Sorry for my lack of posts. My job is hectic, and they have me writing a couple of blogs at work, which is really taking up all my blogging time. I didn't realize how much I depended on work-time to write this blog, but evidently it was a lot.
Anyway, it's Friday, I just bought a sixpack of Anchor Steam, and I thought I would share a couple of news items I found interesting today:
1) Dobson retired from the Board of Directors at Focus on the Family, today. And FOTF is pretty much admitting it's because they were having difficulty reaching younger people with him as the leader. You can't make attacking homosexuals your number one priority and expect to reach young people. It just isn't gonna happen. Even if those young Christians believe that homosexuality is a sin, they still don't think it should be a huge priority among the Christian community. There are much bigger issues out there.
It will be interesting to watch the direction FOTF takes in the future. My guess is they make minimal changes and continue the march toward irrelevancy. But who knows. My advice, and it's cliche, focus on helping the poor. I think they'll find it actually resonates with young Christians.
2) Andrew Sullivan's blog linked to a study that showed the more Christians that are in a state; the more likely that state watches online porn. Heh. And the number one state for online pornography? You guessed it: Utah. Those Mormons are just as hypocritical as the rest of us.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/christianists-a.html
I likely won't be blogging much for awhile, as I don't see work letting up, but I'll try to pop in here when I can. And of course, if something big happens, we'll still be here. I just renewed the blog url for another year. So we're not going anywhere until at least next march.
FOTF is Focus on the Family? Wow. Listening to Dobson I thought it was Focus on the Fags.
As for Mormons and porn – if YOU were sealed to your wife for “all time and eternity”, you’d get in all the porn time you could here before going to heaven where she’s the only woman you’ll ever see again …
I hope FOTF will return to its roots — working to make marriages better, on how to be a good parent, etc.
Conservative Christians need to realize that they have lost the culture war, and that’s OK. What this means is we don’t need to complain about gays and porn. Instead, we Christians should work to make godly choices in our own lives — not use government to enforce our standards on the lives of others.
Thats right. Which is exactly why Christians should have shut their pie holes about ending slavery and simply resolved not to own slaves themselves. Just let everyone else use the government to enforce their standards on your lives–and like it. Christians, stay out of the democratic process. Democracy is not for you. It is inappropriate for you to stand up for what you believe to be right because someone will think its mean. And in order to be just like Jesus, it is very important to make sure that everyone likes you. No that doesn’t sound quite right does it.
DOC, we’ve been down this road before. Slavery has to do with the issue of freedom and human rights. So do gay rights, porn, sexual liberties, etc. In all these cases Christians should be fighting for increasing the scope and depth of individual rights. Then and only then will people have true choices. As Calvin’s Geneva taught us, “Christian” tyranny is no way to live. Without freedom to choose and see the results of our godly or ungodly actions, we are merely appearing righteous and modifying our behavior to blend in. We may not have a true change of heart. Allowing freedom allows people to see who they really are and how dependent on God’s true grace — rather than false societal religion — we must be.
[Comment ID #36718 Will Be Quoted Here]
How is this not an argument for anarchy.
Regardless, this only makes sense if people are arguing for the criminalization of pornography and certain kinds of sex. But no one is.
Historically, it is impossible to defend the argument that Christians are against freedom. Christians nations invented freedom as we know it. Likewise, the most godless nations have always been the most tyranical and continue to be.
Can’t we agree that it doesn’t make sense to tell Christians not to participate in democracy. You may not like what some folks would like their government to do, which is fine. Come up with better arguments. However, to suggest that Christians are compelled to focus exclusively on themselves and totally ignore what government does on their behalf is kinda silly don’t you think?
DOC,
You confuse limited government with anarchy. In limited government, the individual has complete autonomy up until the point that his/her actions affect the rights of someone else. This is the classic definition of freedom from John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty.”
You seem to be confused about history. In a general sense, Western (often “Chrsitian”) nations have tended to uphold more freedom than, as you put it, “godless” nations. But Christians in America have still argued for the criminalization of pornography and certain kinds of sex since at least the late 1800s. The latest incarnations of this battle involve indecency complaints at the FCC, the “evils” of internet porn, and of course gay marriage.
Christians in America have the right to speak and vote their conscience, but we need to understand that society must not necessarily conform to our Christian image. We as Christians can’t even agree on what all the Christian rules of behavior are, much less enforce those behaviors on non-Christians in society. In the end, we Christians are accountable to God for our own actions, not the actions of society. The emphasis must be put on our own individual responses/actions first, not on how society must conform to one person’s version of Christianity. This model gives individuals the liberty to pursue God in a way acceptable to them, but does not trample on the rights of others in the process.
