{"id":4717,"date":"2011-11-06T12:50:22","date_gmt":"2011-11-06T17:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=4717"},"modified":"2011-12-17T18:59:04","modified_gmt":"2011-12-17T23:59:04","slug":"smart-people-saying-smart-things-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart people saying smart things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Tommy Craggs: \u201cThe Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and thanks God, he is engaging in a very conscious act of moral grandstanding. I write that with no judgment whatsoever. Tebow is saying, \u201cLook at me,\u201d just as surely as Deion Sanders doing the pigeon wing in the end zone was saying, \u201cLook at me.\u201d He is saying, \u201cLook at me and gaze upon my prayerfulness,\u201d and he is saying that because he is an evangelical Christian, and evangelical Christianity is a religion built on conspicuous faith. He is bearing witness, right there on the hashmarks. He is spiking the Gospel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Karl Giberson holds serve: \u201cWhy Christians Need a Secular World<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

I see no reason why a religious believer should regard a simple fact as somehow hostile, just because it is a so-called secular claim. The discussion of the planetary status of Pluto, or the veracity of recent claims that neutrinos are exceeding the speed of light are secular discussions, with no obvious religious significance \u2014 and certainly no anti-religious aspect.<\/p>\n

\u2026 The division of knowledge claims into religious and secular is a simplification that works well for culture warriors eager to demolish one side or the other. Ken Ham\u2019s Museum displays are set up to contrast \u201cGod\u2019s Word\u201d with \u201cHuman Reason.\u201d But Ham knows this is too simple. Where in this organizational scheme, for example, would we put the claim that protons are heavier than electrons? It doesn\u2019t come from \u201cGod\u2019s Word\u201d so it must be the product of \u201cHuman Reason.\u201d Does this mean it is the enemy of God\u2019s Word?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jonathan Dudley: \u201cWhy Evangelicals Believe Weird Things<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is there such a disconnect between the lay evangelical community and the best evangelical scholars when it comes to science? In my book Broken Words: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics, in addition to critiquing popular evangelical beliefs, I also explore the sources of this discrepancy.<\/p>\n

Lay evangelicals evaluate the arguments made by \u201cexperts\u201d in a manner different from many non-evangelicals. The latter will often ask: How prestigious is her academic pedigree? Is she representing the consensus of similarly credentialed experts? Insofar as I can understand her arguments, do they convince me? Lay evangelicals ask different questions: How good of a Christian is this guy? (Or, in evangelical parlance, \u201cHow is his walk with the Lord?<\/em>\u201d) How closely do his arguments line up with my understanding of the Bible? Is this guy one of us?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amanda Marcotte: \u201cChasing our tails \u2026 how to stop?<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The right has figured out that \u201ca lie + a [frakked] up idea\u201d is an excellent way to turn a liberal into someone who says \u201cfirst of all,\u201d and for some reason, the \u201cfirst of all\u201d person has become a hated entity in our culture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mike Konczal: \u201cForeclosures, Halloween Costumes, and How the 1% Views the Law<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

This view of the world has its roots in a theory of how the rules governing debt, especially bankruptcy, should function in this country. A heuristic can be used to understand it \u2014 it\u2019s called the creditor\u2019s bargain. In this idea, the rules should only exist to the extent that they benefit the creditor\u2019s ability to collect money. It\u2019s simple: if a law, custom, norm, or rule helps creditors collect when things go wrong, it is a good one. If it takes into account concerns other than creditors\u2019 return \u2014 say, destroyed neighborhoods, whether banks follow the rules, etc. \u2014 they are worthless. \u2026<\/p>\n

In this world, debtors probably could challenge the legality of their foreclosures, making sure proper procedure was followed. But that\u2019s not what the rules are meant to do. The rules are just there to benefit creditors, not debtors. It is in this world that those Halloween costumes make perfect sense. I love pointing out how passionate libertarians like Calabria have been all for the sanctity of contract when it comes to bankruptcy reforms like \u201ccramdown,\u201d but when it comes to the idea that all these mortgages are unsecured debt because of bank-led abuses in the chain of property records, they get angry at debtors, even though they are still holders of contracts. But again, if the law is just there to protect creditors against the difficulty of collecting on debtors, not to provide a level playing field for those with debt, it makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n

It also makes perfect sense that creditors and bankers haven\u2019t gone to jail, but debtors who took out a liar\u2019s loan have gone to jail. It makes sense that elites, like former Peterson Institute CEO David Walker, want to see debtors\u2019 prisons on the agenda while no elites talk about jail sentences for the abuses in property law. The law is there to coordinate the best interests of creditors, not provide rules and protection for debtors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J.R. Daniel Kirk: \u201cJesus\u2019 eschatology<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eschatology is the refusal to give up on the promises of God, even when it looks like God has given up on us and on his world.<\/p>\n

Inaugurated eschatology is the conviction that the power of the kingdom, the promised fullness of God, will burst forth and provide in rich abundance here and now, even when we cannot see with our eyes the fullness of the harvest.<\/p>\n

Inaugurated eschatology is the summons to move out on faith, trusting that the smallest seed will sprout and bring forth a plant in which all the birds of the air can find their food.<\/p>\n

Inaugurated eschatology is the summons to begin to feed the hungry with the little we have, trusting that the God\u2019s kingdom economy of abundance is not constrained by the lack by which we would measure it.<\/p>\n

Inaugurated eschatology is trusting that if we truly become servants, loving others with the self-giving love of God in Christ, that life untold will spring forth from that place of death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jo Hilder: \u201cThe Opposite of Love<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

The older I get, the more I understand that the world, and by the world I mean the earth and all the people on it, has some fairly significant problems, and that I am one of them. I can tell you what I hate and what I\u2019m afraid of, even though I know Christ teaches me to love, and tells me that love comes from God. I think about the pressing social issues in my part of the world and wonder at my own capacity for indifference when it comes to solving these issues, or even being part of the solution. I search for smiles. I stare into the blank expressions of the people around me in the street, and I think, surely, we are all as capable of love, even small expressions of it, small acts of kindness, as we are of indifference, of fear, of hate?<\/p>\n

There is no opposite of love. There is love, and you do, or you do not. It\u2019s within us to do it, all the time, to everyone. It\u2019s how we were made. When it comes to how we were made to love, the gears work only in one direction, but at various speeds, including not at all if we so choose. They don\u2019t go backwards. There\u2019s no opposite to love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tommy Craggs: \u201cThe Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?\u201c Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and thanks God, he is engaging in a very conscious act of moral grandstanding. I write that with no judgment whatsoever. Tebow is saying, \u201cLook at me,\u201d just as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-4717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-smart"],"yoast_head":"\nSmart people saying smart things<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tommy Craggs: "The Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?" Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Smart people saying smart things\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tommy Craggs: "The Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?" Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-06T17:50:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-17T23:59:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/\",\"name\":\"Smart people saying smart things\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-06T17:50:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-17T23:59:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Tommy Craggs: \\\"The Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?\\\" Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Smart people saying smart things\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Smart people saying smart things","description":"Tommy Craggs: \"The Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?\" Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Smart people saying smart things","og_description":"Tommy Craggs: \"The Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?\" Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2011-11-06T17:50:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-12-17T23:59:04+00:00","author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/","name":"Smart people saying smart things","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-11-06T17:50:22+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-17T23:59:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Tommy Craggs: \"The Stupid Moral Panic Over Mocking Tim Tebow; Or, What Would Jesus Do About Tebowing?\" Whenever Tim Tebow takes a knee on the field and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/11\/06\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Smart people saying smart things"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}