Who’s Running For What – Evangelical News – and more…
The stack of stuff has grown, once again, quite deep. I apologize that I have not been able to link to all of it on Twitter as we compiled it, but we did get the meatiest of it up over the last few days. So if you want to stay as up-to-the-minute as your humble bloggers, be sure and follow us on Twitter. We also find a nice little community building on Facebook. Join us there where there is opportunity for extended discussion. Who knows, you might even get a little insight into the personal lives of your humble bloggers – we’re still trying to figure out how best to use this stuff. Your insights there are welcome.
Shot At Mormons?
Oh yeah – Slate has named President Monson the nation’s most influential octogenarian. Slate’s anti-Mormon bias is well known to regular readers of this blog as their editor Jacob Weisberg penned the most bigoted single line of all of Campaign ‘08 – “the founding whoppers of Mormonism.” In declaring President Monson “powerful,” they are purposefully evoking the image of Mormons as entranced followers of a “cult.” It would be pathetic if so many Evangelicals were not willing to buy into it. And the left is far from done with its Mormon bashing.
So, Who’s Running and Why?
Romney
Prevaricates? Well, not really – no one actually decides this early, but this quote does point out something I know from personal exposure to the man:
“Clearly, if President Obama happened to be doing a great job, as I had hoped he would do when he got elected, why, that would influence my thoughts,”
Mitt Romney is in this not because he wants to be president, but because he wants to serve the best interests of the nation. That is an important distinction and one many candidates over look. There was a local TV spot looking at his future, showing Romney doing what his real concentration is right now – helping Republicans win. Does that make him the party’s “head” while Palin is its “heart”? Which brings us to…
Palin
Some think there is more to her than just “heart. Some think, and I tend to agree, she will not run. Her communication strategy is more audience building that constituency building. Facebook, by its nature, has “edges to the tent” useful as a tool for the very committed, but exclusive as a primary means of communication.
Leaving for our discussion…
Pawlenty
Is he the man to challenge Huckabee in Iowa? Some say yes. Some, rightly in this blog’s opinion, wonder about the future of Iowa in general. Barring a major shake-up in the primary scheduling, Pawlenty needs Iowa, as Romney did last time. Huckabee’s likely candidacy will once again serve a “spoiler” role, but it may not be Romney that gets spoiled this time around.
Speaking Of Communication Strategy…
There is a certain hubris born of a complicit press that is hard to be believed. Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director, and admiring quoter of Mao, talks about how she is able to control the press. I am sure she thinks that, but she forgets that no one controls the press unless they want to be controlled – and the press never wants to think it is being controlled. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Finally…
Evangelicals
Some of the smarter ones pull a very funny joke out of the archives.
Are Evangelicals turning left? Some say yes. Some note the Roman Catholic church is not.
Marvin Olasky has been one of the more perplexing leaders of Evangelicalism we have encountered here. There was an interesting blog-based interview with him that appeared this week in two parts. One of the more interesting questions was that he was asked to define “evangelical.”
Which brings me to a new blog – “Evangel” – a blog of the very Roman Catholic First Things magazine. It’s a group blog of leading evangelical bloggers, put together by former Huckabee staffer Joe Carter, now leader of the First Things blogging effort. It began with that same question, “What is evangelical.” This blog will be interesting to watch, but I must comment on something I have discussed before -the term “evangelical” is rapidly becoming, if it has not already become, useless. If there is that much discussion in the question and their discussion did not include many of the more secular views on it, then the word means pretty much whatever the user wants it to mean.
And one of the participants there struck right at what is to this observe, the heart of the matter.
OK, that’s enough for today. Be sure to follow on Twitter and join us on Facebook.
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coltakashi on 22 Oct 2009 at 10:40 am #
I looked at the Slate “80 over 80″ list of “powerful octogenarians”. Since President Monson is listed alongside people like Senator Inouye and Barbara Walters, it is more in the “backhanded compliment” category than a naked insult.
I would have been surprised if Slate had recognized that his “power” derives from his decades of personal service, such as meeting with Mormons in communist controlled East Germany and persuading the government to allow the Church to build a temple where Mormons in eastern Europe could be married for eternity, or of his selection of Dieter Uchtdorf (a former VP of Lufthansa and a refugee from East Germany) as his Second Counselor in the First Presidency. My son works in nursing homes in Salt Lake, and Monson is constantly visiting people there, maintaining friendships and care relationships he established as a 22-year-old bishop with hundreds of widows in his congregation. Slate also omitted mention of the publication this year of a Mormon edition of the bible in Spanish, to serve millions of Mormons in Spain and Latin America, with cross references to the Book of Mormon and study aids heretofore available only with the King James Version. And it might have mentioned that the temples announced by Monson include ones in Utah and Japan and Italy, reflecting the international growth of the LDS Church.
coltakashi on 22 Oct 2009 at 10:41 am #
The Slate article mentioned George Soros, 79, as a potential addition to the list next year. It also had a Doonesbury cartoon claiming that Obama deserved his Nobel Peace prize more than Henry Kissinger, blaming Kissinger as if he created the war in Vietnam rather than negotiated a treaty that closed it. That juxtaposition germinated an idea, which is off the theme of Article VI, but I hope you will let me lay out this hypothesis, because it is relevant to presidential politics in 2012. This is just my personal thought, and I have no specific evidence for any of it.
What if the explanation for Obama’s Nobel is that left wing billionaire George Soros (or someone like him) bought it for him? We know that the International Olympic Committee for decades was voting based on bribes from the competing venues. A million dollars or so, a small amount for this hypothetical billionaire, could buy the votes of a majority of the Nobel committee (perhaps through non-cash gifts, scholarships for relatives, aid to a third party), and give candidate Obama a badge of approval to enhance his prestige and potential to win in 2012. Not to mention it gives Obama over $1 million tax free in a way that is not barred by conflict of interest and bribery laws (You pay tax on lottery winnings, but not on Nobel prizes or other recognition of achievement like an Olympic gold medal). In effect, it would be a way of money laundering a gift. My hypothesis in no way requires that Obama have any involvement in this.
What if Al Gore’s Nobel Peace prize was the pilot program? I know that the liberal leanings of the prize committee could produce these results all on their own, but that would also mean they would be more susceptible to taking an inducement without thinking they were going against principle.
Article VI Blog » Blog Archive » Iowa, Issues, Identity; Problems in the GOP, and . . . “The Mormon Ethic of Civility” on 26 Oct 2009 at 5:32 am #
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