Today’s Reading List – September 18, 2007

Posted by: John Schroeder at 05:18 am, September 18th 2007 — Comment on this post »

The Real Enemy Rears Its Head…

Bill Maher and Larry Charles have a movie out there. Says Christianity Today:

Both men expect controversy as the film continues to gain momentum, with Charles calling the movie "pan-offensive." Maher adds: "People who say they're religious say they're humble, but they're arrogant, because they say they have all the answers."

Here's the take from the Toronto International Film Festival. CT further quotes:

Charles says that while some films "poke gentle fun" at religion, he and Maher hope to "stab it to death."

Every time we fight over religious labels, we give guys like this fuel. IF you have any doubt, check this out from The Democratic Strategist, courtesy Ramesh Ponnuru:

Lord 'a' mercy! For the self-styled Party of the Godly, the GOP is certainly having a lot of religious issues with its presidential field. There's Mitt Romney's Mormonism. There's Rudy Giuliani's rather tenuous relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. There's the question as to whether Fred Thompson is a member of the conservative Church of Christ or the progressive United Church of Christ, or doesn't go to church at all. There's Sam Brownback's conversion from Methodism to Catholicism via the controversial Opus Dei organization. And for those Republicans, if there are any, who are scrupulous about separation of church and state, Mike Huckabee's position as an ordained Southern Baptist minister might raise a few eyebrows.

That paragraph just amazes me. There should be only one question that matters – are those various churches consistent with the public religion? And yes, they all are. Reading that sounds to me vaguely like the old stuff you used to read about "high yellows" and "darkies" and whether Julian Bond's skin tone was really dark enough to represent black people. We really are supposed to be better than that.

And why is it that Democrats are noticing labels so? I thought they were the party of non-discrimination?

LOWELL adds: They are also the party where secularism is most at home. That's an unhappy and disturbing aspect of today's politics– we have one major party (the GOP) where active believers tend to congregate, and another (the Democrats) where non-believers tend to congregate. (I am generalizing, or course.) The take-home message for religious conservatives of all stripes is that the Democrats and their fellow-travelers in the MSM are spoiling for a fight — among religious conservatives! The left-leaning elements in both groups have purchased ringside seats to what they hope will be a messy battle. Looks like Maher's movie is the preview.

ANNOUNCMENT!

Here's your chance to see Romney speak without writing a huge check to the campaign – the FRC Action sponsored Washington Briefing. They just reduced the registration fees. It's a real opportunity to see pretty much everybody who is anybody in religion and politics.

Finally…

Wish I'd thought of this.