1. I did not know this inspiring, fascinating bit of history: “For dispensing this and their other pamphlets the leaders of the White Rose were beheaded by the Nazis.”
2. As expected, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has scheduled yet another special session of the state legislature to try again to ram through the Mississippi-style anti-abortion measure parried by Sen. Wendy Davis and the women of Texas on Tuesday night. The session is set for July 1, but Lt. Gov. Dewhurst has probably already certified and time-stamped the vote. Meanwhile, Perry also made history by executing the 500th Texas inmate since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Yee-haw, tough guy.
3. Conservatives have a very hard time grasping the moral necessity of consent in sex and in marriage. Hence both Sen. Rand Paul and racist preacher Bryan Fischer being unable to see any distinction between a same-sex marriage and bestiality or pedophilia. Their disregard for consent, bordering on contempt, makes me worry for their wives. And, considering how their minds seem to work, for their pets.
4. Re: Baptists and creeds. Here’s an old post by Steven Harmon on Baptist soul freedom and the historic Christian creeds.
Baptists are right to resist this coercive use of either creeds or confessions, but we would be wrong to let this legitimate concern keep us from experiencing the benefits of the proper uses of the creeds. … Having no fixed or mandated liturgy, Baptist churches are free to adopt whatever worship practices they find beneficial. Freely choosing to experience the benefits of confessing the ancient ecumenical creeds is a most Baptist thing for free and faithful Baptists to do.
That’s pretty much the same place I come down in this 2011 post — “The Bible vs. The Facts?” — in which I affirm the substance of the Nicene Creed while maintaining my Baptist prerogative to deny anyone the right to compel me to do so. For a bit more on the Baptist/evangelical anti-creedal impulse, see “‘Statements of faith’ are really long creeds for the anti-creedal.” For another look at Baptist polity, or the lack thereof, see “Charleston and Billings.” So OK, then.
5. Chinese women take a dim view of wage theft.
6. This approaches what I think John Courtenay Murray meant by “achieving disagreement”: “Democrats want you to watch Republicans talk about marriage equality.” Republican members of Congress held a press conference yesterday to denounce and lament the Supreme Court’s overturning of DOMA, the law banning the federal recognition of same-sex marriages, and effectively overturning California’s Prop 8 same-sex marriage ban. The Democratic National Committee released an unedited video of that press conference. At some level, this is healthy. The substance of a disagreement has been identified. Each side is eager to have the views of the other side heard. At another level, of course, this is a sign of a balkanized politics, with two irreconcilable sides endorsing opposite views and opposite epistemologies that yield contradictory views of reality. But let’s focus on the positive side here. Democracy requires the people to make choices, and here the people are presented with a clear set of options.
7. In the words of Stephen Sondheim, “Nice is different than good.” I know things now, many valuable things …
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