George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. Nor is the U.S. Constitution, nor the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights. “Original intent” of America’s founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. “God Bless America” is not the Doxology.
Sometimes one needs to state the obvious—especially at times when it’s less and less obvious.
Some of you (Chad) are asking, “What bastion of progressive leftist journalism published such anti-American rhetoric? Was is the LA Times editorial page? Was is Mother Jones? The Economist?”
No my friends, it was that most leftist of all yellow journalism rags, Christianity Today.
You can finish the editorial article here. And you should. It is a carefully written deconstruction of the search for the “Original Rightousness” zeitgeist of evangelical politics, that sense that a return to the principles of the founders of the nation would somehow engender a return to Christianity as the prominent voice in the moral conversation of the nation.
It won’t.
Thanks to some fancy footwork by Jeremy in referring Addison Road to Doug Paggit, a pre-release copy of his book Preaching Re-Imagined is on it’s way here. Looking forward to reading and reviewing it on the Blog. Thanks Jeremy, and thanks Doug!
Ash & I were listening to “Fresh Air” with Terri Gross last night on NPR. (If we happen to be in the car at 7PM, we used to tune into KFI-AM640 to be blessed by “The Phil Hendrie Show,” which has recently been replaced by the rantings of John Zigler. What a loss. So now it’s Terri Gross.) Terri interviewed former Senator John Danforth (R-MO), who has recently published a couple op-eds in the NYTimes, criticizing his fellow Republicans for transforming “our party into the political arm of conservative Christians.”
Sen. Danforth is also an ordained Episcopal priest, and I think he has some pretty compelling insights into the dangers of any political party aligning itself too closely with a religious viewpoint. You can listen to the interview HERE.
I vowed to Michael that I would avoid vulgarity when at all possible, but this has to be an exception.
lostfrog.org
The first picture is of an actual flyer photocopied and posted around Seattle. The subsequent pictures are all photoshop riffs from the flyer. Go ahead. Kill a minute.
-ml
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