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Public-Square

Items on religion in public life and social discourse

Closing one door, opening another: On the retrenchment of Coral Ridge Ministries: “Politics is about compromise. The message of the church is about Truth. One has to look no further than the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons—who long ago gave up speaking of another kingdom and another King (if they ever did) in favor of faith in the Democratic Party—to see how quickly the church and its primary message can be blurred when it enters into a shotgun marriage with politics. . . . Nothing in the Bible commands believers to reform or redeem society through government and politics alone, or even mainly. Neither is there any expectation that non-Christians will be converted to the Christian point of view, which can vary on some topics, through politics.” (Cal Thomas, syndicated column )

Mon 07 May 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Al Gore’s remission of sin: “While I have my own religious thoughts, I will not disdain any man's search for the transcendent. But a religion should be understood by both its adherents and others for what it is—a religion. The trouble with global-warming believers is that probably most of them delude themselves into thinking they are practicing science—not religion. And yet, the signs of religiousness are readily to be seen. Al Gore and his Hollywood coterie have almost comically manifested one aspect of their new religion in the last few weeks—the sense of sin and the search for remission of such sin.” (Tony Blankley, The Washington Times, March 7, 2007)

Fri 09 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Just War?: To help introduce new Senior Fellow Jean Bethke Elshtain, here is a link to a symposium in which she participated in June 2006. “The appeal [of just war theory] is that these are the rules we can arrive at through the use of reason—not revelation, through the use of reason. So the appeal is to reason, not to God, not to revelation. I think that's always the best way to make arguments in a political and civil context.” (Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs)

Thu 08 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Western Europe’s America Problem: And it's not about Bush. “America is resented for everything and its opposite: It is at once too prurient and too puritanical; too elitist, yet also too egalitarian; too chaotic, but also too rigid; too secular and too religious; too radical and too conservative. Again, damned if you do, damned if you don't. . . . Fundamentally, the European views about America have little to do with the real America but much to do with Europe. Europe's anti-Americanism has become an essential ingredient in—perhaps even a key mobilizing agent for—the inevitable formation of a common European identity . . .” Perhaps Europeans should consider something more constructive? (Andrei S. Markovits, The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Tue 30 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Are you certain about that?: “Certainty has become code among the intellectual priesthood for people and ideas that can be dismissed out of hand. That's what is so offensive about this fashionable nonsense: It breeds the very closed-mindedness it pretends to fight.” Read it all. (Jonah Goldberg, syndicated column)

Tue 02 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

And merry Xmas to you all: “What the rabbi in Seattle and the cops in Riverside are doing is colluding in an assault on something more basic: They're denying the possibility of any common culture.” (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times)

Tue 19 Dec 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

It is not a crime to hold traditional values: “If disagreement is to be silenced because offence may be caused, that is not good for intellectual life; it personalises and 'psychologises' all conflict of ideas and denies the possibility of appropriate detachment in debating issues. . . . [A] moral challenge to someone on the grounds of their choices is a tribute to human dignity: if I challenge what you do, I take you seriously as a moral agent, a free person whose choices matter, whether they are about sex, money, or whether to take a job in the [Ministry of Defence].” (Rowan Williams, Times Higher Education Supplement)

Mon 11 Dec 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Exactly how tolerant should Christians be of other faiths?: “Basically there are three different kinds of Christian tolerance.” He makes a distinction between legal toleration, social toleration, and theological toleration. One of these things is not like the others . . . A quick, clear, and concise distinction. (Frank F. Limehouse, III, Dean, Episcopal Cathedral of Birmingham, Alabama)

Mon 13 Nov 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Why Democrats are losing the culture war: “By framing the debate as a choice between theology or science, Democrats essentially argued that anyone who has qualms about scientific progress is a troglodyte. That puts them on the losing side of the moral question, even as they win the specific policy debate.” (Amy Sullivan, USA Today)

Thu 26 Oct 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Let’s have a heated debate: Officialdom's calls for a 'gentle, nuanced' debate about race, veils and multiculturalism is just another way of policing public discussion. “When political figures and community activists call for ‘civilised’ debate or ‘the right kind of dialogue’, what they are effectively saying is that any opinion deemed too controversial is a risk to public safety. The merit of the actual argument comes secondary to the alleged danger it might cause.” (Munira Mirza, Spiked)

Thu 26 Oct 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Brooks’ Law: Inspired by David Brooks in the New York Times, on Andrew Sullivan: “I have a rule, which has never failed me, that when a writer uses quotations from Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and the Left Behind series to capture the religious and political currents in modern America, then I know I can put that piece of writing down because the author either doesn't know what he is talking about or is arguing in bad faith.” (Kathy Shaidle, Relapsedcatholic.com)

Mon 23 Oct 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Debunking the Debunkers: “There should be more to scepticism than angry rants about stupid religious people or New Age mysticism.” (Ben Pile, Spiked)

Thu 19 Oct 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments