foolishly used words

A post on another blog takes a cheap shot at Priscilla Owen for attending a church that left the Episcopal church over the denomination's stance on homosexuality. The church believed it was an issue of scriptural authority.

But Mark Pritchard, who publishes Too Beautiful decides to rail against the church as "reactionary" and calls Owen a "homophobe." Seems Pritchard is the one being reactionary. Because someone appeals to scripture doesn't make them a homophobe. I know plenty of people who have worked hard on many justice issues for gays but who believe that scripture opposes sexual relationships among homosexuals. They are not "afraid" of gays.

Referring to people who appeal to scripture for their beliefs as homophobes is as helpful to the discussion as referring to male homosexuals with obscene names.

I also know of the church and the denomination it joined, the Evangelical Covenant Church, which Jim Wallis referred to as the most exciting in the country. I don't think anyone would refer to Wallis, the editor of Sojourners, as a homophobe.

Judicial Witchcraft

A judge has ordered parents in a divorce case not to educate their son in the ways of Wicca as they have been doing. The parents were barred from having the boy engage in "non-mainstream beliefs and rituals."

The parents also had been sending their son to a Catholic school, which the judge said was OK.

Perhaps the judge should read the Consitution.

Real Sex

Frederica Matthews-Green is one of my favorite writers. In a recent (lengthy) article she discusses the real meaning of sex.

Taking hints from how our bodies have been formed, Matthews-Green discusses how for the human being, the sexual act has deeper implications for us than for any other creature.

Here are a couple of quotes:

"Looking at faces meets a very deep human hunger. I think it’s significant that humans are one of the few animals capable of looking into each other’s faces during sex."

"Everything you hear in ads and entertainment is telling you that your goal is to wake up next to someone gorgeous tomorrow morning. That’s the rationale of consumer sex. But I think what humans really want is to wake up next to someone kind, fifty years from tomorrow morning."

New favorite devotional, quote site

Here's a recent sample of The Daily Dig from the Bruderhoff Community.
You can click on a devotional link that accompanies the quote.

All Things New

C. F. Blumhardt

And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” - Revelation 21:5

A darkness has come over Christianity in regard to this matter of renewal. We are so easily contented, so quickly satisfied with a religiosity that makes us appear a little more decent. Yet this cannot be all there is to our faith: Everything—everything—must become new. Not just a little taste of something new, but all things new.

Democrats for Life seek to reduce abortions

I hope the rest of the party is listening and will get on board. Unlike the Republicans, who have allowed pro-choice politicians to address their national conventions, the Democrats have not allowed the opportunity among their own ranks. What they don't seem to realize is that there are plenty of us who don't consider ourselves Republicans and don't want to be equated with the Religious Right but are put off by the Democratic leadership's pandering to Planned Parenthood, etc.

I'll be looking for a group near me.

In April, Democrats For Life of America (DFLA) joined Congressmen Tim Ryan, Bart Stupak, Lincoln Davis and other pro-life Democrats at a national press conference at the Democratic National Committee to unveil an innovative abortion-reduction proposal. The proposal they call the “95-10 Initiative” was released after months of research, political outreach and planning.

The 95-10 Initiative is a comprehensive proposal of 15 different policy programs that, when fully funded and implemented in coordination with each other, will hopefully reduce the number of abortions in America by 95 percent over the next 10 years.

“The 95-10 Initiative is our number one priority. While many talk about protecting life, we’re proposing a legitimate policy initiative that will actually reduce the number of abortions in America. The 95-10 Initiative has been met favorably by both pro-life and pro-choice advocates and elected officials,” said Kristen Day, Executive Director of Democrats For Life of America.

What's a Conservative?

First Things has a lengthy article raising the question of how the conservative interests fit together.

A clipping:

Social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, libertarians, agrarians, communitarians, foreign-policy hawks—who can figure them out? Neocons and theocons and paleocons, to say nothing of soccer-mom Republicans, country-club Republicans, and just plain, garden-variety Republicans: If you read much political commentary, it must seem as though there are more ways to sort conservatives in America than there are actual conservatives to be sorted.

And what about the issues for which these different conservatives care? Abortion, tax cuts, school vouchers, judicial overreach, the government’s bloated budget, bioethics, homosexual marriage, the creation of democracies in the Middle East, federalism, immigration, the restoration of religion in the public square—on and on. They bear no more than the vaguest family resemblance: second or third cousins, shirt-tail kin at best.

Back during the Cold War, conservatives could all be counted upon at least to share an opposition to communism, while various writers—from Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises to Russell Kirk and Michael Oakeshott—sought something resembling a unifying theory through the rich pages of Adam Smith’s economics and the deep prose of Edmund Burke’s traditionalism.

What now remains? Hardly a single concern is common to everyone labeled a conservative, and the chance of finding a meaningful pattern in the Right’s political muddle appears hopelessly remote.