...and no weasels:

Nobody could have predicted...oh screw it, everybody knew reactionary Evangelicals would suck it up and back the GOP nominee, whoever he might be:

More than 90 evangelical leaders representing millions of conservative Christians met in Denver on Tuesday to lament the condition of the religious conservative movement and to conclude they should get behind Sen. John McCain even if they didn’t like everything about him as a candidate.
         
“The alternative is so bad we must support John McCain,” said Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of Eagle Forum, adding that the leaders should have held a strategy meeting in 2001 when it was clear Vice President Dick Cheney wouldn’t run for president instead of waiting until four months before the 2008 election.

Oh, honestly. The conservative ideology is so far spent that all they can think to do is throw out more sophisticated versions of school-yard taunts. In this case: "So are you!"

Critics of “Christendom” or “Christianism” vary widely. But the more left-leaning critics just got a bit of a blow with Obama’s newly-professed support of faith-based initiatives. Crunchy Con Rod Dreher points out the quandry in which this puts Obama supporters, like Andrew Sullivan.

It’s always been clear to me that liberals don’t really object to religion in public life; they object to conservative religion in public life. Church-state, “Christianist” talk is just rhetorical expediency. After all, how many liberals would have objected to the Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans excommunicating obstreperous segregationist politicians in the 1960s?

I think Dreher makes an excellent point. Christians who are concerned with establishing the independent polis of the Church have reason to be concerned about government-funded/faith-based initiatives. Because the present “conservative” administration first championed the movement, those on the left had an easy target. It’s easy to rail against the “Christianism” of a political movement you hate. But, really—American civil religion has always been championed just as much by the left. Perhaps even more so. The Victorian Social Gospel wasn’t exactly driven by proto-neocons.

No, it isn't an excellent point. It's more wanking from Dreher, who never met a facile point he could pass up. It's quite true that some folks on the left have problems with Obama's continuation of Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives (it's not a new position, by the way).

But for crying in the night, can you blame them? It's not like this program doesn't have a track record. It was designed to shovel money at religious conservatives, many of whom have no use for teh queer like Andrew Sullivan. The church-state concerns raised by faith-based programs may be justified, or they may not. But they're hardly beyond the pale, and they're hardly just partisan slings and arrows.

And since when does Andrew Sullivan get to represent the left? And since when do all liberals object to conservative religion in public life? They often criticize it, but there's hardly a widespread movement to disenfranchise Southern Baptists.

This is really just a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't logical fallacy. If liberals admit that they like Obama's position, then aha! They have to admit that Pat Robertson and his protein shakes weren't all that bad!! And if they say they don't care for it, then aha! Democrats are in disarray and if they get their way Richard Dawkins will teach your children to hate America!!! What a load. Burdening policy preferences with social conflict is the cheapest of cheap shots. Anybody who's read Rod Dreher (or Jonah Goldberg, or Michele Malkin, or...) knows that.

But to Davey Henreckson's point, aren't you forgetting the neo-orthodox challenge to civil religion? Obama is certainly aware of Niebuhr's critique of political overreaching, all the more reason to hold him up to high standards on his use of religious institutions as a tool of public policy. Because surely the only thing worse than governmental arrogance in thinking it can solve the problems of the world is to having the church conned into thinking it can do the same, given enough money and government direction. You don't have to be a "secularist" to think that might be something of a problem.

Please join our community in prayer.  Just leave your prayer requests and pray for the requests of the community. I welcome all people to join in as the power of prayer/good energy is undeniable.

If you have any favorite prayers or passages or quotes or meditations, please send them to me to share, meeshka1@msn dot com

Please do not argue about the requests of others--you may do that elsewhere!!! If you wish to offer comments of support--please do so! If you choose to rate prayer requests, I like to use a "4" as an AMEN! If you disagree with a request, please just refrain from rating--this is a place where people need to feel they can reveal and unburden their hearts without being criticized. Should any trolls come our way, just surround them with prayer.

Prayer requests remain on the list based upon my judgment.  Removing requests is my decision.  I have no hard and fast rules--I simply act when the list seems to get too long or it seems the request no longer applies.  If I take one off which you would like to remain, please simply request it again.  If the request can be removed earlier, please let me know.  I'm sure we all would appreciate an update.

Thank you!

