Article VI Blog

Well, not all of it, some of these links are only a day old, but all are worth considering.

Same sex marriage is not going anywhere as an issue.  HT: coMITTed to Romney for this FoxNEWS piece:

For the second consecutive weekend, about 100 people gathered to stage a “kiss-in” to protest the treatment of two gay men cited for trespassing July 9 after they shared a kiss on the plaza owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.  Frankly I know churches where “PDAs” (Public Displays of Affection) are verboten with opposite sex couples.  (Old joke – Why don’t Baptists have sex standing up? – It might lead to dancing.)   I disagree, but have the simple common courtesy to comply with their wishes when I am there.  And of source, there is the issue of singling out the CJCLDS.  If a same sex couple decided to “mack” on the patio of my Presbyterian Church I’d ask them to move on as well, where are my protests?

Moreover, the issue is dividing one of the oldest, best run civil rights organizations in the country – The Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  Courtesy one of our readers, here is the story from the NYTimes and some analysis from GetReligion.

I am increasingly afraid of this issue.  I do not see a willingness to compromise on the liberal side.  We have conceded and conceded – think civil union – and they are unwilling to accept anything as enough.  Were our opposition more numerous, this would be the stuff of civil war – but under current conditions it is just the stuff of terrorism.  I wonder how long it is before “kiss-ins” turn to vandalism, as it did in the wake of the passage of Prop 8, or worse?  Like, say, making religious belief illegal.

Patrick Buchanan plays identity politics.   I agree with his point, but there has to be a better way to make it.

Some mistakes don’t go away easy.

This story offends me:

In the midst of a global recession, religious leaders are looking beyond the recent regulatory fixes and bailouts aimed at repairing an ailing financial system.

They are questioning the underlying assumptions of a market economy that they say has lost its moral bearings.

Markets and economies do not have moral bearings – people do.   I have not read the source materials the writer refers to here, but I have to think he is reading his own socialist agenda into the pronouncements of both the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury (although the later is a bit of a socialist).

I would have to get all preachy to refute this thing and we try to avoid that here, but I really hate that people are going to read this and think it is what religious people think.

Finally, are libertarians and conservative Christians compatible in the Republican party?  The linked blog post points out a “survey” (read blog poll) wherein 67% of respondents would vote for an atheist president.  The source of the statistic and the size of the sampling make its citation laughable.

But what is worth noting is a couple of things.  One is that, the tenor of this post from a libertarian points out how Christian conservatives have played identity politics and made others, who often share many of the same goals, feel left out.   The other is that splits inside the party still have a long way to go to be really healed.  Whatever unity is occurring is occurring because of of the nature of the current opposition.  It seems that many inside the party view it more as an alliance with Stalin than a genuine coming together.  If that is the case, we cannot hold power for long, assuming we can get it to begin with.   There is a lot of work left to do.

Lowell adds some tea-leaf reading:  My vacation reading pile included this Gallup poll:  

 Among Republican and Republican-leaning voters, the former Massachusetts governor is the favored candidate by 26%, followed closely by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at 21%, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 19%, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 14%, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at 3%, and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour at 2%.

While Palin trails Romney, she leads both he and Huckabee in favorability ratings with some 72% holding favorable views of her, compared to 59% for Huckabee and 56% for Romney.

It’s ridiculously early to be thinking seriously about Romney v. Palin v. Huckabee, but the numbers are interesting just the same.    I haven’t drilled down into the numbers, but my guess is that Huck and Palin are fighting over the same slice of the GOP base.  If they both run in 2012 it wil be fascinating to see how that battles resolves itself.

Then there’s this from Rasmussen:

If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

The president, seeking a second four-year term, beats another potential GOP rival, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, by six points – 48% to 42%.

This blog may be around for a while yet, folks.

Posted in Reading List | 1 Comment » |  Print this post |  Email This Post

Recently Posted:

• The Animal Takes A Swipe Through The Cage Bars
• Dennis Prager Addresses The Question
• The Animal Is Caged, But Very Dangerous
• What Everybody Is Thinking And No One Is Saying
• We Interrupt The Serious Blog…