters reflects a generational difference (the younger generation is, and will remain, basically different from the older generation, maintaining its... Read more
I am tempted to make this the shortest entry yet at Philosophical Fragments and simply answer: “Yes.” But I want to explain (1) some of the complexities of the problem and (2) several reasons why conservatives have answered in the negative. By now we are all familiar with the background. In three Pew surveys from March of 2008 to March of 2009, roughly half of Americans identified Obama as a Christian, 11-12% as Muslim, and 32-36% replied that they did... Read more
EVENTFUL 1. BE ALERT: Yes, my friends, the terrorism threat remains, and it is real. 2. THE TRUTH IS REVEALED: Nancy Pelosi is an oil and gas giant. So was her promise that this would be “the most honest, the most open, the most ethical Congress in history” just hot air? 3. PURELY COINCIDENTAL: Shortly after polling data reveals that many Americans doubt the sincerity of Obama’s professions of Christian faith, or at least do not recognize Obama’s Christianity as... Read more
I half agree and half disagree with my respected colleague, the manager of Patheos’ Pagan Portal, who writes that the whole affair surrounding Christine O’Donnell’s “dabbling” in witchcraft is a non-issue. It’s actually quite revealing. Consider the three relevant parties in the story: (1) Christine O’Donnell herself, who “dabbled in witchcraft” as a teenager and once enjoyed an impromptu occult picnic with her Beelzebub-loving boyfriend on a blood-spattered sacrificial altar, (2) the media and Democratic partisans who seized upon this... Read more
Building on a recent post, I sent the following question to a number of Christian bloggers and writers: The “Restoring Honor” rally has sparked a conversation on whether American evangelicalism is guilty of America-worship. So, when does patriotism pass over into idolatry? What marks the difference between loving, honoring and worshiping America? Scot McKnight, a renowned New Testament scholar, speaker, and writer, and proprietor of the popular Jesus Creed blog, offers his response below. I always respect Scot and his... Read more
Philo of Alexandria – whose blog I have never visited before, but I might now – writes of something he calls (after Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds) Reynolds’ Law: “Subsidizing the markers of status doesn’t produce the character traits that result in that status; it undermines them.” He draws it out of this quotation from Reynolds: The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own... Read more
Philosophical Fragments
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