There's more:

WATER FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Matthew 25 Network has run its first ad on Focus on the Family radio. It's not acceptable:*

Narrator: You know it's an election year when certain people start grabbing headlines by attacking the faith of Presidential candidates. With all these stones being cast at Senator Obama, it can be hard to know what to believe. But in Luke, Jesus taught us that we must listen to what a man says because "out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks." So here are words from Senator Obama's heart:

See John 8:7 - "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

See Luke 6:45 - "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

Obama: "I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in people's lives"

Call To Renewal, time 8:30-8:36

"kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt that I heard God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth."

Call To Renewal, time and 14:53-15:05

Narrator: Paid for by Matthew 25 Network, Matthew 25.org, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Matthew 25 Network is responsible for the content of this ad because we think it's time for a better Christian witness in politics.

I like Barack Obama. I like his faith.** Up until recently, we shared that faith pretty much exactly. Time and again, I have defended his right to talk about his faith. Hell, for all I care, candidates can talk about their love of pooties if it helps voters get to know them. And yes, Obama has to overplay this hand in a sense to defeat the Bad-Christian-Muslim-Secularist-Infidel rumors that swirl around him.

But all that being said, do we really need a presidential campaign based on out-Jesusing the other side?

At what point do we stop speaking in the language of conservative Evangelicals and actually become them?

And what happened to the Matthew 25 network that was going to reach out to moderate Evangelicals, Catholics, and mainline Protestants? This is not outreach. This is playing to Dobson's base and trying to convince them that Obama's just like them. This is running to the right of the party on faith issues.

I'm not down on that.

I agree that "it's time for a better Christian witness in politics." But the way to do that is to allow Christians to be progressives, not to squeeze them into the square holes of Dobsonite Evangelicaldom.

What's next? An ad proclaiming that Obama is in favor of whipping weiner dogs, just like Doctor Daddy?

I could go into all the ways this is wrong at some length. As it happens, the inimitable Bill in Portland Maine quotes the inimitable Lewis Black this morning. It seems like an appropriate rejoinder:

I have never given a shit what religion the president is. He could worship a can of peas for all I care. I just want him to be good at what we elected him to do, which is to lead the United States of America. ...

Of course, if the president is going to be really religious, it would be nice to know that up front, before we elect him. For instance, it would have been helpful to know that Bush the Younger was going to view himself as God's hammer. That's the kind of information I consider important.

I guess the lesson we learned with this administration---or at least that some of us have learned---is to watch when the son of a bitch keeps blowing the religious horn. Maybe we could have convinced him he would have been happier as a preacher instead of the leader of the free world.

I know I would have been.

Amen. Preach it, Brother Lewis.

How bad is the GOP?  

The Swing State Project has put together the most comprehensive compendium of Republican hubris, f*ckups and misfortunes you will find anywhere, ever. Call it the "Year of Living Catastrophically", if you will. I hope you packed a snack, because this is gonna take a while.

The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency

Watch out below....

Please join our community in prayer.  Just leave your prayer requests and pray for the requests of the community. I welcome all people to join in as the power of prayer/good energy is undeniable.

If you have any favorite prayers or passages or quotes or meditations, please send them to me to share, meeshka1@msn dot com

Please do not argue about the requests of others--you may do that elsewhere!!! If you wish to offer comments of support--please do so! If you choose to rate prayer requests, I like to use a "4" as an AMEN! If you disagree with a request, please just refrain from rating--this is a place where people need to feel they can reveal and unburden their hearts without being criticized. Should any trolls come our way, just surround them with prayer.

Prayer requests remain on the list based upon my judgment.  Removing requests is my decision.  I have no hard and fast rules--I simply act when the list seems to get too long or it seems the request no longer applies.  If I take one off which you would like to remain, please simply request it again.  If the request can be removed earlier, please let me know.  I'm sure we all would appreciate an update.

Thank you!

There's more:

My bonus room is a dump.  Well, a dumping ground, at least. Our intent has always been to use it as a guest room/kid playroom/media room, but instead, it seems to get filled with outgrown clothing, toys from yesteryear, and the general flotsam and jetsam of 21st century suburban, family-of-four life.  It has become a kind of "stuff" purgatory, where things that aren't of immediate use to us, but may still have life for another person or purpose, get placed until we get a spare moment (ha!) to decide their fate.

Of course, those moments seldom arrive, and essentially we end up with an entire room of the house devoted to storage vs. any practical or enjoyable use. And storage of things we don't even want or need anymore.

