Being an editor for an online magazine affords me the pleasure of receiving more books than any one person could read and review in an expected time frame. But I remain hopeful that every book that quietly sit, jaggedly stacked in the corner next to my bookshelf will one day soon, be reviewed before becoming media for the historical archives.

The one book that caught my eye and seductively lured me in its direction was “Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist.” I’m not familiar with Dave Schmelzer, a former playwriter and atheist, now pastor in the Vineyard heritage somewhere near Cambridge, Mass., but he has an interesting “no-bar, open style of writing.”

In one chapter headed “How M. Scott Peck Saved My Life” Schmelzer has some interesting analogies on the ‘deeply religious’ and the ‘not-so-religious’ who end up in therapy. He comments that often the deeply religious leave their religion after being helped while the not-so-religious find faith as a result of being helped. Schmelzer spends the remainder of this chapter unpacking his discovery. Interesting stuff.

In the not too distant future you’ll be able to read a complete review of this book at New Wineskins Magazine. Also in the May-June issue of New Wineskins (Politics and Faith) will be my conversation with Newt Gingrich.

Files under Interviews, book review, politics | |

Mike Cope, one of three senior editors emeritus at New Wineskins Magazine presents anecdotal evidence for the deep faith of Hillary Clinton. And while he’s at it, Mike gives sage advice for those who would get rowdy, loud, and excited during politico season. As Mike says,

“when vigorous political discourse turns into bashing of public figures, it perpetuates a great lie: that they are merely the ideologies and symbols attached to them. When a candidate’s ideology is mistaken for his or her personhood, it masks a crucial truth: that each person, no matter their political views, bears God’s image and matters deeply to him.”

Thanks for the be-good reminder Mike! You can read the complete post [here]

By chance or providence I happened to be on vacation when my wife and I visited the Pine Valley Church of Christ in Wilmington, NC. It just so happened that on that same day Mike Cope preached his inaugural sermon at his new church home. Mike couldn’t have been older than 25 years. He had a beautiful young family to support him in this newly accepted position at the Pine Valley Church. I’m sure there were the good times as well as the bad. Mike if you happen to stumble on this correct me where I’m wrong.

Files under Hillary Clinton, How to Live, Mike Cope, Political Correctness, Presidential Canidates, blogging, conventional church, creative, democrate, influence, politics, republican | |

In Ron Sider’s new book The Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Why Are Christians Missing the Chance to Really Change the World? Sider gives the reader a short piece on how Ed Dobson lamented on the Moral Majority’s need for a coherent political philosophy (at the time Dobson was Vice President of the Moral Majority). This failure to reflect, Dobson felt, contributed to many of the movement’s failures.

Dobson says that “a ready, aim, fire” approach led to the thinking of an American favored nation status while neglecting what the Bible teaches about the poor, unfairly attacking enemies, and using manipulative fund-raising techniques.

The book argues that the “absence of any widely accepted, systematic reflection on politics leads to contradiction, confusion, ineffectiveness, even biblical unfaithfulness in political work.

Consider the inconsistencies with the regard to the sanctity of human life. Almost all evangelicals agree with the principle. But many evangelical pro-life movements focus largely on the question of abortion—as if, as one wag commented, life begins at conception and ends at birth. But what about the millions of children who die every year of starvation or the millions of adults killed annually by tobacco smoke? Are those not also sanctity of life issues?”

Sider points out that Jesse Helms was a prominent pro-life leader who happened to represent happened to represent the largest tobacco growing country in the United States—even supporting government subsidies for tobacco growers shipping America tobacco to poor nations under America’s Food for Peace Program.

Files under Ron Sider, Scripture, politics, republican | |

Here are two sermons by Jeremiah Wright, Barak Obama’s pastor. The first captures the context of Rev. Wright’s GD America clip run first by Fox News and ABC.

The second captures the context of Rev. Wright’s most controversial comments – about “chickens coming home to roost “9/11 comments. “

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ[/youtube]

Files under Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Presidential Canidates, Racial Relations, politics | |

I’m neither Republican nor Democrat. I’m an independent who freely votes for the candidate who best suits my distinct creationist stream of thought. Something I’ve noticed of late is how Christianity seemingly attracts those with conservative views while repelling those who are more liberal in their politics. It’s the, “I’m sorry, Hillary and Barack, only conservatives can go to heaven” attitude.

For me, it simply reinforces my belief that elephants can be blind. Conversely we discovered in one day, actually in less than one hour, just how contradictory spoken words can be. Senator Obama established that yesterday with an articulate, yet confusing speech on his experience and understanding of his pastor of twenty years, racial division, and unity. Articulate is a word that well describes this Senator’s word-smithy talents. But unfortunately his communication was murky and muddy at best. History may mark March 18th as the turning point in Obama’s presidential run. Personally, I found little for Obama to gain from his talk.

