COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

By Maire Mhac an tSaoi.



Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

Much love to all.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Christianity, Christmas, Jesus, personal

The Thomas More Law Center files a Friend of the Court Brief opposing the ACLU.

At issue is a small cross originally erected on Sunrise Rock in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in memory of the dead of all wars. The cross is located in California’s Mojave Desert, in a remote area where the only visible signs of human activity are off-road vehicles and trail hikers. The ACLU succeeded in its anti-cross agenda by obtaining a ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that the cross violated the so-called separation of church and state. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, Ken Salazar v. Frank Buono.

I swear - the ACLU isn't staffed by liberals so much as sociopaths.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: ACLU, Christianity, in memoriam, law, Religion, soldiers' issues, stupid, The Left

I'm off to play music.

Easter thoughts from the Anchoress.

And my favorite Easter song:

Labels: Catholicism, Chieftains, Christianity, Easter, Ireland

Apparently, to Time's Amy Sullivan, the phrase "Bible-believing Christian" is "code."

Well, she's right. It's code for "Bible-believing Christian," you drooling genius!

You would think Sullivan would do a better job than she does with this hack of an article. After all, she's the author of "The Party Faithful: How the Democrats are Closing the God Gap. (Answer: Simple! Ronald Reagan isn't running!). And she claims to be an evangelical herself (though apparently doesn't understand it beyond the Wikipedia homework level.)

Case in point: Here's Sullivan on the "task from God flap from Palin's Charlie Gibson interview:

But Palin herself has at times consciously distanced herself from her Evangelical faith. When asked by ABC's Charlie Gibson about a comment for which she has been criticized — asking her former congregation to pray that U.S. soldiers in Iraq are "on a task that is from God" — Palin argued that she had been paraphrasing an Abraham Lincoln quote. In fact, she had used fairly standard Evangelical language in expressing a desire that human actions conform with God's will. In trying to separate herself from that tradition, Palin's explanation struck both secular critics and many Evangelicals as scripted by political strategists.

This is stupid beyond description. Sullivan sets up an absolutely false dichotomy. There is no contradiction between paraphrasing an Abraham Lincoln quotation and being connected to Christian tradition. It is certainly conceivable that Palin is not the first evangelical to quote Lincoln, for example. And the Lincoln quote is certainly a matter of publicly available record.

At the same time, however, Palin's statement is firmly rooted in a longstanding Christian tradition of praying for those in authority...which certainly predates the Iraq War. Indeed, it goes all the way back to Pauline New Testament writings (specifically, I'm thinking of I Timothy 2:1-2

"I urge then first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

What evangelicals are praying for, when they pray for "those in authority," is precisely what Palin was saying: That we should pray that those in authority make decisions in humility and align public policy with the designs of a living and loving God. In other words, we should pray that our politicians and leaders should work to ensure that we are on God's side.

But wait: Sullivan get's even dumber:

And in her interview with Couric, Palin was, if not ashamed, purposefully vague about her churchgoing habits. "I don't have a church, I'm not a member of any church," she said. "I get to visit a couple of churches in Alaska when I'm home, including one, Wasilla Bible Church." Church-hopping is a common practice for many religious Americans, but it is relatively unusual for Evangelicals with children to shift among a number of churches instead of belonging to one stable faith community.

What do you mean "if not ashamed?" Amy? Why would you use such a damning, yet mealy-mouthed construction? (Imagine if I had written that "Amy Sullivan is, if not a child molester, purposefully vague about her child-rearing habits." Inappropriate? You betcha.

It is not for Amy to draw conclusions or inferences by clucking her tongue at whether Palin chooses to attend a variety of churches. I would imagine that Palin probably has close friends at a number of congregations, and occasionally chooses to accompany one group or another. Perhaps Palin doesn't feel the need for a "stable faith community" in one church, because her stable faith community exists in more than one church!

Sullivan's argument, such as it is, is just ridiculous. She should not be clucking her tongue at Palin and looking down her nose at another Christian's decision to church hop. There is nothing in the new testament that requires any Christian to attend one and one church only.

But Sullivan gets dumber still:

It is this Pentecostal association that most concerns and confuses the McCain campaign.

Sullivan basis this observation on...on.. on what, exactly? There's no sourcing cited in the article at all. Why? Because she pulled it out of her ass, that's why!!!!

As Minnery makes clear, millions of Evangelicals have accepted Palin because of her membership in a Bible church. But there is no denying that mainstream Evangelicals and Pentecostals, while political allies on many social issues, have historically had significant tensions over theological differences. The Evangelicals' swoon for Palin might fade if it turns out that she continues to hold fast to Pentecostal practices and beliefs.

