New Age Theocracy

Perhaps those who worry about the encroachment of theocracy in the Terri Schiavo case ought to take a good look at the philosophy driving George Felos, Michael Schiavo's right-to-die lawyer. The following are excerpts from his book, Litigation as Spiritual Practice.

I experienced with gratitude and unsurpassed joy what the scriptures [his lower case “s”] describe as birthless, eternal, perpetual, primeval—that which weapons do not pierce, fire does not burn, water does not wet nor the wind cause to wither. In this reality, so grounded in the truth that your essence is the eternal unchangeable God, you become the sky. You become the stage upon which the play and dance of creation unfolds, without identifying with the manifestations of creation. In this state I experience a different relationship with my mind. … Grace feels like your ‘higher self’ stepping on the clutch—the gear of the mind lifts and disengages, and it loses all authority over you. (pp. 30-31)

This autonomy from mental control is characteristic of how events and emotions are encountered during Grace. … Nothing holds permanent and immutable except the ocean of God’s consciousness from which and upon which the forms of Divine consciousness play. Life in Grace is a succession of these unfolding moments. Whether the next moment brings death or a fortune is irrelevant because nothing that can happen can ever harm or hurt you, or improve or make you better. In reality you have never been born and never can die. You are the expression of the Divine. (pp. 31-32)

Many sites are carrying excerpts from his book. Just google the title. The most extensive collection I've found comes from the Florida Baptist Witness, the source for these quotes.

House Sold

We sold our house this past Friday. Our closing is late in June, which is the ideal time for us. The only contingency on the contract is that the house must appraise for the sale price. So, we are a step closer to my career change.

The appraiser was here for a full three hours today. Like many of the people I encounter these days, he was very curious about why we're doing what we're doing. I guess it's not every day that a 50+ year-old senior executive at a Fortune 100 company leaves his career to study for the ministry. I can understand the curiosity.

Many of our local town folk -- our dentist, optometrist, postal carrier, Starbucks "barista," real estate agent, video store clerk, and so on -- are excited, moved, and very supportive, but I'm afraid they often draw the wrong conclusion: a conclusion about us. The only valid conclusion is about Christ. He's worth it!

See my previous post from last September, "The Presence of God Better than a Beautiful House."

Update:


Here's the front of our house

Polyamory

An article from August, 2003, the Weekly Standard, especially relevant for residents of Connecticut

Beyond Gay Marriage

How to Mix Religion and Politics

Very interesting article over at TechCentralStation on politics and religion.

How to Mix Religion and Politics

See my own previous post, Civil Rights without Religion, written in response to the move here in Connecticut toward same-sex civil unions. As I said then, one of the most disturbing aspects of this debate is the disenfranchisement of people of faith. "This is a civil rights issue, not a religious issue" has become the slogan of the advocates for same-sex marriage. It is intended to silence anyone who has convictions about this topic based on religious commitment by automatically disqualifying them from participation in the debate. It's no coincidence that these advocates are so strongly opposed to a non-binding citizens' referendum. They don't want religious people, especially the 40% of the population that's Catholic, voting on this issue.

After the November elections Garrison Keillor joked bitterly that Christians shouldn't be allowed to vote; they're citizens of another kingdom anyway. Keillor was joking, mostly. But, the Connecticut slogan has that effect.

I find this slogan deeply offensive on many levels. To bracket off religion from rights as though these are separate, non-intersecting domains is absurd and dangerous:

1. The free exercise of religion, even in the public square, is a Constitutionally guaranteed civil right.

2. The concept of minority human rights in the U.S. is founded on a commitment to the worth of the individual grounded in a religious view of humanity, bearers of the image of God. What happens if this religiously-informed view is disqualified, too? What alternative has been offered? In Connecticut, we've only seen an appeal to the DSM IV and to the empathetic feelings of the legislators. I doubt that these are durable guarantors of freedom.

3. This is an intolerable double standard. It's the source of the ideas and propositions of the religious that disqualifies them; but who scrutinizes the source of the ideas of their opponents? When have we heard any one of these legislators articulate their philosophy or document the grounds for it. How do we know that they didn't get their ideas from extremely offensive sources?

4. Many of the great civil rights workers were very religious people and used religious language to inspire others. William Wilberforce, for example, labored for 50 years in British parliament to get the slave trade outlawed. It was his evangelical faith that drove him. As my previous post tried to illustrate, the end of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech turns into a Howard Dean-like list of states if we take the religion out of it.

This disenfranchisement of religion is gaining ground. Take that death penalty case in Colorado that's so much in the news. The death sentence was thrown out because some jurors consulted a Bible during deliberation. Suppose that instead of reading from the Bible, one of the jurors had the relevant passages memorized and recited them in the midst of their discussion of the case (not too farfetched a supposition). How is this different?

Suppose instead a juror read, or recited, from Thus Spake Zarathustra. What do you suppose would happen? Nothing.

Civil Rights without Religion

I have reposted this previous entry. For some reason, it has dropped off blogger's index. It was originally posted on March 1st.

One of the most disturbing aspects of Connecticut's discussion on same-sex civil unions is the disenfranchisement of religion. The Hartford Courant's editorial advocating for same-sex marriage-- they prefer marriage to civil unions -- rests on one main argument, "This is a civil rights issue, not a religious issue." Sen. Edward Meyer found this argument compelling enough to quote it in explaining his rationale for voting in favor of this bill; many of the other legislators echoed this thinking as well. (see my previous post where I link to video of the Judiciary Committee's proceedings.)

These legislators are eager to bracket off religious convictions from this discussion, positing civil rights and religious beliefs as so completely separate that any proposition that may ultimately be grounded in religious conviction is automatically disqualified from consideration. For example, Rep. Walker's one question to a witness at the Judiciary' Committee's public hearing was, "Where do you get your definition of marriage?" insinuating that any definition that is informed by religion is wrong. It is not the content of the opinion that disqualifies it, it is its source.

This view of the relationship between religion and civil rights is ignorant, naive, and dangerous. Expression of religiously informed opinions is a civil right guaranteed by the Constitution. It is the first explicitly enumerated right in the Bill of Rights, not a newly invented right somehow impled by other rights themselves read by inference into Constitutional amendments.

More importantly civil rights ultimately are grounded on a religious view of human beings that assigns equal worth to minorities. The governing documents of the United States ultimately rest on a view of human beings as created in the image of God. The sheer novelty of Alan Dershowitz's book, "Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origin of Rights" ought to be sufficient proof that bracketing off religious expression from civil rights is historically blind.

Let's imagine what the end of Martin Luther King Jr.'s great civil rights "I Have a Dream" speech would have been like without any religion:

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring

from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that.

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside,

let freedom ring! And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

I have a dream ... This is our hope ... Let freedom ring ...

That all that's left. Loses its force doesn't it?

What secular substitute does the Hartford Courant find to ground civil rights? They cannot appeal to nature; simple biology -- procreation and plumbing -- are against them on this issue. Do they appeal to some other science? Yes. They ground their view of civil rights on recent developments in psychology: the decision of the APA to drop homosexuality from the most recent editions of the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This strikes me as a very fragile basis for minority human rights, indeed!

I will stick with the "Laws of Nature and Nature's God," the Creator who created all equal and who endowed them with inalienable rights. (See preamble to Declaration of Independence). And I trust the Creator to inform us about the bounds and limits of those rights and to define for us the happiness we ought to pursue.

