Hhaing The Yu, 29, in rain falling on the ruins of his home, in a township outside Yangon, Myanmar.

This is not about politics; it is about saving people’s lives. There is absolutely no more time to lose.

— United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, pressing the military junta in Myanmar to accept international assistance as hundreds of thousands of its citizens reel from the effects of a devastating cyclone earlier this month; May 14.
Full Story »

If you’re following America’s electoral theater at all, you know that we have a candidate with a preacher problem. And that the candidate in question has been put in the uncomfortable position of having to repudiate some of said preacher’s remarks (while not alienating those voters in the flock who actually, you know, agree with what the Reverend was saying). In case you haven’t been paying attention, the controversial cleric has pronounced God’s doom upon certain of the nation’s citizens, and the backlash against him and his favorite for the White House has significantly damaged the candidate’s chances.

Of course, I’m talking about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama. Errr, wait … that’s not right. That’s not who I’m talking about at all. Full Story »

I guess there’s probably nothing Earth-shattering about revelations that FOX News “journalist” Sean Hannity was BFFs with a white supremacist. I mean, even if you don’t expect it, it’s not the sort of information that’s going to turn your whole worldview upside-down, you know?

But the latest screed from Pat Buchanan almost buckles the knees. We don’t exactly look to Pat for enlightened thinking on race or, well, on anything. But even by his standards these March 21 comments are barely to be believed. Full Story »

There’s not much that needs adding to this. And yeah, I’m going to be laughing over it for awhile.

Thanks to Debby Levinson for calling this to our attention.

I won’t be wearing green today.

Don’t get me wrong - like many Americans, I’ve got plenty of Irish blood in my veins, and I’m quite happy to celebrate that heritage.

But this St. Patrick thing… Sadly, very few people have stopped to think about exactly what they’re celebrating, or whom. Patrick is credited with leading the Christianization of Ireland and it’s said he “drove the snakes out” of the place. That, of course, is metaphorical. The serpent was an ancient druidic symbol of wisdom, and the thing that was literally driven out (or killed and buried in the ground of) Ireland was the vibrant, centuries-old culture of the Celts. Full Story »

by Dr. Lynn Schofield Clark

When it’s time for politics in the U.S., it seems, it’s also time to talk about religion. So first there were stories of Huckabee’s success among evangelicals, and then there was the quelched rumor about Obama’s supposed connections with Islam (he is a member of the United Church of Christ, a liberal Christian denomination). Hillary Clinton received fewer stories about her Methodist faith, although she did speak of it at the Global Summit on AIDS at a large California megachurch pastored by Rick Warren (best selling author of “The Purpose-Driven Life”), according to one story.

By far the most religion-and-politics coverage so far has gone to Huckabee. Full Story »

Well, duh.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Monday endorsed a proposed Colorado Human Life Amendment that would define personhood as a fertilized egg.

Of course, Preacher Huck hasn’t stopped to ponder all the practical and logistical nightmares this kind of silliness would engender. For instance:

• If my wife is pregnant, can I claim Unborn, Jr. as a tax exemption?
• Does this make the legal drinking age 20 years, 3 months? Full Story »

Howie Klein has an interesting take on Ron Paul and the GOP over at Down with Tyranny, noting the antipathy between the Paul and McCain camps and wondering how much this is going to hurt the Republicans in November.

He also notes that Paul is pulling back from the Prez race to concentrate on securing his Congressional seat against a primary challenge from an unapologetic Bushie named Chris Peden. Peden’s website does little to defend him against allegations that he’s an inbred semi-literate fuckwit in need of a good editor, and contains a variety of intriguing notions.

My name is Chris Peden. I’m a Pro-Family, Pro-Life Christian conservative who believes in free markets and individual responsibility.

I’m running for Congress because it’s clear that our traditional values need a proven conservative voice in Washington, D.C. In essence, we need Republicans to vote like Republicans again.

Praise Jesus. Full Story »

Mike Huckabee laments:

“I always get asked the God questions,” he said, adding that “it’s really been frustrating” that people don’t want to know more about his work as Arkansas governor.

Truly, this is baffling. I mean, the Rev. Huck has a track record as a political leader, and it’s hard to understand why people keep asking him about the God thing for no reason. It’s not like he hasn’t been pretty clear on the separation of church and state. Full Story »

Pastor Dan has an absolutely must-read piece on faith and politics over at Street Prophets, and while I feel wholly inadequate for the task of matching the depth of his analysis, he raises a number of issues that got me to thinking. So to use a sports analogy, he’s just crushed an overhead at me, and I’m going to see if I can get a racquet on it in hopes of lobbing something weak back over the net.

For starters, his thoughts on the history and function of civil religion are spot-on, and as I consider how dramatically our culture is changing, they lead me to an obvious conundrum. Full Story »

I’m not usually one to post celebrity news, preferring as I do news with more substance. But pretty much anything the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas does grabs my attention. And the nominal ringleader (now that the founder, Rev. Fred Phelps, is getting too old to picket effectively), Shirley Phelps-Roper has announced that her church and kin will be picketing the memorial services of recently deceased actor Heath Ledger. Their reason?

