Children and God

The concepts of human and God seem to be separate is one of the findings of a new study reported by Mixing Memory. It's an old study, but still worth reading.

Too many women

I follow scienceblogs.com semireligiously. Thus spake Zuska has a great article on women in science. Why do we still need to be vocal about our feminism?

Mr. Mackey

"Drugs are bad. Okay.If you do drugs, you're bad. Okay.So don't do drugs. Okay." MR MACKEY in "South Park"

Chavez

"Tell me, my friend, what has become more clear to you since last we met?"
-Caezar Chavez

Belatedly entered for Veteran's Day

God of the ages, we thank you for all who have served in the armed forces ofthis country. Comfort those who grieve for those who gave the last fullmeasure of devotion. Strengthen those who bear physical, emotional, andspiritual wounds. Stand with those who provide care to them. Move us toreach out to sisters and brothers. Guide us to work for the day when no oneneeds to serve in the military. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

This prayer comes from pcusa.org

Augustine on Genesis

In his work on The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Augustine writes that:even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which peoples how up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. … If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books.

Shaw

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

Influence or Control

One of the biggest problems for Christianity came when Constantine decided to support it as the religion of the state. When the church comes into power or begins to seek power then it falters in following Jesus. When the church seeks to influence power, to become the prophetic voice, then it is the yeast that makes the loaf rise. We who are Christians aren’t called to be the whole of the world. We are asked to call the world to Christ. When we confuse the roles we begin to lose sight of who is supposed to be our Lord. We get so involved with getting the power to achieve our agenda, that we forget our agenda in favor of gaining power..

The problem that evangelicals and fundamentalists have had recently is that they have begun to identify one political party and one or two candidates with God. Liberals have done the same on occasion. Every Christian group has made that mistake and I suspect we will continue to do so. And that’s why we must continue to think how can we influence and speak to the powers of this world without being seduced by the idea of being powerful.

Micah 6:8 has a little summary of what we should do. What does the Lord require? The answer is to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. It’s not to sit in the seats of the powerful, to have the place of honor at the banquet, and to be sought by the paparazzi. It’s not to say, as did James Dobson, "The only vote a Christian can cast is for a pro-life Republican." (I’ve been unable to remember where I saw this so don’t have a citation. I’ll keep looking.)

“How do we remain in the world but not of the world?’ is probably the question we should be asking. When we do this we don’t get trapped into admiring the trappings of power and prestige. We don’t get seduced by being welcomed by the powerful and wealthy. We start to ask at what price wealth, at what cost privilege, what do we give up in faith to gain access and the view is completely different.

For Christians the world should be turned upside down. The halls of power are not our birthright; instead we should be born into washing the feet of those in need. The seats of honor are not our chairs, instead it we should be on our knee scrubbing the floor with those who serve. We are those who sell what we have that we may help the poor rather working to accumulate possessions and wealth. We are called to influence the rulers of this world by our actions and prophetic calls rather than to work to become a ruler of this world.

We should work to influence the world, but not be a part of this world. We are called to be a prophetic voice that encourages corrective actions rather than those who set the laws. Yes some of us may be amongst those who rule and those who are wealthy, but those of us who are placed in that position should be working so that we have the corrective voice ever-present in our lives so that we are not seduced by that power and privilege.

And it is seductive. Oh, if only I had power I could fix this and prevent that. Oh with wealth I could help so many more people. And those things are true. The problem is that we make compromises to get power and gain wealth. If we go in with our eyes wide open about the goal and the compromises we can walk through the fire. But if we go in thinking we will get there without having to compromise one jot or tittle, then we’ll start fooling ourselves as we gain power and wealth. And in that fooling ourselves then our goals become confused and lose sight of where we are called.

Christianist

I recently came across what I believe to be a good analysis of what is happening between the presidency and some of the Christianist movements at the New York Review of Books. Take a look.

Depression

It's not all in the head. There's new evidence on depression - that it induces bone loss. More information at the Frontal Cortex.

Gay marriage strengthens marriages - the statistics are in

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars has a summation of what is actually a number of studies. There are several studies from countries where same-sex marriages are allowed, they point to the same conclusion and it's not what the opponents of same-sex marriages say.

For a more in-depth look checkout the book by Eskridge and Spedale called "Gay Marriage: For Better or for Worse? What We've Learned from the Evidence."

Buechner

All moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.
Frederick Buechner

They knew Haggard was gay?!