Though our society has often failed to live up to the aspirations expressed in its religiously-informed view of humanity, these aspirations are grounded on that which is universal and enduring. It is far more likely to be self-correcting in the long-term than the currently fashionable thoughts of a small task force of psychiatrists.

(Or the editors of a dictionary. Rep. Walker's authority for her definition of marriage, by the way, is "Webster's Dictionary" a far superior authority than any the witness may have offered. Perhaps she would do well to read federal legislation on marriage or even Supreme Court opinions such as Murphy v. Ramsey, a polygamy case, just in case the editors of Webster didn't get it quite right.)

Baptist Zoos

I found an interesting review of Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea, written by Alvin Plantinga

Darwin, Mind and Meaning

Dennett doesn't confine himself to matters just of theoretical interest. He sees serious religion as steadily dwindling with the progress of science, but suggests that we should keep a few Baptists and other fundamentalists around in something like cultural zoos (no doubt with sizable moats to protect the rest of us right-thinking nonfundamentalists). We should preserve a few Baptists for the sake of posterity--but not, he says, at just any cost. 'Save the Baptists', says he, 'but not by all means [Dennett's emphasis]. Not if it means tolerating the deliberate misinforming of children about the natural world.' Save the Baptists, all right, but only if they promise not to misinform their children by teaching them 'that 'Man' is not a product of evolution by natural selection' and other blatantly objectionable views.

Plantinga is a brilliant philosopher. His reformulation of the ontological proof for the existence of God is especially challenging.

Another provocative essay is his Naturalism Defeated

Captain's Quarters

Captain Ed has an interesting response to Maureen Dowd's latest nonsense, about The Da Vinci Code. He also has a little explanation of Gnosticism.

Captain's Quarters

Very Short Introductions

I recently discovered the Very Short Introductions series published by Oxford University Press.

These are excellent little books, usually about 150 pages, written by well-recognized specialists on their topic. The book on Paul, for example, is by E.P. Sanders. Topics are really varied: Art Theory, the Bible, Capitalism, Intelligence, Cosmology, Kant, Hume, Socrates, Buddhism, Animal Rights, Archaeology, Drugs, the Tudors, the Russian Revolution, Social and Cultural Anthropology and many, many others. (Just search for "very short introductions" on Amazon.)

The one on Literary Theory is especially good. I also have the volumes on Nietzche and Linguistics but I haven't read them yet.

One very puzzling note: the volume on Shakespeare was written by Germaine Greer. I was not aware she was a Shakespearean scholar. (According the reviews she's not.)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly : A Memoir of Life in Death

I loved this little book when I first read it a couple years ago. Its author, Jean-Dominique Bauby, dictated it letter-by-letter by blinking his left eye. He suffered from locked-in syndrome after a stroke affecting his brain stem, and the only movement he had remaining was his left eye. He died just two days after the book was published.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly : A Memoir of Life in Death

A woman, Kate Adamson, who's been testifying to the excruciating pain she suffered when her family permitted the removal of hydration and nutrition suffered a similar stroke to Bauby's. She, too, was a victim of lock-in though she eventually recovered. She is a strong activist for stroke victims and apparently an effective motivational speaker, but her testimony is irrelevant on the Terri Shiavo case except perhaps as an example of misdiagnosis. She and Bauby had a rich internal life without cognitive impairment. Their cerebral cortex was okay, it was the brain stem that was affected. Patients in the persistent vegetative state have fully functioning brain stems.

Now, the Terri Shiavo case has enough ambiguity of its own, appearance of conflict-of-interest and of possible bias in diagnoses, that there's no need to add confusion about lock-in and PVS.

Even Dr. Cranford sometimes lumps the two together. Notice the beginning of his Minneapolis Star Tribune OpEd referenced below:

Just a few decades ago cases of brain death, vegetative state, and locked-in syndrome were rare. These days, medicine's "therapeutic triumphs" have made these neurologic conditions rather frequent. For all its power to restore life and health, we now realize, modern medicine also has great potential for prolonging a dehumanizing existence for the patient.

Although, Cranford leaves lock-in behind in the remainder of his editorial, there's no question that he regards it as a dehumanizing existence, perhaps a candidate for withdrawal of nutrition and hydration as PVS and Alzheimers are for him. Kate Adamson's testimony is very relevant in response to him in that case.

The Belmont Club : An Original Copy

Very interesting post on Ward Churchill over at The Belmont Club today. I actually like his brief summary better that VDH's original article.

The Belmont Club : An Original Copy

Scooby Doo Glowing Bug Man

What could I possibly have purchased at Amazon that would warrant this recommendation?

Amazon.com: Software: Scooby Doo Glowing Bug Man (Jewel Case)

Usually their recommendations are pretty good: nonfiction books (philosophy, religion, hermeneutics, current events, Supreme Court, some history, and any sports book by John Feinstein), good fiction (anything John LeCarre-like), some CDs (pretty eclectic tastes, most recently the new CD by The Decembrists), the occasional DVD (based on my fascination with the old The Prisoner TV series, Yes! Prime Minister, Bertie Wooster, and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy), and some software (the Adobe suite of products).

How does this lead to Scooby Doo? Jewel case, no less!

Alfred Kinsey

Very interesting article in The City Journal on Alfred Kinsey.

Alfred Kinsey: The American Lysenko by Edward Feser

New Blog

I've decided to add a new blog dedicated solely to meditations on the Bible since I've added so much commentary on current events and political issues of interest to this one.

The new blog, In the Cleft of the Rock, is at cleftrock.blogspot.com. Its title comes from Exodus 33:18-22, "Moses said, 'Please show me your glory.' And he said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD' ... Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock'

My theme is "watching God's glory."

Neurologist's Affadavit

HughHewitt.com has a copy of the affadavit filed by Dr. William Cheshire arguing that Terri Schiavo is more likely in a minimally conscious state than in a persistent vegetative state. Fox was wrong last night when it said that Dr. Cheshire had never personally seen Terri. His opinion is based at least partially on personal observation.

Update:

The New York Times has an article today seeking to discredit Dr. Cheshire because he is an evangelical. A Diagnosis with a Dose of Religion

William P. Cheshire Jr., the Florida doctor cited by Gov. Jeb Bush yesterday in his announcement that he would intervene again in the case of Terri Schiavo, is a neurologist and bioethicist whose life and work have been guided by his religious beliefs.

The center's Web site notes that he and his wife and four children are members of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Jacksonville and that he has done medical missionary work in Honduras and Siberia.

It also quotes Dr. Ronald Cranford,

Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist and medical ethicist at the University of Minnesota Medical School who has examined Ms. Schiavo on behalf of the Florida courts and declared her to be irredeemably brain-damaged, said, "I have no idea who this Cheshire is," and added: "He has to be bogus, a pro-life fanatic."

There's no question that Dr. Cheshire does not share Dr. Cranford's credentials on PVS; Dr. Cranford is the nation's foremost expert on PVS. However, if the New York Times is going to cast suspicion on Dr. Cheshire because of his religious affiliation, shouldn't they also divulge Dr. Cranford's affiliations?

According to WorldNetDaily, Cranford is a member of the board of directors of the Choice in Dying Society, which promotes doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia, and was a featured speaker at the 1992 national conference of the Hemlock Society.

Dr. Cranford is well-known for his pro-death views. At one time he wrote an OpEd for the Minneapolis Star Tribune advocating withholding nutrition and hydration from patients in advanced stages of Alzheimers.

