progressive involvement

Something to keep in mind when you're listening to a smiley preacher

“If a man smiles all the time he’s probably selling something that doesn’t work.”

George Carlin

Our old-school Irish Catholic press

Often, casual observers of American politics think of We Irish as liberals; it’s an association that began with the rise of Jack and Bobby Kennedy. But a deeply conservative social strain has long run through Irish-American culture, especially in the angry enclaves of the East Coast. According to McCurry (we’ll expand his list a bit), Dowd/Matthews/Kelly/Margaret Carlson/Russert/Brian Williams/Connolly/Barnicle/Gail (Gleason) Collins/Shields (not to mention Noonan/O’Beirne (not so bad)/Hannity/William Bennett/O’Reilly) “thought Clinton's sins were beyond the pale.” This aspect of this group’s “Irish sensibilities” does not tilt them toward “liberal” or “left-wing” politics. Few of these people have ever shown any serious liberal tendencies. As a group (and as individuals), they have often shown the conservative social tendencies of their ethnic heritage.

Bob Somersby, Daily Howler

He's right, of course

This little exchange between Bob Schieffer and Wes Clark is likely to get batted around the internets a bit:

CLARK: He (John McCain) has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn't seen what it's like when diplomats come in and say, "I don't know whether we're going to be able to get this point through or not, do you want to take the risk, what about your reputation, how do we handle this publicly? He hasn't made those calls, Bob.

SCHIEFFER: Can I just interrupt you? I have to say, Barack Obama hasn't had any of these experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

CLARK: I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.

In other words, being a POW is not necessarily a qualification for being president.  Clark is obviously correct on this point.  For some, however, being a POW shows "suffering love" for your country.  It proves your love.

If the presidential race is about patriotism, then, from that angle, being a POW is an electoral boost to McCain.  Which is one reason that the GOP will no doubt attack Sen. Obama for being "insufficiently patriotic."  This tactic, bogus though it is, actually worked with Dukakis and Kerry.

Interesting juxtaposition

The Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade was held just the other day, on June 26, which would have been right smack dab in the middle of the GAFCON Conference.

Let me explain.  GAFCON stands for the Global Anglican Future Conference which was held, in Jerusalem, June 22 - 29.  It was called by conservative African bishops who are still in a snit because the Episcopalians of New Hampshire, in a free election, chose Gene Robinson, a gay man, to be their bishop five years ago. 

I'll bet these gay-bashing bishops loved that parade!  </snark>

GAFCON released its final statement today, basically castigating the Episcopal Church USA for practicing what it calls a "false gospel."  If you've been around the church for awhile, you know that somebody is always accusing somebody else of practicing a "false gospel."

In fact, one of the major problems with the statement--"The Jerusalem Declaration"--is that it doesn't seem to understand the gospel.  The gospel can be nothing other than God's love in Christ--always good news, said Luther, never bad news.  "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us," as Paul put it (Romans 5:8).

The Declaration seems to say that acceptance of homosexuality is a gospel-related--even gospel-central--issue.  It is not--not even close.  No matter what side of the question you're on, the issue of sexuality and homosexuality is within the realm of God's law, not God's gospel. 

God speaks in two ways--law and gospel.  The gospel is always God's love for sinners.  Everything else--the processes of the universe as well as individual morality--is in realm of law.  This includes our sexuality.  This means that questions of sexuality are dealt with in the realm of creation, through the mechanisms of daily life, through culture and religion, law and custom.

Truly, there are days when I do appreciate my Lutheran education.

(Photo:  Archives, Reuters)

   

For the woman pastor's "fashionable needs"

For my female pastor friends, there's a new magazine.  It's Called:  The Lifestyle Magazine for Female Pastors.  Here's the blurb:

Using the Bible as the source of all answers and inspiration, CALLED caters to your ministerial call and personal needs! Featured articles and editorial supplements assist female pastors & women in ministry in facing the day-to-day complexities that accompany being a spiritual shepherdess to a modern-day flock—as well as the unique reality of being a woman with real spiritual, relational, physical, emotional, fashionable, and personal needs.

In the first place, they're using the Bible as "the source of all answers and inspiration"?  It reminds me of the guy who said that the Bible contains everything you need to know about your financial decisions.  No, it doesn't.  Going by the Bible, you wouldn't even be able to balance your checkbook.

