POLITICS, SCIENCE, AND FAITH: “Global Warming, Evolution, and Presidential Politics: The Long Shadow of Galileo.”

Questions posed to conservative candidates about their commitments to issues of modern science—or to what is perceived to be modern science (such as global warming and evolution)—are frequently asked and answered from the perspective that science and faith fundamentally oppose each other. For most contemporary reporters and political pundits, especially on the left, it seems clear that either one supports the cultural project of modernity (in particular modern science) or one represents a kind of throwback to the darkness of a pre-modern past. Indeed, when reporters ask interviewees whether they “believe” in global warming or evolution, their attitudes betray their incredulity that anyone might challenge what is so obviously true. I do not argue that we should reject claims for global warming or evolution, but rather that we should reject how often discussion of these claims, especially in political settings, is backed by unexamined historical, philosophical, and cultural assumptions.

And…

My point here is not to enter into complex issues about various evolutionary theories and the scientific support for them, but rather to note the fascination that reporters like Matthews have with raising simplistic questions such as: “Do you believe in evolution?” It continues to be easy to conclude that there is some fundamental conflict between “belief in evolution” and traditional religious faith: This conclusion is often shared by all sides in the controversy. But once one recognizes that evolutionary biology has as its subject the world of changing things, and offers explanations for change among living things on a grand scale, and that God’s creative act is the source of the existence of things, not of changes in and among things, then much of the controversy fades away. God, as transcendent cause of being, is the cause of all causes in nature, including those causes at work in evolutionary history. This analysis, however, involves important distinctions in science, philosophy, and theology; it does not fare well in political debates or popular journalism.

And…

It may be that some express doubts about contemporary scientific claims because they too view them through the prism of a conflict thesis—that science is a threat to religion and that to protect religion one must be at least skeptical of claims made in the name of science. Believers, however, ought not to fear what science discloses about nature, although they ought to be alert to political and ideological uses of science which involve a rejection of religion or call for actions which are immoral. Science, which discovers truths about nature (including human nature), is not the same as ethics (judgments about how we ought to act in the world).

_____

POLITICS AND RELIGION: “Don’t be fooled by candidates’ God-talk.”

Voters should ignore attempts by candidates to out-confess one another and instead focus on what really matters.

John F. Kennedy declared in a speech to Protestant pastors in Houston: “I believe that we have far more critical issues in the 1960 campaign … the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctors bills, the families forced to give up their farms – an America with too many slums, with too few schools.”

These same issues demand our attention today. When religious confessions crowd out critical issues, we all lose. We are not electing an evangelist-in-chief.

When political elections come down to who can claim to love God the most, we all lose. Religious devotion and piety does not inherently equal governing competence.

When religion becomes merely another political trick, we all lose. The politicization of faith profanes the sacred.

_____

FROM JULY 25^TH, BUT STILL WORTH READING: “Poll: Americans want religious presidents, but are vague on details.”

_____

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: “The Church of Labor.”

…widespread indifference and even hostility toward religion among progressives and Democrats in recent years has helped to reinforce certain trends in our political and legal culture that are equally hostile to the goals of organized labor and, indeed, to the very idea of organized labor. This is the little-told part of the story of labor’s decline—how the very same liberalism that has separated church and state and strengthened individual rights on social issues such as gay marriage has helped to undermine collective rights in the economy.

_____

GOOD WORK: “The Christian Tradition of Healthcare.”

For Christians, like myself, the ministry of providing care to the physically sick as well as the spiritually needy harkens back to Jesus’ own ministry on the earth and the earliest ministry of the first Christians.

Jesus claimed to be the Great Physician, caring for souls but also healing the sick and giving sight to the blind. Early Christians continued the practice. Historian Gary Ferngren writes that in 251 A.D., when Christians were still a small minority, the church in Rome took care of 1,500 widows, orphans, the sick and the dying. A century later, the church in Antioch supported twice as many. Out of this support network, Ferngren continues, Christians created the world’s first hospitals.

In the following centuries, Christians continued to care for bodies as they sought to save souls. The 20th century saint, Mother Teresa, continued to care for the dying in her Kolkata hospice until the end of her life. In our work at World Vision, we have found that working through churches can be the most effective way to educate and provide medical interventions such as immunizations.