It may be that Cranford is right and Cheshire is wrong about Terri's diagnosis, but if the New York Times is going to make the case that Dr. Cheshire's diagnosis is colored by his religious, pro-life views it ought to concede the Dr. Cranford's diagnosis may also be colored by his non-religious, physicalist, pro-death views.

There seems to be sufficient appearance of conflict-of-interest and bias in this case to have warranted erring on the side of too many, perhaps even unnecessary, tests.

Between Travesty and Tragedy

The Washington Post has a number of stories and editorials on Terri Shiavo today. Charles Krauthammer best articulates my own position though I have doubts about his concluding recommendation.

Between Travesty and Tragedy

There's also an interesting entry at The Evangelical Outpost on no-fault death.

Sex Differences

Press release from the Duke Institute for Genome Scienses and Policy. There's also an article in Nature magazine that suggests that the fact that women have two X chromosomes and men only one explains higher incidence of mental disability among men.

Larry Summers got himself into alot of trouble by hypothesizing that there may be differences in the variability of traits that may be correlated with interest or ability in math and physics, that is, that the standard deviation around the mean -- which is probably the same -- for this unnamed trait may differ between men and women.

It'll be interesting to watch the reaction to these studies.

Legal Issues Involving Healthcare Directives, Death, and Dying

FindLaw has set up special coverage on the Terri Shiavo case with the most recent documents accessible from a single page.

FindLaw Legal News: Special Coverage: Terri Schiavo Case: Legal Issues Involving Healthcare Directives, Death, and Dying

Update: I drafted a Living Will today with a section specifying instructions in the event of PVS. I want to avoid anything like this Terri Schiavo spectacle. I was very grateful that my Dad had had the foresight to have a Living Will. It relieves the family of an intolerable burden.

Scalia on God's Justice and Ours

According to my anonymous commenter, Scalia says the US government derives its mandate from God rather than from the consent of the governed. Here's a link to Scalia's address as published in First Things: God's Justice and Ours

Judge for yourself whether this is an accurate representation of Scalia's view. Scalia appeals to Romans 13:1-5 to illuminate the difference between public morality and private morality. St. Paul argued that governments have the authority to do things private individuals shouldn't. The argument is the same whether it refers to incarceration or the death penalty. No individual has the right to hold another prisoner in his home.

Scalia is expounding his own views as a sincere Catholic, but begins with this clear statement:

Before proceeding to discuss the morality of capital punishment, I want to make clear that my views on the subject have nothing to do with how I vote in capital cases that come before the Supreme Court. That statement would not be true if I subscribed to the conventional fallacy that the Constitution is a “living document”—that is, a text that means from age to age whatever the society (or perhaps the Court) thinks it ought to mean.

Lack of Moral Clarity (continued)

Looking for information about rulings on the Shiavo case I came across this interesting bit:

Some disturbing facts about the Schiavo case:

• After Terri collapsed from unknown causes in 1990, she became profoundly cognitively disabled.
• Michael filed a medical-malpractice lawsuit, during which he said he would care for her for the rest of her life, which, assuming proper care, would be a normal lifespan. He also presented at trial a medical-rehabilitation expert who had developed a plan to provide support for Terri to maximize her ability to respond to her environment.
• A jury awarded $1.3 million in the malpractice case, of which $750,000 was put in trust to pay for the kind of care that Michael promised to provide Terri.
• Michael never kept his promise.
• Within months of the money being deposited in the bank, Michael ordered a do-not-resuscitate order placed on Terri's chart. He has also repeatedly denied her other forms of medical care, such as treatment for infections.
• Once the money was in the bank, according to affidavits filed by nurses under penalty of perjury, Michael ordered that Terri be denied stimulation.
• In the mid 1990s, according to another nurse's affidavit filed under penalty of perjury, Michael was overheard saying things such as, 'When is she going to die,' 'Has she died yet?' and 'When is that bitch going to die?' (This affidavit was only recently filed. Michael has not yet filed a response.)
• Michael dated after the malpractice trial; he is now engaged to be married. He lives with his fiance, with whom he has one child and another on the way. He reportedly plans to marry his fiance as soon as his wife's death is induced.
• Money that was intended to pay for Terri's treatment and rehabilitation has instead gone to lawyers Michael retained to obtain a court order to bring about her death.
• If Terri dies, Michael will inherit what is left of the $750,000 (if any remains) and all other property they owned."

Lack of Moral Clarity

Sometimes I wonder at my lack of moral clarity on an issue that others seem so convinced about. I'm talking about Terri Shiavo. I feel an ambivalence about this issue I probably shouldn't.

1) I don't understand why the federal legislature is intervening in this case, especially since they are looking to pass legislation specific only to her. How is this not an encroachment on the judiciary, in violation of constitutional separation of powers? The precedent established by this act will probably have a long-term adverse affect we cannot see now.

2) The examples I've read of people recovering from a Persistent Vegetative State are all inaccurate. They confuse lock-in, where there is continuing cognitive function, with PVS, where there is none.

3) Withdrawing nourishment and hydration is not the same as unplugging a respirator. A baby can breathe on its own, but cannot feed itself. Not giving Terri water seems more morally repulsive than pulling the plug on a respirator would be.

4) I don't understand the husband's motives; they seem inherently suspect anyway. He has moved on and has a new family. But he has not yet remarried because Terri remains alive. Doesn't he have a disqualifying interest in her death? Has anyone else confirmed that this would be Terri's wish? Her family is on the other side on this.

5) If her family is willing to care for her at their expense, why shouldn't they? The husband believes she is unaware and will never recover. What harm is there, then, in continuing to sustain her?

Textualism

I started reading Scalia Dissents this morning. Scalia refers to himself as a "textualist." I like that. I'm going to start calling myself that.

Scalia is one of the great judicial writers, comparable, in my view, to Oliver Wendell Holmes, though less poetic.

I read Scalia because I am intensely interested in the topic, but he is also one of those writers I'd read just to enjoy the style. Others include: Loren Eiseley, H.L. Mencken, Bertrand Russell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Annie Dillard. Michael Nozick is an absolutely brilliant philosopher. I rarely agree with these writers, but I have to admire their style. Tom Wolfe, too, is always entertaining. His book, The Painted Word, is his most insightful.

Basketball Brackets

I was feeling pretty good after the first round. Best I've ever done. I even picked some of the great upsets. I had UW-Milw over Alabama, Vermont over Syracuse, UAB over LSU, Iowa State over Minnesota, among others. I missed Bucknell over Kansas. Did anyone in the country get that one? I also thought Creighton might upset West Virginia, so I missed that, too.

My second round is the worst I've ever done: Boston College out, Gonzaga out, Wake Forest out, Kansas out, Oklahoma out. Three of my picks for the Elite Eight are already gone, and one pick for the Final Four (Wake).

What destruction to my bracket will today bring? I've got the remaining ACC teams winning today, even NC State over UConn.

Iraqi Civilians Dead

Could this really be true? Could a medical journal really publish a study based on such a flawed methodology? And, how could the media repeat this "finding" without any qualification?

100,000 Iraqi Civilians Dead

95% confident that the actual number of Iraqi civilians dead is between 8,000 and 194,000. The constantly repeated the number, 98,000, is the midpoint between these two ends.

U.S. Constitution: Made in Jamaica?

Here's another article on the same topic, Supreme Court justices' use of international law to aid in interpreting the U.S. Constitution.

Townhall.com Editors: U.S. Constitution: Made in Jamaica?

Please note that I've reverted to my old template for this blog.

"We the People"?

Interesting article on Scalia's debate with Breyer on the use of international law in deciding Supreme Court cases. Scalia's sarcasm is entirely warranted. Kennedy and Breyer are very selective in their use of cases. Though they often refer to an international consensus they have never in fact cited Asian law. Given the sheer size of the Asian population it's hard to see how there can be an international consensus without them. Europe is not the world. And they obviously pay no attention to wide-spread international condemnation of abortion and homosexuality. Why is Muslim Sharia law excluded from consideration? Probably because they both find it repugnant. But then that just proves that they select international precedent which supports their already-held views.

The Claremont Institute: What Happened to "We the People"?

The ongoing debate about constitutional interpretation ought to be of keen interest to the Christian. No where else do we see with such clarity the effect of subjective morality and of postmodern hermeneutics on social policy. Unlike the cloistered theorizing of academics, Supreme Court decisions have real consequences on real people.

Judicial Confirmation Statistics

Very good table of stats on judicial confirmations. Fewer than 40% of Bush's nominees have been confirmed. Even Clinton got 61% of his nominees confirmed. I'm not sure if his midnight nominees count in the number returned.

Daly Thoughts

The decline in confirmations since Ford I think is largely due to the ascendancy of the view of the constitution as a "living document." Previously the primary qualification of a Supreme Court Justice was that he/she be a good lawyer especially skilled in reading and writing. If the meaning of the Constitution is fixed, the intent of its framers as understood by its ratifiers, then a good justice is one who is particularly skilled at applying fixed principles to new and unforeseen circumstances. Confirmation of a justice is simply affirmation of his/her competence.

The "living constitution," however, requires different skills: imagination, creativity, and policy-making ability. A judge creates new principles. He/she is a law-maker for life. The confirmation process is not an evaluation simply of technical skill, but an effort to discern the nominee's legislative agenda, whether the nominee's views are "moderate," representing the "will of the people."

Democratic senators unintentionally came clean on this yesterday at their MoveOn press conference. Barbara Boxer, arguing for a supermajority vote on judicial appointments in violation of the Constitution,

"There ought to be a super vote. Don't you think so? It's the only check and balance on these people. They're in for life. They don't stand for election like we do, which is scary."

Boxer's statement makes sense only if a judge's role is basically the same as a legislator's. Yes, it is "scary." But you would think that this fear and anxiety would lead to some introspection, to asking some basic questions. Maybe this is not a flaw in the Constitution, but a mistaken judicial philosophy. Would the framers of the Constitution, very careful and nuanced thinkers, simply overlook a needed "check and balance" that's so blatantly obvious to a less-than-astute thinker such as Barbara Boxer?

Of course not. Judges needed no check on their legislative authority because they had none! Neither did they stand for election; they had no constituency to represent.

The answer is not to require a supermajority for confirmation but to repudiate the judicial philosophy that led to this absurd idea.

Update: Daly Thoughts has a number of updates to stats on Circuit Court nominations adjusting for the effect of renominations. The numbers change fairly dramatically but still support the charge of obstructionism.

Beirut - Lebanon freedom protests at Martyr's Square Beirut - QTVR photos from panoramas.dk

Really cool panoramic picture of demonstration in Beirut.

Beirut - Lebanon freedom protests at Martyr's Square Beirut - QTVR photos from panoramas.dk

ThreeBadFingers Constitutional Interpretation

A blogger had done us all a service by transcribing Justice Antonin Scalia's talk on constituional interpretation at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Video of the talk is available at c-span.org.

Constitutional Interpretation

The State's Interest in Marriage?

What is the Public Purpose of Marriage?:

"The debate over whether homosexual couples should be allowed to legally 'marry' is not about rights, equality, or discrimination, despite the often heated rhetoric to that effect. Still less is it about the allocation of an entitlement package of legal rights and financial benefits. Instead, this is a question of definition--how do we define the social institution we call marriage? To answer that we must ask, What is the public purpose of marriage?

Please note that I said the public purpose of marriage. The private purposes for which people enter into marriage may be as diverse as the people themselves. Homosexual activists sometimes argue that they want to marry for the same reasons heterosexuals do--out of a desire for love and companionship.

But I ask you--are interpersonal love and companionship really the business of government? Would we even tolerate the government issuing licenses and regulating entry and exit into relationships whose only or even principal purpose is emotional attachment? I submit to you that the answer is no."

Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council

The Connecticut state Judiciary Committee has a very different view, as do many of our state senators. State Rep. Toni Walker's explanation of the state's interest in recognizing same-sex marriage, "I love my friends and I want my friends to love who they want to love." (Feb 23rd, Judiciary Committee deliberations) I guess representatives in Connecticut are not elected to represent the state's interest but their friends'.

State senator Thomas J. Herlihy answered our letter to him, "This is a matter of civil rights, and everyone should have the right to share their lives with the person they love whether that love is between two men or two women." This is equally silly. Civil union legislation is not about anti-sodomy laws nor about restrictions on cohabitation. It is about conferring the state of Connecticut's endorsement on this form of love. It is about conferring benefits, social protections and priviledged status on a relationship.

If it really is a matter of rights, anyone who loves has the right to have the state recognize that love, then what right does the state have to forbid incest or polygamy or place age restrictions on marriage? Or does the state then claim the ability to discern true love from deluded love? And, how does it do that? Does the state use the DSM IV as its guide? Does the DSM IV then become a legislative document?

Filibusters

The New York Times' view of filibusters when used by Republicans:

the filibuster has become the tool of the sore loser, . . . an archaic rule that frustrates democracy and serves no useful purpose.

when used by Democrats:

the filibuster, a time-honored Senate procedure that prevents a bare majority of senators from running roughshod

From the Weekly Standard, Air America, New York Times, and more.: "Obligatory New York Times Hypocrisy Item"

Judiciary Math

Silliness in Connecticut's state Judiciary Committee continues. The committee voted to repeal the state's death penalty this week by an overwhelming majority. Video of the discussion is found at the CT-N web site.

Michael Lawlor, co-chair of the committee, has obviously learned his math from Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy who claimed that a minority of states constitutes a "national consensus" in the Roper case. One of the reasons Connecticut ought to repeal the death penalty, according to Lawlor, is that "only a few states, 38, allow the death penalty." So, according to his math 76% constitutes "a few," and, I guess, 24% is "a lot."

To be fair, Lawlor added that two states, New York and Kansas, "have the death penalty in abeyance, bringing the total down to 36, and New Hampshire doesn't have any inmates on death row." So, I guess he isn't completely hopeless. He does know how to subtract. He can take 3 away from 38 to get 35. It's just relative magnitude he has a problem with: big and small, bigger and smaller.

The death penalty deserves thorough discussion. Even strong supporters of the death penalty may have concerns about its implementation and may question whether there is equity in its enforcement. However, the quality of discussion in this Judiciary Committee is appalling. It has been shocking to see the absence of logic in much of their reasoning; now we have to question their knowledge of basic math, too.

This is a symptom of the new hermeneutic as applied to judicial reasoning, the meaning of a text is whatever I can get away with and still sound rational. Stubborn arithmetic used to be exempt from such radical subjectivism, but no longer.

The Phoniest Argument

Yesterday we received a letter from our state senator, Thomas Herlihy (R CT 8th District), saying that he will be voting for the same-sex civil unions bill when it comes to the senate. He has only one reason for supporting the bill, "I personally believe that this is a matter of civil rights, and everyone should have the right to share their lives with the person they love whether that love be between two men or two women."