He played a gay cowboy in the movie Brokeback Mountain.

Oh, and according to Phelps-Roper, they’ll be picketing the Academy Awards this year too. Assuming that there are any that last longer than a press conference, that is.

For more on the Westboro Baptist Church, see the following links:
God hates the Westboro Baptist Church
Michael Moore’s messing with Rev. Fred Phelps
BBC’s interview of Louis Theroux, who lived with them for a while
Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report on WBC
The Anti-Defamation League’s report

Kudos to Jentifred’s Livejournal friends list…

Welcome to the fifth and final installment of the Scholars & Rogues year-end wrap-up. Today we tackle the dirty, but oddly riveting world of politics. We’ll take a couple shots at the even dirtier world of media that makes it all possible. Let’s start at the top, shall we?

George Walker Bush: I’ve been telling my Republican friends for five years now that Dubya was going to do more damage to their party than an army of Hillarys could dream of doing. And 2007 was the year where I think the truth of this proposition finally started becoming evident. Scandals at the Justice Department and World Bank did him no favors, nor did the conviction of Scooter Libby (which necessitated the most politically debilitating pardon/commutation sequence since Ford saved Nixon). Iraq got worse by the day and we’re not seeing a lot of GOP presidential hopefuls looking to surf that Bush legacy. Full Story »

Some nut out in Bremerton Washington has put up a cross in his yard with Santa nailed to it. Normally I wouldn’t comment on such a shameless plea against the commercialization of Christmas, but this one crosses a line and I feel compelled to speak out.

Who does this jerk wad think he is? How can any of us enjoy the excess and over consumption that is our right as members of the American Empire® with this kind of criticism paraded before us in a naked attempt to make us think about - well, to think…? Full Story »

There’s a funny parenting story in the news. And there’s another funny parenting story that isn’t in the news. Unfortunately, the one that isn’t needs to be.

The “in the news” story involves Britney’s little sister, Jamie Lynn. You may have heard that the 16 year-old TV star is pregnant. By a nice boy she met at church. And of course, now they’re wondering whether there was any statutory rape involved. Please, no snark. We’re above that.

Britney, of course, is the whore of Babylon. It’s hard to say if she’s the worst trainwreck in Hollywood history, but when you’re bad enough that Paris and Lo-Blow are relegated to playing for a distant second, you’re in 2007 Patriots mode, for sure.

And then the hammer drops: Full Story »

Today’s question is for GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee.

S&R: Rev. Huckabee, you’ve spoken at great length about the importance of faith in your political life. If elected, what would you do in a hypothetical situation if you felt that your Christian faith were in conflict with the Constitution?

Found this great essay by University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey R. Stone over at ACSBlog, and I thought it might be of interest to some readers here. In short, no Mitt, Jesus didn’t write the Constitution. Pardon the longish quote, but it’s worth the read. Then click the link and go read the rest of the piece, which gets even better.

That version of history suggests that the Founders intended to create a “Christian Nation,” and that we have unfortunately drifted away from that vision of the United States. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Those who promote this fiction confuse the Puritans, who intended to create a theocratic state, with the Founders, who lived 150 years later. The Founders were not Puritans, but men of the Enlightenment. They lived not in an Age of Faith, but in an Age of Reason. They viewed issues of religion through a prism of rational thought. Full Story »

From this morning’s Meet the Press:

Tim Russert: Would it be appropriate for a president to provide Secret Service protection for his mistress?

Rudy Giuliani: It would not be appropriate to do it for that reason, Tim … The reason it’s done is because somebody threatens to do harm and the people who assess it come to the conclusion that it is necessary to do this. The reality is that it all came about because of my public position, because of the fact that when people are public or celebrities these kinds of threats take place.

Well, that clears things up considerably. Full Story »

I’m an avid reader and movie watcher, and I enjoy the occasional escape into things that aren’t hard to read or understand. This is why I’ve enjoyed the Harry Potter novels and why, when it was suggested to me a number of years ago, I read the entire His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. The first novel, The Golden Compass, has been made into a movie that officially hits the theaters this Friday. And, if the sheer volume of news about the movie is any indication, it will be the blockbuster of the 2007 holiday season.

The reason is that a number of Christian groups (mostly Catholic) have demanded that their adherents boycott the movie, and in so doing have given it a massive amount of free news publicity. Have these people learned nothing?

Seriously, the best way to guarantee that people expose themselves to something is to ban, boycott, or otherwise protest it. The more people who hate something and want you to hate it too, the more other people want to figure out what all the fuss is about. It’s human nature. Full Story »

First off, let’s not shed any tears for Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher sentenced to 15 days in a Sudanese prison for naming a teddy bear “Mohammed.” Any woman who chooses to go live in a nation with Sharia Law, where you can be jailed for allowing yourself to be raped, deserves no sympathy.

More interesting to me are the curious responses from a couple of prominent Christian spokespeople. First, the Archbishop of Canterbury condemns the Sudanese court’s decision: Full Story »