Month: October 2009

Robert Wiblin points to a study showing how the most generous people are often the most likely to avoid situations where they will be generous. Katja Grace relates:

Probably the kindest girl in my high school said to me once that she didn’t want a job where she would get rich because there are so many poor people in the world. I said that she should be rich and give the money to the poor people then. Nobody was wowed by this idea. I suspect something similar happens often with people making business and employment decisions. Those who have qualms about a line of business such as trade with poor people tend not to go into that, but opt for something guilt free already, while the less concerned do the jobs where compassion might help.

From Failblog.

The Anchoress defends the church teaching that "every sperm is sacred." After explaining how "control is often an illusion" because birth control doesn't always work and "God will do what He will, sometimes, whether you’re open to it or not, in hopes that you WILL become open, and more open, to his loving gifts" she hits upon one of the Church's core contradictions:

The church understands and respects nature – sooner or later fertility ends, that does not mean sex ends. One of the common misunderstandings is that “the church says sex must always and only be about procreation, and if it’s not possible, then sex is a sin.” This is nonsense. Sex is the gift and privilege of married couples, both pleasurable and procreative. When fertility has come to an end, when the possibility of new life is no longer there, that means the procreation part has ended, not the pleasure.

I don't dismiss this at all. But if sex can be merely pleasure and not procreation because of the restraints of our nature, what about the gays? The issue is explored at length in Virtually Normal.

Tom Krattenmaker calls televised sports "one of the most outwardly religious sectors of American culture":

Players point skyward to the Almighty after reaching the end zone or home plate, star athletes voice thanks and praise to their savior after a big win, and sports heroes use their media spotlight to promote the Christian message. (See University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his eye-black, touting Scripture.) […] Far less visible, but worth knowing about, are the infrastructure and strategy of the sports-world evangelicalism that powers these pious displays. Athletes' expressions of Christian faith reflect decades of hard work by evangelical ministries to convert players and "coach" them to use their stature to promote a particular version of conservative Christianity. Christian chaplains are embedded with all the teams in professional baseball, basketball and football — and many college teams as well — to provide religious counseling, Bible studies and chapel services.

[…S]hould we be pleased that the civic resource known as "our team" — a resource supported by the diverse whole through our ticket-buying, game-watching and tax-paying — is being leveraged by a one-truth evangelical campaign that has little appreciation for the beliefs of the rest of us?

Sam Cook says we shouldn't be pleased:

Religion – except for the "Hail Mary" pass – has no place in sports. In Tebow's case, he should play football and forget about us sinners for 3 1/2 hours every Saturday. Somehow, we'll survive without him displaying a "John 3:16" Bible verse under his eyes. We separate church and state. Why not church and sports? Would it fly with the NCAA or TV networks if a player exhibited "God is dead" on his face? Freedom of expression would be wiped away as quickly as the greasepaint.

Oh, please. Lighten up. This is America. And I'd much rather sports be publicly religious than politics. FYI, Isaiah 40:31 reads:

But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

(Photo source: Orlando Sentinel)

Karen Armstrong defends God in this month's Foreign Policy:

[The new atheist] writers are wrong — not only about religion, but also about politics — because they are wrong about human nature. Homo sapiens is also Homo religiosus. As soon as we became recognizably human, men and women started to create religions. We are meaning-seeking creatures. While dogs, as far as we know, do not worry about the canine condition or agonize about their mortality, humans fall very easily into despair if we don’t find some significance in our lives. Theological ideas come and go, but the quest for meaning continues. So God isn’t going anywhere. And when we treat religion as something to be derided, dismissed, or destroyed, we risk amplifying its worst faults. Whether we like it or not, God is here to stay, and it’s time we found a way to live with him in a balanced, compassionate manner.

(Photo: "Nun On The Run" by Geoff Stamp)

Tucson, Arizona, 5.49 pm

Thomas Bingham thinks Britain should ditch the House of Lords and create a "Council of the Realm":

This body would differ from the House of Lords superficially in that membership would involve no outdated pretence of nobility, and it would differ fundamentally in having no legislative power. It could not make law. It could not (save in one respect which I shall discuss shortly) obstruct the will of the Commons. There would be no persisting democratic deficit.

The Council would, however, resemble the House of Lords in crucial respects. Its members, appointed not elected, would be very much the same people, and the same sorts of people, as now make up the house. It would perform, but in an advisory and not a lawmaking way, the revising function it now performs. Its expert committees could function much as they do now. It could debate issues of public moment. In this way the most valuable functions of the existing house could be preserved, but the features of the house which fuel calls for reform could be eliminated.

He then outlines 12 questions such a reform would provoke.

USA Today reports on the new new atheists:

[Atheists] can be a "blessing" for believers, said Samir Selmanovic, co-founder and co-leader of New York's interreligious Faith House Manhattan and author of It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian. Atheists are "God's whistle-blowers," who keep believers honest and focused on the here-and-now, Selmanovic said. "Atheism at its best grabs us by the collar and throws us to the ground, demanding to see lives well lived, forcing us to dig deeper and live up to the best of our own religions," he writes.