This is clearly absurd -- the bill is not about who loves whom -- yet the appeal to "civil rights" trumps all rational argument. Thomas Sowell had an interesting, if sometimes brutal, commentary on the issue on his blog last December, Thomas Sowell: Gay marriage 'rights'

Of all the phony arguments for gay marriage, the phoniest is the argument that it is a matter of equal rights. Marriage is not a right extended to individuals by the government. It is a restriction on the rights they already have.

People who are simply living together can make whatever arrangements they want, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual. They can divide up their worldly belongings 50-50 or 90-10 or whatever other way they want. They can make their union temporary or permanent or subject to cancellation at any time.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said that the life of the law is not logic but experience. Marriage laws have evolved through centuries of experience with couples of opposite sexes -- and the children that result from such unions. Society asserts its stake in the decisions made by restricting the couples' options.

Society has no such stake in the outcome of a union between two people of the same sex. Transferring all those laws to same-sex couples would make no more sense than transferring the rules of baseball to football.

Why then do gay activists want their options restricted by marriage laws, when they can make their own contracts with their own provisions and hold whatever kinds of ceremony they want to celebrate it?

The issue is not individual rights. What the activists are seeking is official social approval of their lifestyle. But this is the antithesis of equal rights.

If you have a right to someone else's approval, then they do not have a right to their own opinions and values. You cannot say that what "consenting adults" do in private is nobody else's business and then turn around and say that others are bound to put their seal of approval on it.

The rhetoric of "equal rights" has become the road to special privilege for all sorts of groups, so perhaps it was inevitable that gay activists would take that road as well. It has worked.

The time is long overdue to stop word games about equal rights from leading to special privileges -- for anybody -- and gay marriage is as good an issue on which to do so as anything else.

In the Womb

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inthewomb/preview.html

Looks like amazing video!

Voting for Worldviews

John Piper has a great sermon on same-sex marriage at the Desiring God web site: Discerning the Will of God Concerning Homosexuality and Marriage

Here's an especially relevant excerpt:

Thus we should pray and work that marriage would be understood and treated in our land and by our government as a lifelong union of one man and one woman.

If someone asks, Why do you impose your religious conviction on the whole culture, we answer: all laws impose convictions on a culture. And all convictions come from worldviews. They don’t come out of nowhere. People argue for laws on the basis of a certain view of the world. What needs to be kept clear is that voting for a law (a prescribed or proscribed behavior) does not mean voting for the worldview behind it.

A person with an atheistic worldview may argue that, since there is no God, human life is the most sacred thing there is and therefore it is appalling to kill little humans in the womb. Or a Christian may argue that, since there is a God, humans created in his image ought not to be killed in the womb. Therefore a pro-life vote may not be a vote for either worldview. The same thing is true for the meaning of marriage. The way laws (and amendments) come into being in a pluralistic democracy like ours is the convergence of enough different worldviews on the same prescription for behavior—when enough people with different worldviews have the same idea of how we ought to behave.

Being an indigenous Christian in that setting means working to shape the culture into behaviors that reflect the revealed will of God, even if only externally, and dimly, and embraced by mercy for very different reasons than our own.

John's distinctions are very helpful but Connecticut's lawmakers don't even pretend to be concerned only with regulating external behavior.

Rep. Michael Lawlor is transparent about his desire to legislate private attitudes. He is not prescribing behavior, he is imposing a worldview, "public attitudes and private attitudes towards homosexuality. That is really what is at the heart of this ... That's what it is all about. And recognition of same-sex marriage is the most symbolic acknowledgment that homosexuality simply apprears to be a normally occurring phenomenon in nature." Lawlor offers no rationale for proposing same-sex marriage legislation, he identifies no interest of the state in this, except as a symbol that homosexuality is normal and natural.

Sen. Andrew McDonald's rationale is that same-sex couples are required "to justify to the outside world the love that you have in your heart and that is wrong. That is wrong and unacceptable." Again, though he claims he doesn't want to undermine anyone's religious faith, he, nevertheless, asserts that "the people" of Connecticut have decided to confer respect and moral approval on same-sex couples.

Against what John Piper describes as the norm, laws regulating external behavior merely, the co-chairmen of our Judiciary Committee led our legislators to endorse a worldview; behavior is just symbolic.

Who is imposing beliefs in Connecticut, now?

Governor Rell Backs Same-Sex Civil Unions

According to the Hartford Courant, Governor Jodi Rell has joined the ranks of those Republicans seeking political cover by endorsing a same-sex civil unions bill while at the same time proclaiming opposition to same-sex marriage.

Rell has said repeatedly that she is opposed to same-sex marriage, but until Tuesday she had given mixed signals on civil unions that would convey to same-sex couples nearly all the rights of marriage.

The Hartford Courant, of course, is less than honest when they claim the bill conveys "nearly all" the rights of marriage. The bill conveys all the rights of marriage a state can convey. The only rights not conveyed are federal benefits outside the jurisdiction of the state, such as federal Social Security benefits.

I find this attempt to fool the citizens of the state of Connecticut insulting and offensive. The gay and lesbian lobby represented by Love Makes a Family is equally offended.

I have just sent the following letter to Governor Rell.

Office of the Governor
State Capitol
210 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106


Governor Rell:

Announcing that you are opposed to same-sex marriage but in favor of same-sex civil unions is not believable.

1) If someone enters into a marriage and also into a civil union he or she commits bigamy. So, if by entering into a civil union one can violate a marriage law then a civil union is marriage.

2) The same-sex civil unions bill confers all of the same rights, without exception, as a same-sex marriage bill would. Sen. Andrew McDonald tried to sidestep this during the Judiciary Committee hearing on February 23rd by claiming that civil unions do not confer federal benefits such as Social Security benefits or immigration protection. However, this was transparently disingenuous. No state law, whether on marriage or civil unions, can confer federal benefits.

3) During the Judiciary Committee meetings and public hearings members of the committee use these terms interchangeably.

Nobody is fooled by this. If you are in favor of same-sex civil unions you are also in favor of same-sex marriage.

The citizens of this state ought to be given the chance to vote on a referendum regarding same-sex marriage. Anything short of this is dishonest and manipulative.

The legislature of the state of Connecticut is very busy congratulating itself for taking this issue on without the threat of a court order. However, this process is no less sneaky. And, these legislators have somehow overlooked the pending cases of same-sex couples suing for the right to marry, maybe because they're so busy patting themselves on the back they can't see what's right in front of them.

A state-wide referendum on same-sex marriage would be much more honest. Let's call it what it is, and let's vote on it.

Connecticut Acts to Recognize Same-Sex Civil Unions

On Wednesday of this past week, the Joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee of the state of Connecticut passed a bill to recognize same-sex civil unions, different from marriage in name only.

Here is a link to the 2 hour-long video, Judiciary Committee Discussion and Vote on Civil Unions

I have spent several hours since Wednesday reviewing and transcribing select portions of the discussion, and will post my thoughts on this over the next several days. To the extent possible I will support all of my statements and conclusions with direct quotes from members of the Committee.

I am exhausted from trying to make sense of what seems to be total confusion and contradiction among the supporters of this legislation. Let me give you just a few preliminary examples.