I'm wondering what the Biblical "answers and inspiration" regarding the woman pastor's "fashionable needs" might be.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single mention of anything even remotely regarding fashion in the entire Bible.  Thanks be to God.

The best Congress money can buy

Wired reports:

Democrats who switched from opposing to supporting legal amnesty to telecoms that aided the government's warrantless wiretapping program received twice as much money, on average, from telcom political action groups than Democrats whose opposed the idea in March and again last Friday, according to an analysis of campaign donations by Maplight.org.

Maplight:

Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:

$8,359 to each Democrat who changed their position to support immunity for Telcos (94 Dems)
$4,987 to each Democrat who remained opposed to immunity for Telcos (116 Dems)

All House Members (June 20th vote:)
Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:

$9,659 to each member of the House voting "YES" (105-Dem, 188-Rep)
$4,810 to each member of the House voting "NO" (128-Dem, 1-Rep)

The Congressman who received the largest contribution was Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC).  He received $29,500. 

She did it for Tim

Slate:  Last Wednesday at Tim's funeral mass at [Holy]Trinity Church in Georgetown (Jack Kennedy's church), communion was offered. I had only taken communion once in my life, at an evangelical church. It was soon after I had started "On Faith" and I wanted to see what it was like. Oddly I had a slightly nauseated sensation after I took it, knowing that in some way it represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Last Wednesday I was determined to take it for Tim, transubstantiation notwithstanding. I'm so glad I did. It made me feel closer to him. And it was worth it just to imagine how he would have loved it. After I began "On Faith," Tim started calling me "Sister Sal" instead of "Miss Sal."

Sally Quinn ought to avoid writing about subjects about which she knows very little, which would include, unfortunately, just about everything she writes about. 

She inaugurates a column "on faith" at the Washington Post, but has only taken communion twice in her life--once "at an evangelical church"--and is apparently unaware that "communion was offered" at a funeral mass.

Displaying a squishy jello-like grasp of eucharistic theology, she says that the elements "represented" the body and blood of Christ, which, for some reason, gave her a "nauseated" sensation.  She did it for Tim, however, and it made her feel closer to him.  Speaking of nauseated... 

"Have your 'body man' call my 'body man'. They can do lunch."

NY Times:

The two held a joint fund-raiser in Washington on Thursday night, and later in the evening, Mr. Obama’s ever-present “body man,” Reggie Love, was seen dining in Georgetown with his Clinton counterpart, Huma Abedin, and two other people.

Ideology bites

The GOP just can't help itself.  Republicans have always hated Social Security and they've always hated Medicare.  Their default position is to cut, to block, to whittle away.  Today, they blocked a bill that would have smoothed Medicare payments to doctors, and might have, in the process, shot themselves in the foot.  NY Times: 

A doctors’ group in Texas abruptly rescinded its endorsement of Mr. Cornyn. “The Texas Medical Association Political Action Committee is outraged that you made the decision to follow the direction of the Bush administration and voted to protect health insurance companies at the expense of America’s seniors,” Dr. Manuel Acosta, its chairman, wrote to Mr. Cornyn.

Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Republicans would and should pay a political price. “It’s rare that you see people so eager to commit political suicide,” Mr. Schumer said.

Judicial activists on the Supreme Court over-rule local laws

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Granted, that famous sentence is neither the smoothest nor most articulate sentence ever written in the English language.  Still, isn't it pretty clear that keeping and bearing arms is to be seen in a certain context, namely "a well-regulated militia."  E.J. Dionne:

The court's five most conservative members have demonstrated that for all of Justice Antonin Scalia's talk about "originalism" as a coherent constitutional doctrine, those on the judicial right regularly succumb to the temptation to legislate from the bench. They fall in line behind whatever fashions political conservatism is promoting.

Conservative justices claim that they defer to local authority. Not in this case. They insist that political questions should be decided by elected officials. Not in this case. They argue that they pay careful attention to the precise words of the Constitution. Not in this case.

The Supreme Court's reputation has suffered in recent years, particularly since its egregious politically-motivated decision in Bush v. Gore.  In the last decade, the Court has degenerated into the judicial arm of conservatism.  In any case, the one part of the Second Amendment that no one pays any attention to is the word "well-regulated."  By no stretch of the imagination can the nation's current gun situation be said to be "well-regulated."