Nonsense. You keep changing the subject. “limited government” is a totally arbitrary term because what is “limited” in the mind of one person is downright oppressive to someone else. Which is why the law will always impose one value system on all of society. The only question is, whose value system will that be?
Everyone agrees with that stement in principle, but it clarifies nothing because people don’t agree when when someone’s actions affect the rights of someone else.
Thank you. I’ll consider that a small victory
In other news, grass is green. Seriously, the fact that people think libraries shouldn’t be compelled to provide kids access to porn is not the same as imposing sharia law. People of faith can have opinions about public policy without being theocrats.
Yikes. This is true where salvation is concerned, but you can’t be biblically literate and suggest that God doesn’t judge nations for national sins.
To the extent that there are lots of hypocrits who spend more time pointing out the speck in their brothers eye, your point is well taken. But this isn’t an either/or issue. I’ll just hope you can train yourself to tolerate people of faith who have political opinions as well as you tolerate porn and gay people
[Comment ID #36698 Will Be Quoted Here]
Hilarious Jack!
Dobson: Thanks for bringing this to attn Catalyst. I couldn’t be happier the whiner won’t be on the airwaves anymore! I shut him out years ago and then read James Dobson’s War on America by his former right hand man, Gil Alexander-Moegerle and was even more convinced this man didn’t have the best interest of the Gospel at heart that he posed to have. So I don’t blame youth for shutting his voice out. Guess his intolerance revealed his true colors.
More Porn where Christians live: Could it be that repressed legalistic Christians and Mormons have to find an outlet somewhere? If there is a real sex problem rather than deal with it openly with the spouse they don’t deal with it at all bcz it’s not really there since perfect Christians and Mormons can’t admit they have a problem. So in the true spirit of being secretive they perpetuate their problems by watching porn in secret. So his study topic makes sense.
Quite frankly, I don’t keep changing the subject. You brought up the topic of anarchy. I happen to believe we need very little government. This is not the same as anarchy, which is the complete absence of government.
When the value system is Sharia law, is that going to be OK with you? Based on your logic, if another religious system has more votes than Christians, they win and we lose.
So let’s look at this another way. How about we adopt a value system in which people of all religions can practice their own beliefs regardless of what their neighbors believe? Can’t we have a system in which a Christian, Muslim, and atheist live side by side peacefully? Which values will be the foundation for that society? The answer is that we have mutually agreed to respect the rights and liberties of others so long as other people do not injure me or my property.
Can’t we have a society in which two or more people enter into contracts with each other to perform specified responsibilities? Why must this be considered “marriage” or a “covenant” by the state? By a church is OK, but the state has no reason to define what people peacefully do with their lives.
Sure they do. Were you or your property physically harmed by my actions? If so, your rights were violated. If not, they weren’t.
But if they say our government was founded by Christians on Christian principles, I will say they are spouting historical half-truths. If they say we must have prayer in schools, the 10 commandments in every courthouse, and a manger scene in every city park, I’ll argue with them.
Sure you can have an opinion. But if you base it on the Bible, I will disagree with you. Governing by the Bible is now irrelevant. Come to think of it, governing by the Bible has never worked in history — Constantine’s Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Crusades, Calvin’s Geneva, wars between Protestants and Catholics, Cromwell’s Puritan Britain, New England Puritans, 20th century fundamentalists. One reason our form of government has survived for 220+ years is because it isn’t a theocracy.
Yes, you can be biblically literate and suggest God doesn’t judge nations for national sins. The concept of national sin comes from the OT. We now live under a very different system in which God judges individual actions and attitudes. For instance, I don’t believe God will judge America for “the sin of abortion.” He will, however, deal gracefully or wrathfully (his choice) with individuals involved in giving or receiving abortions.
Don’t worry about me. I have years of experience dealing with political opinions. Jesus also dealt with plenty of political opinions, and he preferred the company of drunkards, harlots, and tax collectors more than the company of the scribes and Pharisees. I’d prefer a genuine sinner to a phony Christian any day.
My main point is this — from this point on, we are living in a post-modern, post-Christian environment. And that’s OK. We don’t need the false trappings of the past. I’m fine with having a chaotic culture and future. There’s more opportunity and liberty to be who we are called to be in Christ, without the constraints and facades of traditional religion. I don’t want others to tell me what I have to believe, and I don’t want government telling me how to live as long as I’m not hurting anyone else.