Anger– especially anger that feels “righteous,” when we’re raging against injustice and the bad guys– is addictive. It’s hard to let go of. As someone who’s lived in wars, during bitter political struggles, and also in post-conflict societies, I can tell you that anger flung around recklessly during a conflict poisons the water of civil society for a long time.
Polls have yet to measure the Palin Effect on younger evangelical voters, whose shifting political allegiances put the demographic in play for both major-party presidential campaigns. However, it seems that conservatives are energized much like their elders, progressives are unimpressed and many undecideds are gravitating toward McCain-Palin.
If you were the spiritual adviser to the next president, what would you advise him on how to discern and implement God’s will in the execution of his duties? Katie Sherrod of Fort Worth, TX answers in the Dallas Morning News.
A new Faith in Public Life poll released on September 11 says that more than half of Southern Evangelicals believe torture is justified, but their views change when they are reminded of the Golden Rule.
The questions were phrased so as to suggest what the appropriate answer would be for Warren and most of his constituency. “At what point does a baby get human rights?” “Define marriage.” “Would you insist that faith-based organizations forfeit [the right to hire people who share their beliefs] to access federal funds?”
The nomination of Sarah Palin changed Southern Baptist fundamentalism quicker than Eve tempted Adam to eat the apple in the Garden of Eden, metaphorically speaking. The Republican Party’s first woman caused Republican Party’s first-line male clergy to revise their theology about women, while claiming they never meant what they said earlier.
Snarky might play well in the convention hall, but seeing it on the small screen I wondered where love thy neighbor fitted in…. Exaggeration is certainly no stranger to politics, but hearing one untruth after another from Sarah Palin about her own record and Obama’s on everything from tax hikes to the Bridge to Nowhere I wondered what happened to thou shalt not bear false witness.
Stephen Bates, The Guardian: “Every word Europeans (and many Americans) hear about Sarah Palin chills their blood – none more so than her religious beliefs,
Jeff Sharlet of The Revealer has written about or rounded up some of the more intriguing coverage of the candidates and their religious beliefs.
The proposed resolution is tantamount to Congress abdicating its war making powers and handing the Commander-in-Chief a blank check to make war if and when the President deems it right. The checks and balances written into the Constitution cohere well with the Christian recognition of pervasive sin. Concentrating power in the hands of one person unnecessarily invites abuses.