The Phantom City

Hey, remember that time Jesus started yelling at a Roman praying to Jupiter? You remember, He was all “My Father is Number One!” and “You better show some respect!”

Wait, you don’t? You mean you think Jesus Christ primarily relied on the truth of His own message, rather than shouting down the people who disagreed with Him? And that living a Christ-like life requires showing the same respect to others and having the same faith in your message?

Well, Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America (OSA) has got some news for you…or at least a press release.

You see, yesterday, for the first time ever, a Hindu clergyman was invited to perform the invocation for the U.S. Senate. The Pavkovic family of North Carolina decided this would be a good time to express their Christ-likeness by making sure that everyone understood that only Christians should perform the invocation. (No word about denominational differences, or whether Jews or Mormons are allowed. I’m guessing Jews yes, Mormons no, and Catholics will be tolerated until we get to the OSA world.) So, they started yelling before the clergyman could even get started. Sample quote:

Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight…This is an abomination…We shall have no other gods before You.

The Pavkovics claim the Christian faith, and they’re from North Carolina, which makes this episode doubly embarrassing for those of us who share those two qualities with them. Heck, even Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association sounded embarrassed. But not Benham:

Benham said he respects Wildmon as a friend and ally, but he thinks his friend is simply wrong on this matter. “Our answer is,” Benham said, “When one stands up in the face of gross idolatry being allowed in the Senate, in the chamber of the United States Senate, it is incumbent on a Christian to stand up and speak the truth. No matter what, we must obey God rather than men.”

“When you stand up and are arrested, and the Hindu is allowed to go free, this country has gone upside-down,” Benham added — though when asked, he later clarified that he does not believe people of other religions should be arrested for their beliefs. “Now, why are Hindus allowed here? Why are Muslims allowed here? Because we are a nation that’s free, built upon the principles of almighty God.”

Now, Jesus did clear out the Temple pretty vigorously, but His reasoning behind it would seem to indicate the protestors should have at least been running around the Senate floor, chasing Senators. Maybe then the Hindu clergyman could have joined them, and they could have all had righteous fun together?

Perhaps they come from an earlier time? A common vein in the churches I’ve been to is a longing for the more authentic Early Church experience, with its simpler traditions and personal denominations. (And, I assume, a lot of arguments about circumcision and ritual cleansing.) But I’m thinking the protestors might come from an earlier tradition than that? Maybe even before Jesus. Perhaps they’re aspiring to be Pharisees?

Link courtesy of EdCone.com, which also has some other links to interesting items about the Pavkovic family patriarch.

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 82% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Classical Liberal 61% Neo orthodox 46% Reformed Evangelical 43% Roman Catholic 43% Fundamentalist 39% Charismatic/Pentecostal 39% Modern Liberal 36%

What's your theological worldview?
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Emergent/Postmodern? Possibly true. A picture of Brian McLaren next to the results? Meh.

Link courtesy of Too Many Topics, Too Little Time.

Several theological questions, answered by thinking of God as a programmer:

Q: How come the Age of Miracles Ended?
A: That was the development phase of the project, now we are in the
maintenance phase.

Link courtesy of Digg.

What if Jack Chick worked with Stan Lee on a religious tract?

Yes, children, Galactus is Coming!

Link courtesy of Comics Should Be Good!

The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to officials in Raleigh, Clayton, Pittsboro, and Chatham County, NC, pointing out that official prayers at council meetings that refer to specific religions are a violation of the First Amendment.

I like the ACLU for a lot of their work, but in this case I have to wonder what they’re thinking. Official prayers before governmental meetings have been a long tradition, and many bodies handle it by bringing in clergy from different religions. Those clergy then sometimes do a very generic prayer, or they might take the opportunity to “sell” their faith. (Of course, in some religious beliefs, it is hard to imagine how one would say a “neutral” prayer.)

However, while saying a religiously neutral prayer might avoid a governmental endorsement of a particular religion, the act of prayer to a “god” endorses a particular sort of religious beliefs. I’m not sure why the ACLU — I’m thinking this must be the North Carolina branch — would send a letter asking for neutrality, instead of just going for the more controversial stance and asking for no endorsed prayer at all. In other words, if you’re going to be unpopular, might as well be logical.

