FIRST AMENDMENT ETIQUETTE? “Thou Shalt Not Say ‘Jesus.’” Americans have the right to use Jesus’s name (or the name of other religious figures, for that matter) in public spaces. But having a right to do something does not make it prudent or winsome. On this point I would agree with the ACLU and other secularists: public meetings like those of the Campbell County Board of Supervisors are not appropriate places for sectarian fulminations. But there’s a difference between speech that is inappropriate, and speech that should be constitutionally banned. _____ POT, KETTLE: In his review of Christian Smith’s controversial new … Continue reading The World Wide (Religious) Web for Wednesday, August 31, 2011

DID IRENE HAVE A PURPOSE? “The Speculation-Derision-Relief Cycle of Natural Calamities.” The fact that this speculation-derision-relief cycle must occur after almost every single natural calamity (and many man-made ones, too) suggests that, at least, we’re not as secure in our secularism as we like to claim. Perhaps, but it’s not just religious people offer reasons for natural calamities. The Goracle (as Al Gore is affectionately known around here) regularly preaches that we are “Global Warmers in the Hands of an Angry Gaia,” which is just a secular version of natural-disaster teleology. _____ WHAT CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS? “U.S. Muslims happy with … Continue reading The World Wide (Religious) Web for Tuesday, August 30, 2011

DOMINIONISM AND ANTI-DOMINISM: Michelle Goldberg thinks Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are devotees of Rousas John Rushdoony and other theocrats. (Ryan Lizza has similar thoughts.) Hunter Baker disagrees here, here, and here. I’ve actually read Rushdoony, Greg Bahnsen, Gary North and others who are various labeled “Dominionists,” “Theonomists,” and “Christian Reconstructionists.” Indeed, Greg Bahnsen was a teach of mine. On the basis of that reading, I am confident that neither Perry nor Bachmann are Dominionists. Oh, and you might also want to read Ross Douthat and Douglas Groothuis on the same topic. _____ DON’T WORRY BILL, I’M AN ATHEIST, JUST … Continue reading The World Wide (Religious) Web for Monday, August 29, 2011