Back to the elephants. To keep Christianity linked to a one-party system, the issues have to be few and emotionally compelling. Any broader embracing of issues that calls for a more nuanced, less emotional sorting of factors moves toward greater political ambiguity. The Gospel message of peace, justice, and non-violence, though major concerns of Jesus, are lost in the fog of hot-button issues that tend to be moral in nature (same-sex marriages, abortion, right-to-life) that galvanize voters and demonize the other side.

 In a week’s time I think more about this country’s tanking economy and the growing federal deficit than I do the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. But how excited does anyone get about the federal budget? Defending the sanctity of marriage is much more sexy, but my guess is the sanctity of marriage is not in any real danger regardless of what the Constitution says, and making same-sex marriages unconstitutional is going to have little or no effect on gay couples.

The Gospel has social ramifications and, because of that, political ones as well; it’s just that there are no clear connections between following Christ and the political platform of either party in America. The best thing that could come out of this presidential election year would be for Christ-followers to grasp the opportunity to show both solidarity and celebration as common practices among believers who agree on Christ as our Savior, even in our differences over personalities and political platforms.

Files under Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Presidential Canidates, Racial Relations, democrate, libertarian, politics, republican, same sex | |

There are several versions of e-mails making there way across cyberspace insinuating that Senator Obama is secretly a Muslim who attended a radical Islamic school in Indonesia. One of the e-mails charges that as a Muslim he refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Another e-mail claims that he was sworn into the Senate using a copy of the Quran. FYI—all of the allegations are false.

According to Snopes.com the Muslim scare is the “hottest” urban legend on the internet.

Files under Barack Obama, Culture, Presidential Canidates, politics | |

Last week at the New Baptist Covenant Celebration in Atlanta, Georgia; Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter talked openly about the Southern Baptist Convention’s fault lines, including abortion, gay rights, the ordination of women, clashing accounts of creation, global warming, the death penalty and the separation of church and state. This unprecedented summit drew about 10,000 Anglo, African-American, Asian-American and Hispanic Baptists from 30 North American conventions and organizations linked to the Baptist World Alliance. A quote from former president Clinton’s speech is worth noting:

“Baptist (I would insert Christians) should focus on the verse in the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in which he stresses that it’s impossible to understand everything about God’s will because, in this life, “we see through a glass, darkly.” Clinton stressed, “it almost doesn’t matter whether the Bible is literally true, because we know in part, we see through a glass darkly. Humility is the order of the day. The reason we have to love each other is because all of us might be wrong.”

Preach it Bill! 

Terry Mattingly on Religion

Files under Baptist, Bill Clinton, Church, Presidential Canidates, politics | |

Politics doesn’t excite me, never did. And it’s not much different this time around. Impossible promises glibly made and, in the end, broken.

Example: John Edwards ran an advertisement in Iowa saying that if he was elected President, he would use his power by taking away the health insurance of the members of Congress and even the members of his administration if universal health care wasn’t passed by July of 2009. Yea, right. Effective rhetoric—but based on a false premise because a president has absolutely no power to rescind federal health insurance for members of Congress. So much for John Edwards.

Yet when all the dust, debris, and dung of the 2008 campaign trail clears, Ron Paul stand as a single breath of fresh O². No, I don’t agree with everything Ron Paul says, but hey—I’ve been encouraged by his campaign because it’s been heartening to not only watch a candidate talk about limited government, humble foreign policy, and individual liberty over the last several months, but to see his support actually grow
as he does.

Files under Presidential Canidates, politics | |

There’s a thoughtful piece over at Out of Ur, a blog hosted by the editors of Leadership Journal, on how religion today is playing a prominent role in the 2008 Presidential Campaign. We have a Baptist minister and a Mormon. And if my memory serves me correctly I’ve listened to each candidate at different times, not just Romney and Huckabee, speak of their faith.

The post is built on a brief review of a book titled The God Strategy and a number of interesting points are made. One on how a devout Republican and the Christ-follower became (almost) one and the same. Something of interest and new to me (actually I never gave it thought) was how during the 1970s, after integration and Roe v. Wade, Christians and Republicans began going steady. [read the complete article]

Files under Presidential Canidates, politics | |

If you’re not sure which presidential candidate deserves your precious vote, spend 5 minutes on Glassbooth to learn which candidate’s views most closely relate to yours.

Files under Presidential Canidates, politics | |