Andrew Sullivan links to a site where the Rev. Louis Sheldon admits to knowing that Haggard was homosexual. Is it in wonder that some of us use the word 'hypocrisy' to describe this whole mess. The problem isn't about his lack of faithfulness as much as the hiding of that by Haggard and others in the evangelical/fundamentalist/Christianist world.

Churchill

"Americans will always do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the alternatives," - Winston Churchill.

the brusing truth

"So long as our government requires the backing of an aroused and informed
public opinion ... it is necessary to tell the hard bruising truth."

Marguerite Higgins

‘The truth that bruises…’ is a phrase that we should remember. It’s not that truth always bruises, but it can. And those bruises can provide the lesson that we need. We, who claim to be Christian, have images in our memory of being told that we are training for a race, that we are gold being refined, and as clay being molded. Those are not images of comfortable living. Those are images that call us to go where we can be hurt.

And yet if we are training for an event don't we come away with bruises and sprains and other injuries. And we as Christians are given the example of a runner preparing for a race. We shouldn't ask for it to be easy, but that the training be done well. When we look for the easy way - our pastor always knows what’s right - in one fashion or another – the Bible has all the answers - then we fall prey to wanting things to be our way rather than taking a look at reality. I hope the discoveries about Haggard are not used to pull him down and forget about what happened. I hope that they become an opportunity for discussions about what happens when one's sexuality is denied, when one is forced to live a lie, the dangers when one comes into or seeks power and prestige and more. I hope that there is an opportunity not just for abuse, but also for reflection. What I see from the gay press is mostly sympathy (albeit with a few gleeful sounds), what I see from the mainstream press is here are the facts (albeit in a way that sometimes sounds a little gleeful over who's got their hand caught in the cookie jar), and from the evangelical/fundamentals something like 'he couldn't have done it but if he did he's good for denying that it was him for so long'. These are gross over-simplifications, but... I want to see more reflection on what sort of world we are looking for and how do we help our leaders as well as what do we expect from them.

One of the things we should expect from our leaders is the truth. Yes there are some things that should be kept private, classified, or not mentioned. But that should be for some other reason than convenience or embarrassment. Too often, as in the case of Haggard, the lack of disclosure of sexual improprieties is about embarrassment or, as in the case Bush admitting to lies about Rumsfeld’s departure, convenience or, again, as in the cover-up of a soldier who committed suicide after having protests over torture dismissed, convenience.

The truth may hurt, but without it we will fail miserably. We may not make the right choices with the truth but we surely won’t make the right choices unless we have the truth.

belloc

When I am dead, I hope it may be said:"His sins were scarlet, but all his books were read." Hilaire Belloc

Neanderthal News

One of my favorite hymn writers gave his name to the Neanderthal man. Neander had a favorite valley to which he retreated and the valley was named after him. Thus 'Neander's valley' or in the language in which he wrote 'Neander thal' and then 'Neanderthal'. And where were the first bones of Neanderthals recognized? - - - serindipitous connections.

Over at scienceblogs.com Neanderthal's are in the news today. The question of where did Neanderthals go is finally being answered. Homo sapiens didn't kill the Neanderthals, they had children with them. Some links are at evolgen, PNAS, Pharyngula, Gene Expression, and probably more. Discoveries like these are why I thought, once upon a time, of becoming a scientist. Then I realized that the research wasn't for me. Reading about it is enough.

A muslim in congress.

A muslim is elected to congress. I'm pleased. Freedom of religion means just that - freedom of religion. But some see this as the beginning of the end. For more information go to Rapture Ready. I've always thought that if our faith was worth anything we didn't need to worry about other religions, evidently I'm wrong. The worries I'm hearing seem a little bit like those that came when we elected a Roman Catholic as president of the U.S.A. The question I have is - do we take our civil liberties seriously or not? If they're just paid lip service then they're worth nothing. We have to stand up and be counted in suport of those who do not worship the way we do so that we can have freedom to worship the way we choose.

The Stranger

For another look at the signs that could have been seen with open eyes comes an article about Haggard's worship place being the gayest place on earth. from the stranger

Wayne Besen

If you play political games don't come crying when they're played by someone else.

In an interesting twist, social conservatives originally whined that the
timing of the Haggard outing was political. They might be right, but too bad.
Having played the sexual orientation card as an election year ploy for decades,
they are in no position to complain about this November ballot box
boomerang.

from Besen