‘The Cult of the Individual and the Idolatry of Greed’

Last updated on: July 4, 2012 at 2:57 pm By Fred Clark

Michael Bird is a very conservative evangelical theology professor. He’s theologically conservative in the tradition of evangelical orthodoxy and, like many evangelicals, he’s very politically conservative on social issues, opposing, he says, “same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and abortion, etc.” But Michael Bird is not an American. He teaches in Australia and formerly lived in the UK. And since Bird is not an American, he hasn’t absorbed the peculiarly American form of evangelical tribalism that regards universal health care as though it... Read more

‘God speed the year of Jubilee’: A great American on Independence Day

Last updated on: July 4, 2012 at 1:20 pm By Fred Clark

Frederick Douglass: “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too — great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is... Read more

Why liars for Jesus can’t be believed when they say they’re anti-abortion

Last updated on: July 4, 2012 at 10:54 am By Fred Clark

If you denounce the Affordable Care Act because it’s “the biggest expansion of abortion and abortion funding since Roe v. Wade” or because it requires that “Americans buy health insurance plans that pay for contraceptives and abortion” or “because it makes American taxpayers complicit in the deaths of countless unborn children,” this doesn’t make you pro-life. It just makes you a liar. Opposing an imaginary “expansion of abortion” that exists only in your own fevered brain is not the same... Read more

Why it’s easy to rationalize the immoral position of not treating climate change as a moral issue

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 4:03 pm By Fred Clark

A couple of years back I explored the stubborn American denial of climate change as, in part, a consequence of denying blame. In that post — “All are responsible” — I wrote: It seems easiest to get us humans to respond — to take responsibility — when the matter at hand is unambiguously no fault of our own. Remove any potential hint of culpability and we’re more likely to agree to act. Frame the text-book hypothetical in such a way... Read more

Andy Griffith (1926-2012)

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 3:28 pm By Fred Clark

CBS News: Andy Griffith dead at 86 Actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a rural sheriff in a popular 1960s TV show earned him the title of “America’s Favorite Sheriff,” died Tuesday morning. He was 86. Andrew Samuel Griffith was born June 1, 1926, in Mt. Airy, N.C., a town much like Mayberry. As a child, he sang and played slide trombone in the band at Grace Moravian Church. He originally wanted a career as a musician, but his skills... Read more

A request re: Tubal-cain, the Iron Age and transparent aluminum

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 10:40 am By Fred Clark

So the other day I tripped over Tubal-cain and wound up wishing I’d paid more attention in my biblical studies classes and/or done more of the reading for my history classes. Let me explain where this is going, then ask for your help in pointing me toward where I might learn more to sort this out. The story of Tubal-cain is a bit obscure. It’s a one-liner tucked in amongst the “begats” of Genesis 4. The biblical begats — long... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: July 2, 2012 at 9:46 pm By Fred Clark

Jo Hilder: “The dangers of group-think, and why we must never forget Azaria Chamberlain“ It wasn’t until the nineties, long after Lindy Chamberlain had been convicted of her baby’s murder and spent time in prison for it then exonerated, and after she and her husband Michael had divorced, that some of us actually started to say out loud “Er..I don’t think she did it.” Before that time, nobody would have dared say that in public. You’d have been shouted down.... Read more

‘When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous’

Last updated on: July 2, 2012 at 9:39 pm By Fred Clark

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers. — Proverbs 21:15 Dave Weigel: “How We Found Out” “The mandate is constitutional! It was upheld! Roberts went for the swing vote! Yes! Oh my God! The individual mandate survives as a tax!” Did you work on passing the bill? I asked. “No!” said Hilary Matfess, a young policy analyst. “I just have lupus!” Paul Krugman: “The Real Winners” How many people are we talking... Read more

Cellar door

Last updated on: July 2, 2012 at 6:40 pm By Fred Clark

“Seventeen years of tireless labor by a mind blessed with a profound understanding of human vanity, with unparalleled gifts of sensory perception and the figuration thereof, and with one of the greatest prose styles in the English language produced a work that all too often, and for long stretches, can remind the reader (when not recalling Yertle the Turtle) of the Spike-Milligan- meets-Edward-Lear prose tossed off by the Writing Beatle in five minutes between tokes and takes of ‘Norwegian Wood.'”... Read more

Mennonite marriage, Tinky Winky and a slew of droves

Last updated on: July 2, 2012 at 3:45 pm By Fred Clark

What do you do when you’re in a tsk-tsk-ing tizzy about same-sex marriage, but you’re part of a denomination that holds a core doctrine of individual liberty? Ann at The Revealer finds the answer in a recent statement, from the executive committee of the Mennonite church, which says: The board owns the understanding of our confession of faith that sexual union is to happen between one man and one woman who are committed to each other for life in holy... Read more