On the will of the people:

Sen. Andrew McDonald, author of the legislation and co-chair of the Committee, said, "If this bill is passed ... it would in fact be the people saying that we want to provide for the legal protections and the legal rights and the legal responsibilities of committed same-sex partnerships."

However, shortly after this he voted against offering the people of the state of Connecticut an opportunity to vote on this issue. This, even though he had also conceded, "I think that this issue as everybody knows is a divisive issue. It is divisive in many ways and in many parts of our community. It is, in fact, divisive within the gay community. There is not a uniform opinion about which is the right way to go."

I don't think any reasonable person could boast that the people are saying anything; we are divided and will not be given the opportunity to vote on this issue lest the outcome be the same as in those states that acted on referenda this past election.

Rep. John Gerogosian adds in response to those who argue that representatives are obligated to actually represent the will of the majority of citizens in the state of Connecticut, "That's not what America is about, by the way. America's about protecting the rights of the minority against the will of the majority."

On imposing religion versus mandating moral acceptance and legislating private attitudes:

Some of the legislators argued that this is not a religious issue, "Is it [my role as a legislator] to impose my religious beliefs on other people?" asked Sen. Ernest Newton. McDonald said something similar.

Yet, McDonald's rationale for this legislation can be summed up with his story about a couple who had been together a very long time, "That is a relationship that is undeniable and is a relationship that deserves the respect and protection of state law." To the possible objection that all of the protections needed are already available thhrough contracts, McDonald replies, "In the best of circumstances you have to carry around a valise of legal documents with you to justify to the outside world the love that you have in your heart and that is wrong. That is wrong and unacceptable."

His co-chair, Rep. Michael Lawlor, sums up the Committee's action, "From the very start on this issue, I've always said this was really ... not about marriage per se. This was ... about public attitudes and private attitudes towards homosexuality. That is really what is at the heart of this ... That's what it is all about. And recognition of same-sex marriage is the most symbolic acknowledgment that homosexuality simply apprears to be a normally occurring phenomenon in nature."

So, the Committee has scruples about imposing religious beliefs but none about mandating respect and moral justification and legislating private attitudes toward homosexuality as normal and natural. (Note that Lawlor makes no pretense of these "civil unions" being anything other than marriage.)

On guarding the interests of the state in civil marriage:

Many legislators were careful to draw a distinction between civil marriage and religious marriage, but they clearly placed the burden of defining "civil marriage" on those of us who oppose this legislation on religious grounds. McDonald again complained that "many people did not want to struggle with the distinctions [between civil marriage and religious marriage]."

This is a completely invalid ploy. It is incumbent on those who claim civil marriage as their domain to clearly define it. They ought to delineate the qualifications of those eligible for marriage and articulate the basis upon which they have settled on those qulifications. They ridicule those who question why polygamy and incest are disallowed, but have not given any satisfactory answer.

They ought also to identify the state's interest in civil marriage, especially since Sen. Edward Meyer describes this as "an expansion of equal protection benefits" which will be very costly to the state. Same-sex couples will be able to file joint tax returns and get the tax savings of a lower rate, they will be able to prepare wills by which they will inherit from each other tax free, they will be able to take real property from each other without there being any taxation, and so on.

What then are the interests of the state these legislators are so eager to guard? "I love my friends and I want my friends to love who they want to love," says Rep. Toni Walker. Sen. Meyer told the story of a gay couple he knows who exhibit the same love and commitment he and his wife share for each other, "When you have that love and commitment ... the same benefits should be granted."

The legislators seem completely confused as to whether this is a protection of existing rights, an expansion of rights, or an expansion of benefits. The truth is that the 14th amendment already grants equal protection to all Americans. What these legilators are doing is conferring special, valued status on same-sex unions along with financial benefits.

On the discrimination that will be resolved by same-sex civil unions:

"We need to take a look at what we are saying to our children ...,'Some of us can do whatever we want. Some of us are equal. Some of us can live wherever we want, but others can't," says Rep. Toni Walker. I was not aware that homosexuals had no freedom of movement in this country, nor do I understand how civil unions grant them this freedom.

"We go all over the world and we fight wars to bring equality to countries and to allow people to have the right to vote ... but we can't do it here in America." Walker again. "In certain elections numbers of Afro-Americans are turned back for not having the proper i.d., or you know some sort of nonsense," Rep. Ernest Newton. As far as I know, homosexuals already have the right to vote.

On characterizing those who disagree with this action:

"It is time to move into the 21st century," says John Gerogosian.

"Will any bill we pass stop the bigotry and ignorance that's out there? No ... Will there still be people out there who have hatred and bigotry in their heart? Yes there will!" Sen Newton.

In Massachussetts, "the sky didn't fall," Rep. Cameron Staples.

"We do need to commend our colleagues who have gotten from a place of being completely closed-minded ... I look forward to being on the right side of history," Rep. Melissa Olson.

Looking out at the gay and lesbian activists in the room, "I have deep admiration for those of you who have committed yourselves to a course that is directed by reason and supported by principle," Rep. Ryan Barry

As is typical, we who oppose this legislation -- mostly the religious community -- are characterized as closed-minded, hateful, ignorant, bigoted, unprincipled alarmists incapable of rational thought.

Who will protect us from this bigotry? The right to religious faith is an enumerated right in the Constitution, which does deserve respect.

More to come.

Process Theology and Down's

Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” (Exodus 4:11 ESV)

This passage came up a couple days ago in my daily Bible reading. I can never read it without remembering a conversation I once had with a good friend about how he became a convinced Calvinist through reading about Moses’s call.

When he first told me that, I assumed that what had persuaded him was God’s assertion of freedom to harden Pharaoh’s heart. Instead, it was God’s claim to be sovereign even over physical disabilities. My friend and his wife had a baby with Down’s Syndrome. He was devastated and sought the Lord in prayer. This is the verse that came to him. He found comfort in knowing that God had caused his son to be born with that extra chromosome just as he might make a man mute, deaf, or blind.

It is far more comforting to know that an all-wise, loving God has his own good reasons for doing something than to believe in the process theologians’ God who empathetically joins us in our suffering, wringing his hands helplessly in the face of accidents he can’t do anything about. That sort of God can’t possibly lift us out of hopelessness because he’s too busy wallowing in it himself.

Inspiring Music

I am gearing up for a long day of study by listening to Marty Goetz CDs. Why he isn't better known? He really is a "sweet psalmist of Israel." I don't know any Christian music that does for me what he does.

www.martygoetz.com

Duke Basketball

I'm starting to really like this year's team! I've been thinking all along that they have been overrated on the ESPN poll, which has them at #4. This team simply does not have the talent previous Duke teams have had. But they have gelled as a team.

Basketball really consists of three games: defensive, offensive, and communication. This team has Coach K's communication game down. They have great spacing on the court and great ball movement. That was the difference in the Miami game -- Miami's guards did not pass the ball but tried to make the points themselves.

Last night's game also showed the heart this team has. Shavlik, especially, was intense.

Seminary

I was accepted into the M.Div. program at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary just before Christmas. Unfortunately our home still has not sold so we aren't able yet to relocate to Louisville. Early this week I got my status changed from an "on-campus" student to "Internet-only." I will be taking three on-line courses this first semester, January 19th to May 3rd, though we're still hopeful we'll be able to move long before the semester's over. (We have some people scheduled to look at our house, tomorrow. Their broker toured the house last weekend and decided it is ideal for them.)

