Theolog

Downfall

By Lou Carlozo

The downfall of New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer hit me hard. If Spitzer—a man idolized for rooting out corruption as New York’s attorney general—blew thousands of dollars on a prostitute, then whom can we trust?

He not only wrecked his political career, but shattered the trust of those closest to him—his aides, loyalists, supporters and most importantly, his wife and three teenage daughters. Nor did it bode well that this man of seemingly firm moral conscience apparently engaged in sex with a formerly homeless girl who used the trade to get back on her feet. The drama of his downfall has a Shakespearean scope.

New light on old parables

By Kenneth H. Carter, Jr.

Imagine that Hillary Clinton is the older sibling in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. She has been there all along, working hard, as she continually reminds us. No one has thrown her a party. The youngest son returns, from the far country. Everyone rejoices, and the crowds celebrate. But she will not join in the fun; she will have none of it. The father, appeals to her, "We have to celebrate, for we were lost, and now we are on the way to being a family again."

Gun control and NIU

By Jason Byassee

“So what I’m saying is you should have a .38 special.”

The waitress nodded to the man at the next table. She’d neglected us when we came in, forgotten our order and spilled a drink, but agreed she should be packing heat.

In the wake of the massacre at Northern Illinois University it was best to be silent. Gun control arguments—long since tired—felt blasphemous in the face of such horror. It was too easy to politicize carnage that should simply be mourned. But it’s been a few weeks now (doesn’t it feel like longer with our news cycle?), and the arguments had to come back up.

Tell the (partisan) truth

By Bromleigh McCleneghan

I am increasingly concerned with the needs of children. In my family’s case, I thank God for the blessing of decent health insurance, the possibility of paid maternity leave, and the good local schools in the town where I serve. But what about other children?

The Children’s Defense Fund helps me keep tabs on how we, as a nation, are faring with our responsibilities to extend access to these necessities to all children.

Should nations repent?

By Kevin Baker

A recent issue of USA Today (Feb. 28) announced: "Legislators to push for U.S. apology for slavery." The article notes that there is a push for the nation to follow the lead of five states in the union that did something over the past 12 months never done previously: "expressed regret or apologized for slavery."

The U.S. has never issued an apology for the heinous evil of slavery, although the nation did officially apologize for Executive Order 9066, which placed Japanese-Americans in interment camps during WW II, and, in 1993, to native Hawaiians for over-throwing their kingdom in 1895. As for Native Americans, a more-than-belated apology came just a few days ago.

Political passion?

By Amy Frykholm

One theme emerging out of the 2008 presidential campaign is emotional versus intellectual politics. Obama supporters are frequently accused of being emotional, and therefore shallow, rather than intellectual, or deep, supporters of their candidate.

As far as I can tell, “emotional” support for a candidate means a) feeling moved by something a candidate says, does or represents and b) repeating slogans. “Intellectual” or “substantive” support means understanding the minute details of a candidate’s positions and plans on health care, foreign policy and the economy, and being able to debate these in self-righteous and condescending tones. If you can do the latter, congratulations. You can rest assured that your support for your candidate is substantive and not emotive. You don’t want to be caught like the recent voter in Texas saying, “It’s sort of like the difference between Coke and Pepsi. You prefer one or the other, but you don’t exactly know why.”

The preacher as political junkie

By Bob Cornwall

Two topics are forbidden in polite company: religion and politics. But preachers will talk religion. It’s their job; they’re expected to talk about religion as long as they don’t become obnoxious about it. Politics, on the other hand, is still a forbidden subject. Some say that it’s OK for preachers to talk about the issues, as long as preachers don’t become partisan. But talking “just the issues” can get you in trouble too.

Voting for eloquence

By Trygve D. Johnson

In an old episode of The West Wing, President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) comes back from church and confesses his frustration about with the homily and preacher:

He had a captive audience. The way I know that is that I tried to tunnel out of there several times. He had an audience and he didn’t know what to do with it. . . . Words, when spoken out loud for the sake of performance, are music. They have rhythm, and pitch, and timbre, and volume. These are the properties of music. And music has the ability to find us and move us and lift us up in ways that literal meaning can’t.

Public servants and poor media

By Lillian Daniel

Many newspaper readers had a shock when they opened Parade magazine in the last weekend of December and saw a glowing article touting Benazir Bhutto as the brave answer to terrorism. The article read as if the former Pakistani prime minister were alive, when in fact she had been assassinated more than a week earlier.

In the outcry over that article, I was reminded that public service is a sacrifice.

Voter ID

By Meg Cox

When I went through the quadrennial ritual of renewing my driver’s license in October, the most painful part of the process was admitting I’d put on a few pounds.

Good thing I’m a self-employed licensed driver in Illinois, I thought, because if I lived in Atlanta, didn’t drive, and had an hourly job with nonnegotiable hours, I’d be in a fix. If I wanted to vote in 2008, I’d need to dig up my birth certificate, order and wait for a copy of my marriage license, make plans to ditch work, and arrange transportation outside the county to get an ID.

Christian politicians

By David Heim

I doubt the religious right is “cracking up,” as David Kirkpatrick suggests in a recent New York Times article (“The Evangelical Crackup,” Oct. 28). At least it would take the results of a few election cycles to demonstrate it. But, like Kirkpatrick, I have been hearing some significant voices on the right that are disillusioned about political engagement.