Today, it is people like Flavia who are carrying on the tradition, providing physical care for mothers and children, the sick and the dying. She is nurturing souls as she visits each house with instructions on using a mosquito net. This is the work of a Christian, and I praise God that it helps the world meet the aims of the Millennium Development Goals.

_____

JUDENREIN, CASE 1: “Palestinian ambassador says Palestinian state should be free of Jews.”

Such a state would be the first to officially prohibit Jews or any other faith since Nazi Germany, which sought a country that was judenrein, or cleansed of Jews, said Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. National Security Council official.

Israel has 1.3 million Muslims who are Israeli citizens. Jews have lived in “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical name for the West Bank, for thousands of years. Areikat said the PLO seeks a secular state, but that Palestinians need separation to work on their own national identity.

The Palestinian demand is unacceptable and “a despicable form of anti-Semitism,” Abrams said. A small Jewish presence in a future Palestine, up to 1% of the population, would not hurt the Palestinian identity, he said.

“No civilized country would act this way,” Abrams said.

How would the Palestinians feel if the Israelis used this kind of logic to say their state should be free of Arabs?

_____

JUDENREIN, CASE 2: “Israel evacuates embassy in Jordan ahead of protests.” This follows last Saturday’s riot at the Israeli embassy in Cairo, where thousands of protestors tore down a wall protecting the embassy, then tried to gain access to the embassy itself. Six Israeli security guards barricaded themselves behind steel doors and had to be rescued by Egyptian troops. The Palestinian ambassador’s statement about now Jews in a Palestinian state, combined with the danger posed to Israeli embassies in countries with which Israel is at peace, makes me wonder: With peace partners like these, who needs enemies?

_____

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, CASE 1: “Can You Be Christian on Campus?”

In recent years, depriving Christian student organizations of campus benefits at America’s public colleges has become a major priority of certain secularist lawyers and university officials. State universities are increasingly pressuring Christian student groups to open their membership to all, regardless of whether prospective members are Christians, or whether they support the group’s policies or priorities. Two recent court decisions illustrate this disturbing trend.

_____

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, CASE 2: “Amish men jailed over refusal to use orange safety triangles on buggies.”

According to court documents, this sect follows a strict code of conduct, called Ordnung, which “regulates everything from hairstyle and dress to education and transportation.” They believe that displays of “loud” colors should be avoided, along with the use of “worldly symbols.” Swartzentruber Amish believe such symbols indicate the user no longer trusts fully in God.

My take: If you don’t want to use the safety triangle, don’t use the road either.

UPDATE: Here are the eight men’s mugshots. To be perfectly honest, seeing these pictures, I feel badly for these guys. They have left the simple Amish world and been thrust into the hellhole that is the American prison system. Then again, I feel a little frustrated with them since they’re in jail because they refused to use orange safety triangles on their buggies. They didn’t have to be thrust into that hellhole.

_____

NEWS YOU CAN USE: “Nine Principles of Relational Evangelism.”

1. Focus on Building Deep Friendships
2. Be the Kind of Christian Unchurched People Have Never Met Before
3. Cross-Pollinate Your Unchurched Friends with Your Fellow Group Members
4. Avoid Duplicity
5. Give and Take Refrigerator Rights with Unchurched Friends
6. Pray for Yourself
7. Refuse to Engage in Gossip
8. Share a Relevant Message
9. Invite, Invite, Invite!

_____

THEOLOGY OF EATING: “Food and Faith.” Interesting, but I’m not sure I buy the notion that industrial agriculture is “befouling the nest.” And I know for certain that I don’t want to grow my own vegetable garden.

_____

REFORMED THEOLOGY PODCASTS: “Packer, Puritans, and the Smell of Sweat and Cardboard” links to a variety of podcasts (mostly lectures) by conservative Reformed theologians. I wish I could find something comparable for Arminian and/or Wesleyan theologians. If you know of links, send them to me at [email protected].

_____

FROM MY MAGAZINE: “Preaching Holiness” by Dr. George O. Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God (and my dad).