Ridiculous. Yes, mainstream Protestants and evangelicals are a bit puzzled by the practices of charismatics and pentacostals. But those who are deeply enough ensconced in Christian practice to understand and articulate the differences between mainstream protestantism and the evangelical movement is probably NOT voting for Obama!

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Christianity, Palin, Politics, Religion

This one comes from Chris.

As a confirmed vagina-sniffer, I take great offense to your labeling of the blogging of Andrew Sullivan as a vagina-sniffing. I've been a vagina-sniffer my whole adult life, and enjoy this magnificent practice immensely. All the vagina-sniffers I know are fine upstanding members of the community that enjoy rewarding careers and come from all walks of life. If there were more vagina-sniffers, and more vagina-sniffing, this world no doubt, would be a better place. I request, nay demand, that you retract your label of Andrew Sullivan as a vagina-sniffer.

I stand here convicted. As a Christian, I strive to live up to the standards God holds for me every day...even knowing that every day I will fall short of His glory, and I must therefore rely on grace and His mercy for redemption.

I should not have pointed out the speck in Mr. Sullivan's eye without having first stopped to consider the plank 50-foot steel girder in my own.

Indeed, given what I know about Mr. Sullivan's, er, proclivities, I would assume that he is even less prone to be a practicing vagina-sniffer than I.

Squirt, out

Jason

Labels: Christianity, Humor

TalkLeft just discovered that people who attend Christian churches are actually Christians.

Who knew?

Please, lefttards....PLEEEEEAAAAAASE make an issue out of Palin's pastor. The contrast between her pastor (if you go to the Harper's link, there is nothing they've dug up that is at variance with or outside of the conservative Christian or evangelical mainstream. The contrast could not be more damning to Obama/Wright.

These people are so stupid they'll shoot themselves in the foot out of spite, to get vengeance on conservatives for digging up Reverend Wright's vile sermons. Which is doubly stupid, because Jeralyn is not stupid.

ADDED: And in the comments:

What I find is interesting is how I feel as a Christian who happens to be a Democrat reading some of the comments re Palin.
It is astonishing to me how much my Liberal and Democratic Progressive friends are starting to sound like the Republicans I have known all my life here in East TN.

I consider myself a Progressive Christian because I do not believe that my beliefs are the only viable beliefs, but I would be considered to be a creationist.

Suddenly, I find that among many "progressives" I am considered backward, stupid and laughable.

I thought we were the party of tolerance? It seems that many of us have about as much tolerance as those we proclaim to challenge.

Well, the Democratic Party has soiled itself. It's now the party of religious bigotry. (Unless you go to an Amerikkka-hating church. Then it's ok, and you get nominated for president.)

Splash, out,

Jason

Labels: Christianity, Democrats, Palin, The Left

There has been much hoo-hah over the last couple of days over John McCain's story of a guard who had loostened his bonds overnight, and who later, on Christmas day, stood alongside McCain outside of his cell and wordlessly drew a cross in the dirt with his foot, stood alongside McCain for several minutes, before erasing it to avoid punishment from his own superiors in the Communist Vietnamese hierarchy.

The lefties, without evidence, accuse McCain of plagiarizing the account from Solzhinitsen -- as if no Christian under persecution could ever have made such a gesture before in recorded history.

By the time of the McCain incident, the Ichthys fish was in common usage as a symbol of Christianity, having been revived from the early Christians living under Roman persecution - a fact that seems to have been lost on the undereducated moron who penned the Kos diary, who heard the story and missed the historical resonance of the gesture, instead laughably thinking that it sounded something like a scene of Ben Hur.

Well, if it does appear in Ben Hur, it's because Cecil B. DeMille did more homework than libtards are accustomed to doing. According to Christian traditions that rather predate the Viet Nam War, early Christians would draw one of the two arcs of the Ichthys symbol in the dirt with their feet. If the person they met in the street was another Christian, the other person would complete the fish. The relentlessly secularist libtards wouldn't know about this piece of history: in their ignorance, they think Solzhinitzen must have made it up out of whole cloth. But Wikipedia says that the Ichthys symbol was back in usage in the Pacific Rim in the 1960s as a discreet symbol of Christian fellowship. (It's not so discreet now that lots of people have Jesus Fish on the backs of their cars. But it was then.)

My point: A practicing Christian would likely have been familiar with the practice of drawing a cross or fish in the dirt with his or her feet - especially a Christian who was practising their faith under the risk of imprisonment, torture, or death, like McCain was, and like that Vietnamese guard.

It's a gesture that has historical resonance to a Christian that it does not to the secular wing of Libtardism, which is no doubt the wing advancing the plagiarism accusation.

The story cannot be proven false; and certainly rings true to me, as entirely plausible.

And libtards, of course, are always stupid.

Labels: Christianity, McCain, The Left, Viet Nam