Church billing gone awry

By John Dart

A Simi Valley, California, church was billed nearly $40,000 to reimburse the city for police protection at a noisy demonstration outside church doors by anti-illegal immigration protesters. The idea of charging the target of a protest was called absurd—unconstitutional—by lawyers and clergy. It is customary, they said, for law officers to keep order while demonstrators exercise their rights of expression, in this case about a mother facing deportation who was given sanctuary by the congregation.

The internet, gay sex, and the surgeon general appointee

By Jason Byassee

Surgeon general appointees are often controversial, usually for reasons having to do with sex. Conservatives fumed as C. Everett Koop praised the virtues of the condom, and convulsed when Jocelyn Elders extolled the virtues of masturbation.

Now it’s the left that’s in a tizzy. President Bush has nominated James Holsinger, Kentucky’s former health secretary and current chancellor of the University of Kentucky’s medical center. It’s not a surprising nomination. He’s a medical doctor with some conservative credentials. He’s also a retired general in the army reserve, which should play to the crowd. Most importantly, he is on record as an opponent of gay sex.

Hillary and abortion

By David Heim

At the June 4 presidential forum on faith and politics sponsored by Sojourners/Call to Renewal and televised on CNN, Hillary Clinton was tossed a softball question on abortion by Florida pastor Joel Hunter. In reply, she recited the litany developed by her husband, Bill: abortion should be safe, legal and rare, she said, and she emphasized, “and I mean rare.” But then she used the rest of her time to talk about how hard it is for pro-life and pro-choice groups to find common ground.

What a missed opportunity.

Troops, torture and tattling

By John Dart

News services carried stories in early May about a Pentagon study that found many of the U.S. Marines and soldiers in Iraq would support torture in attempts to get strategic information and would not report on a comrade for killing or wounding civilians. General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, reminded service members that keeping high moral values “distinguishes us from our enemy” and is vital to winning support among Iraqis.

Excommunicate George W.?

By Donald Shriver Jr.

In Torture and Eucharist (1998), William T. Cavanaugh argues that a government that "disappears" citizens and tortures them is sinning against human bodies destined for incorporation into the Body of Christ. Therefore anyone in government who conducts, orders or condones torture must be publicly called to repentance by the church. If unrepentant, they should be excommunicated. Cavanaugh believes the Catholic Church of Chile should have excommunicated General Pinochet in the early 1970s.

Has the United Methodist Church considered any such action against our Methodist president?

What, precisely, is Caesar’s?

By Jonathan Marlowe

James Allen, an attorney for the United Methodist Church is warning churches to stay out of politics, according to the United Methodist News Service. Our primary mission, he says, is to make disciples for Jesus Christ, not get involved in politics. Churches can take stands on appropriate issues, just so long as they remain an “insubstantial part of their ministries.” Good thing William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King and Dorothy Day didn’t have lawyers like this.

I'm sorry (sort of)

By Debra Bendis

Peter Beinart admits that he succumbed to an “intoxication with the revolutionary potential of the United States” when, as editor of the New Republic, he endorsed the U.S.’s preemptive attack on Iraq. Kenneth Pollack, whose 2002 book The Threatening Storm persuaded many to endorse the invasion of Iraq, has also issued an apology of sorts:

Charm in a fading empire

By Richard A. Kauffman

Clifford Geertz, the renowned anthropologist, once said that he had lived “a charmed life in a charmed time” (Available Light). A member of the “greatest generation,” as a navy man during the war he was spared having to invade Japan by the atomic bomb. When he didn’t know what to do after the war, a high school teacher suggested he attend Antioch College, where his liberal arts degree was paid for by the GI bill.

The God gap in politics

By David Heim

Despite their strong showing in the November elections, Democrats continue to be plagued by the “God gap” in electoral politics: religiously observant citizens vote overwhemingly for Republicans whereas those who never attend church vote overwhelmingly for Democrats.

America go home?

By Richard A. Kauffman

Many Americans are hoping that the Iraq Study Group will come up with a magic elixir that will help us find a way through the Iraq mess. But as one pundit put it, the assumption behind looking to the Baker-Hamilton group for a way forward on Iraq is that there is something the U. S. can still do to get the situation under control—when we lost control over the war nearly three years ago.

What are the next big religion stories?

By John Dart

            Stewart M. Hoover, a noted journalism and communications professor who follows religion news reporting, offers his guess on what the top three “emerging” religion stories will be in coming months. Hoover, who teaches at the University of Colorado, Boulder, suggests the following:

            — The disappointment of the religious right after the Republican loss of control over the U.S. Senate and House in the November 7 elections. “Did their influence reach a high water mark?” Hoover asks. The flip side of that question, he adds, is how well the faith-related campaigns of progressive religious groups will fare.

What do I say now?

By James Howell

What do I say now? As a pastor, I’ve written and spoken against the war since before the first cruise missile strike. I said that Iraq would be plunged into chaos, that the disconnect between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein would finally become evident to the public, that vaunting ourselves above the U.N. would shred international goodwill and that the economy would hit the skids. Most of my ink was spent on warning that Jesus would not be pleased. Back then I wrote, with total sincerity, that I hoped I would turn out to be wrong.