I've signed up for Elementary Hebrew, Biblical Hermeneutics, and Introduction to Christian Philosophy. I received the textbooks yesterday, have printed out all the class handouts, and have read through all the lecture notes for the Christian Philosophy class. This morning I started on the first assignment for the hermeneutics class. Though I have a reputation for being a reader and somewhat academic, I'm very intimidated by the idea of going back to school. Learning Hebrew at age 51 is especially daunting.

Red State/Blue State

Eric is memorizing the book of Romans. Last time we talked, before he went to Campus Crusade's Christmas Conference in Greensboro, he was able to recite chapters 1 through 3:10. He expects to be able to get through chapter 4 by the time he goes back to school for the spring semester. He is following the memorization techniques of his pastor, Andy Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church, Durham, North Carolina, known for being able to recite whole books of the Bible verbatim from memory.

He's expressed some eagerness to get past chapters 1 and 2 to get to the "good stuff" about justification by faith in chapters 3 and 4. I've tried to encourage him to linger over these chapters. Their message is vitally needed today. I've probably read these two chapters more than any others in the book of Romans even though I was converted through Romans 5:5.

In trying to convince him of the relevance of these two chapters, in which Paul argues that all human beings are without excuse before God and in need of His righteousness, I told him to think of chapter 1 as Paul's indictment of blue states and chapter 2 as his indictment of red states.

As I've thought about this, I've realized just how relevant this analogy really is. Chapter 1 indicts blue state thinking in many ways. For example, blue state thinking detaches any discussion of ethics from religion. Basing political ethics, especially, on religious commitment is automatically invalidated. However, according to Paul, it's all ultimately about religion, responding to the one true God who constantly reveals himself to us with worship and thansksgiving. Ethics is secondary in the sense that unrighteous behavior follows from rejecting God; it is the means used to suppress (distract from) knowledge of God; and, it is God's punishment for irreligion. Because, "they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done." (v. 28) Religion comes first, ethics second.

Blue state thinking prides itself on religious tolerance, so long, of course, as you believe everything or believe nothing. If you believe some things and not others, you yourself are intolerant and hateful. All religions are equally valid except for those that claim validity for themselves. Religion arises out of a sincere seeking after truth. Paul, of course, demolishes this view of religion, arguing that the religious impulse is indeed a response to God's continual self-revelation, but most of it arises out of a concerted effort to substitute our own futile speculations about God, which we prefer, for his revelation of himself.

Finally, blue state thinking turns moral judgment inside out, calling good "evil" and evil "good." Forming moral judgments is itself to be despised as wicked and evil; it is hateful intolerance. Blue state thinkers not only indulge in immorality, but "give hearty approval to those who practice [the things God condemns.]" (v. 32) Blue state thinkers see themselves as having progressed beyond the old fashioned, provincial traditionalism of red staters.

But in chapter 2, Paul turns to those who do pass judgment. (2:1) Paul indicts those who believe that forming accurate moral judgments is enough, thinking correctly, about God and ethics, is sufficient. He indicts those who rely merely on asserting the exsistence of moral absolutes and objective truth and locating the basis for human rights in God's ordaining, as though this exempts them from scrutiny of their practice.

This is red state thinking. We* emphasize virtue, with a capital V, and character. We adhere to traditional values. Yet, our practice is not significantly different from blue states. We have the same divorce rates. We are as materialistic and worldly. Though our moral judgment is finely tuned, this only serves to aggravate our self-condemnation.

Red state and blue state thinkers are alike without excuse and in need of God's righteousness. Paul's indictment, culminating in Romans 3:10-18, is intensely relevant today.

*My town in Connecticut is red, though just barely.

Fact Fundamentalism

Marcus Borg suggests that there are 4 different possibilites with regard to Jesus' own self-awareness and whether he was the messiah: 1) Jesus thought he was the messiah and he was right, 2) Jesus thought he was the messiah and he was wrong, 3) Jesus did not think he was the messiah and therefore he was not, 4) Jesus may or may not have thought he was the messiah and he is.

Borg says that the third possibility "sounds like common sense but is actually 'fact fundamentalism' or 'fact literalism' ... [that is,] if something isn't factually and literally true, it isn't true." (p. 55, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions)

Now, I am sure I am betraying my naivete and lack of sophistication when I say this, but this still seems like a very odd thing for one who claims to be a diligent historian to say. What does it mean for Borg to assert that something is historically true? Why does he spend so much time distinguishing between the Jesus of history and the Jesus of tradition? Can't he just make blanket assertions of truth about the Jesus of history without regard to facts? Doesn't he presuppose that the difference between the Jesus of history and the Jesus of tradition is that one is the factual Jesus and the other is the metaphorical Jesus? Isn't this an irrelevant distinction if all truth is metaphorical anyway? And what does it mean to assert the truth of anything? When Borg says something is true, doesn't he really mean just that he gets a warm, fuzzy feeling when he makes the assertion?

I'm just grateful that the mechanic at the Granby Garage is a fact fundamentalist. When he works on our broken down cars and asserts that they now run, they actually do run. I'm not sure how we could operate in a world where a mechanic's assertions are dismissed not as common sense, but fact fundamentalism, and therefore ought to be disregarded. If a mechanic tells me my car runs like a charm but it doesn't run at all, do I still have to pay him?

To me, Borg is playing an astonishing word game -- a game that seems fundamentally dishonest. Some of the old religious existentialists asserted that Christianity was historically false yet we could affirm meaning in spite of it. Because existential meaning trumps all other concerns, historicity is irrelevant. Christian history is false; but who cares! Borg, on the other hand, still asserts that existential meaning trumps all other concerns, but also claims the history is true. It's just that he's redefined "true" to mean "gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling." I'm not sure what he gains by asserting "truth" when he clearly does not mean "truth" as anyone could apply it. It seems this is simply a more effective guerilla strategy to undermine Christian faith.

At least Robert Funk, the founder of the Jesus Seminar is more upfront on his agenda, (quoted from markdroberts.com)

"Robert Funk’s opening remarks at the first meeting of the Jesus Seminar in 1985:

What we need is a new fiction that takes as its starting point the central event in the Judeo-Christian drama [Jesus] and reconciles that middle with a new story that reaches beyond old beginnings and endings [creation and eschatology]. In sum, we need a new narrative of Jesus, a new gospel, if you will, that places Jesus differently in the grand scheme, the epic story.

Not any fiction will do. . . . The fiction of Revelation keeps many common folk in bondage to ignorance and fear. We require a new, liberating fiction, one that squares with the best knowledge we can now accumulate and one that transcends self-serving ideologies.

This doesn’t exactly sound like the beginning of an objective quest for the historical Jesus, does it? In fact in that same lecture Funk said this about what his Seminar fellows would experience:

What we are about takes courage, as I said. We are probing what is most sacred to millions, and hence we will constantly border on blasphemy. We must be prepared to forebear the hostility we shall provoke."

Redefining "truth" is a ploy to appease "common folk" -- the "ignorant" and "fearful" superstitious -- while surreptitiously substituting blasphemous new ideas for the old gospel.

Woman Charged in Grisly Theft of Fetus

This headline is an example of the AP's pro-abortion bias run wild! The fetus is a baby girl named Victoria Jo. I wonder if the AP has a policy to distinguish kidnapping from "fetus stealing."

Yahoo! News - Woman Charged in Grisly Theft of Fetus

UPDATE: see article by Rich Lowry about this "linguistic confusion"

Rich Lowry on National Review Online

Virgin Birth

Today's installment of Mark Roberts's response to Newsweek is especially good.