So it was with great delight that the kids and I began tackling the boxes and piles and bags today.  We sorted the clothes and loaded them up-- one set ready to go to the neighbors and another set delivered to our local church charity ministry.  We went through old school papers and child-art, and were ruthless in keeping only those 2 or 3 pieces that really had emotional or sentimental resonance.  We gave away a half dozen board games, most played with only once or twice and one still in its original wrappings, and we organized and re-dressed and re-capitated a good 15-16 Barbies, which my daughter has not looked at for at least 2 years or longer-- the last time the Barbies held any entertainment value for her, she and a few of her friends decided it would be great fun to stip off all the Barbie clothes and try to put them on the Beanie Babies instead, and just for fun while they were at it, carefully separate each Barbie-body from the long-blonde-haired Barbie-head.  It was a bit unsettling, let me tell you, to come across an entire bin of naked, headless Barbie dolls.

But at the end of the day, there are some clean spaces, both in the physical room and in my housekeeping-consciousness.  There are items now in the hands of people who can enjoy them. And it's great to think that soon again I can be using that room for guests intead of guilt.

So what are you cleaning up or cleaning out?  What's in your own corners and piles, both real and emotional?  How's your summer going?  And as always, what are you drinking, and what's for dinner?  This is an open thread.

It's getting billed as a major new development, but really it's more of a continuation with a few tweaks:

Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio, at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

"The challenges we face today ... are simply too big for government to solve alone," Obama was to say, according to a prepared text of his remarks obtained by The Associated Press. "We need all hands on deck."

[editor's note, by PoliSigh] I have a very early morning today--see you tomorrow!


Please join our community in prayer.  Just leave your prayer requests and pray for the requests of the community. I welcome all people to join in as the power of prayer/good energy is undeniable.

If you have any favorite prayers or passages or quotes or meditations, please send them to me to share, meeshka1@msn dot com

Please do not argue about the requests of others--you may do that elsewhere!!! If you wish to offer comments of support--please do so! If you choose to rate prayer requests, I like to use a "4" as an AMEN! If you disagree with a request, please just refrain from rating--this is a place where people need to feel they can reveal and unburden their hearts without being criticized. Should any trolls come our way, just surround them with prayer.

Prayer requests remain on the list based upon my judgment.  Removing requests is my decision.  I have no hard and fast rules--I simply act when the list seems to get too long or it seems the request no longer applies.  If I take one off which you would like to remain, please simply request it again.  If the request can be removed earlier, please let me know.  I'm sure we all would appreciate an update.

Thank you!

There's more:

I don't blame him, nobody really understands us, not even us. But this is not quite right:

As James Dobson has inartfully pointed out, Obama is not a traditional evangelical when it comes to biblical interpretation and certain moral issues. But this should hardly surprise us, since Obama has never claimed to be. He came to faith in the United Church of Christ, one of America's defining liberal denominations -- the first to ordain women (in 1853) and to endorse same-sex marriage (in 2005). Obama is properly understood as a man of the religious left, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. According to a recent poll by Calvin College's Henry Institute, Obama has expanded his appeal among mainline Protestants (who, it is often forgotten, are traditionally Republican). But he also seems determined to call an evangelical bluff: Since you now praise King as a model of religious involvement in politics, you need at least to consider me.

In fact, as I've said many times before, while the UCC has many liberal aspects to it - including the national setting, which is where it gets its progressive image - there are many very traditional or even conservative types in the denomination.

Witness a conversation I had with a couple of guys from Salem last week:

MEMBER #1: Have you heard all this baloney about not drilling in the Arctic because they want to protect the caribou and the bears? We're paying $4.00 a gallon here, we've got all this oil we're sitting on, and they're not doing nothing!

ME: Uh, actually, it would take about 17 years for that oil to make it to market, and even then it would only change prices by a penny or two.

MEMBER #1: So what? We're going to need that oil sooner or later!

MEMBER #2: Yeah, I don't trust that Lambada guy. You just can't believe anything he says.

ME: Obama. His name is Obama.

MEMBER #1: Lambada or Obama, whatever. He's just like all the rest of them. I'm not voting for him or McCain. I'm going to write in Daffy Duck or just leave it blank.

ME: Okay...

As you can tell, elitist academic leftists abound in our church.

Anyway, Gerson also implies that Obama is reaching out beyond the UCC to mainline Protestants, which is of course silly. We are mainliners, and up until recently, we leaned more Republican than Democrat, just like everybody else (except the UU's).

But that's changing now. Mainline Protestants have swung away from the GOP, and it seems unlikely that they're coming back any time soon. In other words, Obama's not moving from left to center - he's staying in the middle, exactly where he and his denomination have always been.