RIGHT OR WRONG? “The Tea Party has a point about religion and the founding fathers.” In broad outline, Theo Hobson gets the historical facts right:

So the conservatives are sort of (admit it quietly) right. The original constitution does not demand the separation of church and state. But it does express an aspiration towards this. And subsequent American history does move in this direction. The watershed is, guess what, the civil war. After the civil war there was a new law, the 14th amendment, that insisted states could not pass laws infringing on citizens’ civil liberties. And in the 20th century this was taken to mean that the first amendment now applied on a state level. So it became the federal government’s business to protect all Americans from the blurring of religion and politics. Jefferson and Madison’s dream realised? Perhaps, but it could hardly have been a more muddled process. And it could hardly have produced more resentment in religious conservatives, whose theology is not attuned to the principle of separation, but is more akin to the original Puritan vision of a godly nation.

But then he adds on this crushing non sequitur:

What emerges is that the religious right has a deep affinity with the Confederate cause: it hates the federal government’s ability to override states’ rights…. So this presidential election will be yet another fighting of the civil war. Go Lincoln!

Would this be the same Lincoln who issued this thanksgiving proclamation?

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Or who delivered this inaugural address?

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

And does Hobson really mean to suggest that the 14^th Amendment has effectively repealed the 10^th Amendment?

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SOCIAL SECURITY OR SOCIAL SERVICE? “Where is our treasure?”

Social Security’s fiscal problems are growing not only because the age of access is too low, but because the baby boom bulge will leave millions of retirees supported by too few earners. If more Americans had a Christian worldview, more of us would work as long as we remain able. The elderly would inspire the young by example—I know one physically fit widow who insisted on mowing her own lawn well into her 80s—and contribute financially as well.

[John] Piper says it well: “Finishing life to the glory of Christ means resolutely resisting the typical American dream of retirement . . . We are set free from the cravings that create so much emptiness and uselessness in retirement. Knowing that we have an infinitely satisfying and everlasting inheritance in God just over the horizon of life makes us zealous in our few remaining years here to spend ourselves in the sacrifices of love, not the accumulation of comforts.”

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OBSCENITY OR PROTECTED SPEECH? “End Child Pornography: Enforce Adult Pornography Laws.”

Is the protection of children from pornography a government responsibility? Yes, of course it is. Practically speaking, no parent can watch over his or her children 24 hours a day. Even when parents utilize pornography-blocking software in their own home, kids will have access to the material at friends’ homes or even at many public libraries. The predatory pornography industry targets children with their teaser material, including entire websites distributing volumes of hardcore porn for free.

Parents need help, and since the Congress has seen fit to outlaw distribution of obscene Internet pornography not only to children but to adults as well, why should parents not be able to rely on authorities to enforce the law? Who is it that gave the DOJ a pass simply to look the other way, dismissing the will of Congress and helping pornographers target our kids? It is time to reconsider this informal grant of immunity to the porn criminals and think first of the welfare of our children.

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YES OR NO? “Does religion cause terrorism? It’s complicated.”

In general, scholars have concluded that religion—be it Islam or any other faith—is neither the chicken nor the egg when it comes to creating terrorists. Rather, religion is one of many factors in the explosive brew of politics, culture and psychology that leads fanatics to target innocents—and take their own lives in the process.

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Yet even within that consensus view there is a surprisingly wide range of scholarly opinion about the connection between faith and violence—and how to combat such tendencies.

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HERE TODAY OR HERE TO STAY? “Is the ‘Missional Church’ Just a Fad?” Plus, this great pic:

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PREJUDICE OR MISCOMMUNICATION? “Headgear ban sparks melee between police, Muslim park patrons.”

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MARK 10:14 OR 1 CORINTHIANS 14:40? “Should Churches Try to Minimize Disruptions?”

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FROM MY MAGAZINE: “Holiness and the Five Calls of God” by Howard A. Snyder.