[ "Christian fundamentalists claim religion is associated with lower rates of violence, teen pregnancy and divorce. A new study says they couldn't be more wrong," reads Alternet's header for the story. This piece is thought provoking for theists and atheists alike! --BL ]

[ This piece by Mark Roche, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, follows up an earlier piece on increases in abortions under Bush. Roche, who condemns abortion, writes:

... many Catholics seem to think that if they are truly religious, they must cast their ballots for Republicans. This position has ... problems.... The overall abortion rate (calculated as the number of abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) was more or less stable during the Reagan years, but during the Clinton presidency it dropped by 11 percent.

There are many reasons for this shift. Yet surely the traditional Democratic concern with the social safety net makes it easier for pregnant women.... [A]mong the most economically disadvantaged, abortion rates have always been and remain the highest. The world's lowest abortion rates are in Belgium and the Netherlands, where abortion is legal but where the welfare state is strong. Latin America, where almost all abortions are illegal, has one of the highest rates in the world....

Catholic voters' ... dilemmas: ... while they may be dismayed at John Kerry's position on abortion and stem-cell research, they should be no less troubled by George W. Bush's stance on the death penalty, health care, the environment and just war. Given the recent history of higher rates of abortion with Republicans in the White House, along with the tradition of Democratic support of equitable taxes and greater integration into the world community, more Catholics may want to reaffirm their tradition of allegiance to the Democratic Party in 2004.

--BL ]

Voting Our Conscience, Not Our Religion

Anglican Network Urges Sanctions on Israel: Report

[ In this article David Morris points out that

the Didache teaches us that to evaluate whether an individual is pro-life depends on far more than his or her position on abortion;

that

for more than 1500 years the position of the Catholic Church on abortion was very close to that of the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade: Early term abortion is not a mortal sin;

and that

in a private Mass in 2003, the Pope himself gave Communion to Tony Blair, a pro-abortion Episcopalian. U.S. Catholic bishops would be well-served if they were to emulate the example of the head of their Church.

--BL ]

Devil in the Details

[ Left-leaning Evangelical Jim Wallis challenges Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, who announced that "Any Catholics who vote for candidates who stand for abortion, illicit stem cell research or euthanasia [place themselves outside full communion with the Church and so jeopardize their salvation]. It is for this reason that these Catholics, whether candidates for office or those who would vote for them, may not receive Holy Communion...." Wallis:

As more and more lives continue to be lost in Iraq, and more and more of our resources are diverted to the war, will the bishop make a similar declaration about Catholic politicians and voters who support war?

It would be interesting to learn whether the Bishop would be so consistent, however repugnant his position. --BL ]

'Stop...in the name of abused humanity'

[ From the review:

... it would be hard to overemphasize the awkwardness with which [LaHaye/Jenkins] blend[] folksy humour, treacly sentiment and religiously justified bloodbaths. The Left Behind books have been energetically condemned by mainstream reviewers in the United States ? not least by more orthodox Christians, who have been as offended by LaHaye?s manglings of biblical tradition as they have by his uncompromising sectarian zeal. Nevertheless, the series?s visions of beleaguered yet plucky evangelists speaks powerfully to the many millions of believers whom secular as well as religious ideologues have been mobilizing since the late 1970s. President Bush ? whose endorsement by the Christian Right in 1999 and 2000 was brokered in part by the ?renowned prophecy scholar? Tim LaHaye ? might be acting as an astute political operator when he professes not to believe in the theory of evolution, to be conducting a showdown between good and evil and all the rest of it.

--BL ]

[ From the article:

The vast majority of Jews desperately want to avoid a full-scale conflagration between Israel and the Arab world. Dispensationalists don't. In the dispensationalist narrative, Christians will be raptured to heaven before all the fighting between Jews and Muslims starts. Everyone left will face mass death and destruction... Thus evangelical Christians' support for policies like the permanent takeover the West Bank and Gaza and even, in some cases, the expulsion of Palestinians into Jordan, should be understood in the context of a worldview in which world war is inevitable.....

Dispensationalist Christians believe that this is all in the service of establishing the reign of Christ on earth. Yet while they chase this fantasy, they're content to put real lives -- Jewish lives -- on the line. "It doesn't make me feel any better when they tell me to keep the whole West Bank when I don't think that's for the benefit of Israel politically," says [Israeli journalist] Gorenberg. "When somebody's hope for where Israeli policy will lead is Armageddon, clearly they're going to be judging things differently."

For now, as Jews and evangelicals work together, those differences might not matter. Yet as American government support of the mujahedin shows, realpolitik partnerships against metaphysical evil can turn rancid. When people believe their politics are endorsed by God, today's ally can be tomorrow's Satan.

--BL ]

Antichrist politics

[ Jim Wallis is the editor of the roughly evangelical justice magazine, Sojourners. Here's his October, 2003 letter to the right-wing fundamentalist, Lt. General Boykin, who characterized the Iraq war as a spiritual war in which Christian Soldiers take on Islam's "false god." Bush did not reprimand Boykin -- preserving the possibility for the Christian right that Bush may secretly support Lt. General Boykin's position. But the Administration denied the General speaks for anyone beyond himself -- thus preserving the possibility for the rest of the country that the Administration is sane. --doclalor ]

[ Allen H. Brill, founder of "The Right Christians," is a private citizen and Christian who wanted to see viewpoints of progressive Christians better represented in the public forum. He provides a Weblog on issues involving Christianity and politics that is updated five times a week. Rev. Brill is an ordained Lutheran minister educated at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO. He is also a member of the South Carolina Bar with a B.A. degree in Government from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School. --Suzanne Faye ]

Civilization requires the regulation of human sexuality and relationships. No society--ancient or modern--has survived by advocating a laissez faire approach to sex and sexual relationships. Every society, no matter how liberal, sanctions some sexual behaviors and proscribes others. Every society establishes some form of sexual norm.

Inevitably, once marriage is redefined as something other than a heterosexual pair, there is nothing to stop further redefinition but sheer arbitrariness. Once marriage is no longer "one thing," but now "another thing" as well, there is nothing to stop marriage from becoming virtually "everything." Put simply, if marriage can be redefined so as to allow same-sex pairings, there is nothing in the logic of this transformation that could justify discrimination against those who would transform marriage in other ways. Why just two people? If the consent of all partners is all that is requisite, why laws against incest, polygamy, or any number of other alternative arrangements? We can be certain that proponents of these transformations will be waiting in line for their turn to use the courts to reverse what they claim to be unlawful discrimination.

[ Word on the street in some quarters is that Mel Gibson's The Passion is noteworthy for its historical accuracy. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Anti-Defamation League commissioned a report that debunks that claim. Nearly as interesting are the uncanonized narratives contemplated below that supply different points of view of the person, Jesus. --doclalor ]

By Leslie R. Guttman

Dec. 24, 2003  |  LEXINGTON, Ky. -- In the heart of the Bluegrass, a Bible Belt preacher is rallying people to political action around what he calls "basic religious values." Think you can describe his politics? Think again. This man of the cloth wants "regime change" in Washington.

The Rev. Albert Pennybacker, a Lexington, Ky.-based pastor, is head of the Clergy Leadership Network, a new, cross-denominational group of liberal and moderate religious leaders seeking to counter the influence of the religious right and to mobilize voters to change leadership in Washington. Pennybacker, affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a pastor of 35 years, is tired of the conventional wisdom that equates religiosity with conservatism. Nationwide, he says, the religious right often squeezes out the left in public debate.