I just read the new Atlantic’s essay on the rise of fundamentalist, Pentecostalist and arch-conservative Christianity across the developing world. It’s not online, but there’s an interview with its author, Philip Jenkins here. His book might make interesting reading. What to make of it? It’s not exactly news, but its implications are clear. People like me who are devoted to post-Vatican II Catholicism will probably in our lifetimes see the Western (or Northern) Church either go into real schism or collapse altogether into an orthodox and severe rump, from which we will be effectively excluded. The future of Christianity – where its energy is, where the passion is, where the new flocks are – is clearly in Africa and Asia and South America, where pentecostalist movements or highly traditional forms of Catholicism are making huge gains. The next pope, it seems likely to me, will make this one look like a liberal. Immigrants to the United States will also bring this kind of religion more forcefully home, as the new religion census is showing. On matters such as the role of women or homosexuality, the power is increasingly moving toward those who view any diversion from traditional gender roles as unthinkable and any variation on marital heterosexuality as an abomination. And on the matter of separation of church and state, political liberalism is going to be challenged in ways as profound as in the seventeenth century. Perhaps the sheer financial power of the Northern churches will exercise some sway over the force of Third World conservatism, but I doubt it. This holds for Anglicanism as well, by the way. What I found most arresting in Jenkins’ essay is the importance in these new areas of the force of miracles, especially of the medical variety. Personally, I’ve never been embarrassed by the presence of physical miracles in the Gospels and believe them. But my own faith certainly doesn’t rest on the need for such manifestations of divine power. For growing numbers of people, however, miracles are integral to the conversion experience and the lived faith. Just as in Jesus’ time.
SCHRODER’S BOOMERANG?: A poll yesterday found the Christian Democrats inching back into the lead in Germany’s election. It’s too close to call, but there are signs that Chancellor Schroder’s near-pacifist position – no war, ever, whatever the U.N. says – might actually damage him. It has certainly damaged Germany’s relations with the U.S. and the U.K.
BLOGOSPHERE VERSUS NEW YORK TIMES: Here’s another embarrassing correction in the New York Times for September 17:
An article on June 14 about potential successors to Yasir Arafat and one on Aug. 15 about the indictment of Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian leader who is being tried by Israel on murder charges, misstated the history of his arrests and deportation. He was first arrested in 1978 at the age of 19, not 16. He was deported once, in 1987, not twice, and returned to the West Bank in 1994, not 1993. (A reader reported the errors by e-mail on Sept. 2; this correction was delayed for fact checking.)
So it took the Times up to four months [that should be three months] to correct an obvious factual error, and then fifteen more days after a reader had done their job for them? What gives? Many blogs, including this one, make errors. But most blogs correct themselves prominently within hours of finding out, and at most a day or two. Score one for little media. (Readers are hereby invited to find other extremely tardy corrections in the major media.)
DI-FI EMBARRASSED TO BE AN AMERICAN: How was this classic comment missed? Senator Diane Feinstein responded to anti-American sentiment in Europe by saying she was embarrassed to wear a U.S. flag pin. Here’s the passage from the San Jose Mercury News:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., just back from Europe, said she detected growing opposition to the United States among America’s allies. “The driver of a lot of this animus,” she said, “is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To leave this unresolved and to attack an Arab country is going to be viewed as an attack on the Arab world.” She said the anti-American sentiment was so strong that she felt it personally. “As an American, I have always been proud,” Feinstein said. Referring to her U.S. flag pin, she said, “I was embarrassed to wear it.”
Revealing, huh? For Feinstein, American foreign policy should be dictated by the views of a continent fixated on Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, rather than American interests. And Feinstein’s Jewish and not-so-liberal! If the Democrats want the country to believe that they’re capable of guarding national security, they should surely avoid statements like that.
THOSE HIV STATS: I’m a big skeptic of most HIV statistics and the sloppiness of much reporting about the epidemic. But this story from the BBC manages to produce two statistics within a few paragraphs. First, one in nine South Africans is HIV-positive; then one in five is. The BBC. Is it becoming Reuters?
SOME LIKE IT HOT: Some flies go gay when the temperature rises. More evidence for a genetic component for homosexuality.
The Dish 