Pat Robertson calls for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Pat Robertson catches flak for it and immediately claims he was misinterpreted.

Victoria Gotti comes clean about her breast cancer story…more of a breast cancer scare, really.

Robertson: Televangelist with his own TV show who uses his base to influence politics.

Gotti: Daughter of mob boss John Gotti, also had own TV show, but probably doesn’t influence politics in any meaningful way.

And Pat comes up with the bigger lie. Good going, Pat. Set that bright, shining, Christian example we’ve all come to expect from you.

Update: Apology from Pat. For saying what he previously claimed he didn’t say. Haven’t seen an apology for the lying part yet. Haven’t seen one for just being Pat Robertson either.

Okay, I’ve seen a fair amount of talk on the Internets about James Dobson’s disturbing checklist to tell if your child is becoming homosexual. However, Ed Cone finds something even more odd: Dobson’s June 2002 newsletter where he advocates fathers showering with their sons to affirm their masculinity. (Or, if I’m reading it correctly, give them a goal to aspire to.)

Mainline? Mainline?

According to the SelectSmart.com Belief System Selector, my #1 belief match is Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants. What do you believe? Visit SelectSmart.com/RELIGION

Actually, my second option, at 93%, would be closer to where I grew up:

According to the SelectSmart.com Belief System Selector, my #2 belief match is Orthodox Quaker. What do you believe? Visit SelectSmart.com/RELIGION

Link courtesy of Too many topics, too little time, which will be living up to the latter half of its name, as Jeremy pauses for dissertation. Good luck, dude.

Somehow I figured the first side I read that brought Nazis — or, in this case, Holocaust denial — into the Intelligent Design debate would be the ID proponents, not the opponents. Guess I was naive.

Oh well, Godwin’s law wouldn’t exist if Nazi analogies weren’t useful across the political spectrum.

And, by the way, darn those “techniques of rhetoric and debate”. If we just didn’t have those, we’d be in a much better…Oh wait, he doesn’t say what those are, does he?

Update: In the comments, Mark Nutter points out some prior art that confirms my original impression. Thanks, Mark!

I grew up in Baptist churches…and watched them split. We went to a string of churches on four consecutive Sundays where the pastor resigned while we were there. This is pretty typical, and has been so for a long time. The issues may have been politics, divorce, smoking, church funds, the pastor’s wife, pants on women, sports on Sunday, you name it, but what it usually came down to was a control-freak pastor who couldn’t see past his own nose, and it sounds like East Waynesville Baptist got themselves a real winner last October.

I don’t know much about this church, but there are hundreds of dysfunctional churches just like it out there, and in the independent tradition of Baptists, the usual solution is to leave and start up a new one. In this case, it’s too bad the folks who were willing to fight against the pastor couldn’t get enough folks on their side to run him out of town. Sounds like the pastor was stacking the deck by running off old members and recruiting new ones. Now the church should experience the consequence of losing that tax-exempt status. Congratulations, young’un (the pastor’s 31), you’re killing your first church.

(BTW, just to cover it here, anyone who has read this blog for long knows I’m not a big fan of culture war rhetoric. So, it’s irritating to see folks who should be primarily appalled by this pastor and church’s actions settling for saying “Well, that’s just the kind of theocracy we’re becoming,” quoting Niemöller, and referencing The Handmaid’s Tale. Niemöller’s quote isn’t an incantation against evil, it’s a warning about inaction, so you’d figure the amount of time taken to quoting it as a dire warning of general direction would be better serving some sort of specific action against the specific wrong. In this case, why not try these suggestions?)

Link courtesy of EdCone.com

Update: Well, the pastor’s gone. And he and his supporters still don’t seem to get that it wasn’t about the Bible, it was about telling people who to vote for. Does he not understand he was in the Appalachians?

BTW, quote from a supporter: “I have never bowed down to Chan. I’ve only bowed down to the Lord.”

One hopes.