The Birth of the Virgin Birth Story

I'm looking forward to his next post in which he will list resources for additional study.

Knowing Jesus and Newsweek

Motivated again by Newsweek’s Christmas Story, I decided to read the discussion (it’s not really a debate) between Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright about the Jesus of history.

As with so many of those Jesus Seminar scholars, Borg’s statements are not at all clear even when they seem to be: “[the historical] Jesus is dead and gone—a claim that does not deny Easter but simply recognizes that the ‘protoplasmic’ Jesus isn’t around anymore’” But the post-Easter Jesus is around, that is, “what Jesus became after his death. More fully, … the Jesus of Christian tradition and experience.” What he of course means by this is not that Jesus the historical person really became anything; the post-Easter Jesus is a character in a work, or works, of fiction. But by labeling fiction as metaphor, and claiming that metaphors are true because they are meaningful, he tries to assert the “truth” of Easter, and the possibility of “seeing Jesus.”

By contrast, Wright is the model of clarity. His description of the “hermeneutic of paranoia” embraced in New Testament studies almost refutes, by itself, Jon Meacham’s nonsense in that Newsweek article.

I’d love to post Wright’s entire chapter, “Knowing Jesus,” but this would violate copyright laws. However, I can’t resist quoting excerpts from four paragraphs defining what it is to know Jesus by faith.

… It has been inherent in Christianity from the beginning that the believer “knows Christ”; Jesus, as the good shepherd, knows his own sheep, and his own know him. This is regularly described in terms borrowed from ordinary personal relationships: believers are aware of Jesus’ presence, his love, his guidance, his rebuke, and even perhaps his laughter. They are aware of being in touch with a personality that is recognizable, distinct, frequently puzzling and unpredictable, always loving and lovable, powerful and empowering, loyal and calling forth loyalty …

… It is not just “belief.” It is natural to say “I believe it’s raining” when indoors with the curtains shut, but it would be odd to say it, except in irony, standing on a hillside in a downpour. For many Christians much of the time, knowing Jesus is more like the latter: being drenched in his love and the challenge of his call, not merely imagining we hear him like raindrops on a distant windowpane. (For many, of course, the latter is the norm; hinting, promising, inviting.)

… When we “know” a person (as opposed to, say, knowing the height of the Eiffel Tower), we imply some kind of relationship, some mutual understanding. We are used to each other; we can anticipate how the other will react; we accurately assess their wishes, hopes, and fears …

When someone claims to “know” Jesus of Nazareth in this sense, they are making a claim about other things as well: the existence of a nonspatiotemporal world; the existence of Jesus within that world; the possibility of presently alive human beings having access to that world, and of this being actually true in their case. They are claiming, more particularly, to know one person in particular, a distinctive and recognizable person, within that world, and that this person is identified as Jesus. This knowledge is what many people, myself included, are referring to when we say we know Jesus “by faith.”

From N.T. Wright’s chapter, “Knowing Jesus: Faith and History,” (pp. 24,25) in Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, (New York, HarperCollins, 2000)

Against Meacham’s assumption that history and faith are completely at odds, Wright asserts that this way of knowing Jesus is reinforced by history, “history comes to the help of faith. The Jesus I know in prayer, in the sacraments … is the Jesus I meet in historical evidence—including the New Testament … as I read it with my historical consciousness fully operative … History, then, prevents faith from becoming fantasy. Faith prevents history from becoming pure antiquarianism.” (p. 26)

(Note: Meacham claims to be summarizing a scholarly debate. However, at first I simply couldn’t find more than one side. His article is much like a presidential debate where the microphone for one of the candidates is turned off every time it’s his turn to speak and then the only candidate who’s heard is pronounced the winner.

I finally realized that Meacham probably thinks he did represent both sides of the debate. The two sides are not, as I would expect, critical historical scholars who conclude that the gospel narratives are reliable vs. those who conclude that they are not; but critical, historical scholars who assert meaning in the Jesus stories despite their lack of foundation in history vs. simple believers who know nothing about history and don’t care to. He either is not aware of scholars like Wright, or he doesn’t like them. Either way it’s lousy journalism.)

Newsweek on Christmas

I've intended to write a response to Newsweek's feature on Christmas, The Birth of Jesus, Faith and History: How the Story of Christmas Came to Be, in which Jon Meacham claims that a critical, historical assessment of the gospel narratives leads to the conclusion that the Christmas stories are works of fiction and propaganda. Meacham cloaks his extreme skepticism by affirming that the story is still meaningful even if it is false. This, of course, is just plain old Christian liberalism. Meacham completely ignores those scholars who use the tools of crtical, historical investigation and believe that the gospels are historically reliable.

Today I found an excellent series of posts written by Mark Roberts, a pastor in Irvine, CA, who has a Ph.D. in Christian Origins from Harvard. Rather than write a response myself, I will just link to his series.

markdroberts.com

Christian Investment Strategy: A Meditation for Businessmen

Philippians 3:7-8

⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Peter T. O’Brien begins his comments on this section in his commentary on Philippians by pointing out that Paul is using accounting terminology when he speaks about gains and losses (p. 383.) Paul is dealing with the issue of valuation; that is, assigning values to objects. His conversion to Christ involves a re-valuation (O’Brien, as a theology professor, rather than a financial analyst, doesn’t quite get the accounting terms right, but the concepts are there.) I agree. Gains, losses, and reckoning – or counting, as the ESV has it – all seem to point to commercial transactions and investment strategies.

But there is a very important investment concept implicit in this passage that O’Brien doesn’t comment on. I doubt that Paul was enough of a specialist in finance to be able to put a label on it. Certainly, professor O’Brien is not. And, even most senior executives ignore it when selecting investment projects. But it is clearly included in Paul’s logic: opportunity cost.

Wikipedia defines opportunity cost as “the cost of something in terms of an opportunity foregone (and the benefits that could be received from that opportunity), or the most valuable foregone alternative.”

So, when Paul reviews his previous privileges and moral accomplishments in the absence of Christ he sees gain. But, having discovered the surpassing value of knowing Christ, he recognizes that there is an opportunity cost associated with the things that he previously valued. Relying on his own personal righteousness and moral accomplishment – that is, investing in his own righteousness – causes him to forego investing in a righteousness from God making him miss out on knowing Christ. The cost of this is the value of knowing Christ: infinite. To call that a loss is an understatement; it’s rubbish! “I count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

Internet Browser

On a very different note: I am very impressed with Mozilla Firefox. I only use Internet Explorer as a last resort. The performance is much better with Firefox, and the tabs feature is wonderful.

I've organized all my bookmarks into folders: political blogs, Christian sites, and newspapers and news weeklies. At the beginning of the day, I open a folder and select the option to open all of my bookmarks in that folder in tabs. So for example, my newspapers and news weeklies folder will open the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, National Review Online, the Washington Times, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Drudge, and World Magazine, each in its own tab. Once I've scanned through all these I then select one of my other bookmark folders and replace these tabs with new ones.

I have far too many blogs bookmarked in my political blogs folder. The ones I really look at throughout the day are: the Belmont Club, Instapundit, RealClearPolitics, Powerline, Little Green Footballs, and Diplmad. I have many, many more bookmarked, but I scan them very cursorily. Of course, scrappleface.com is in a class by itself, and deserves its own separate bookmark.

This routine would be unwieldy without Firefox!

Contemplating My Career Change

Philippians 3:7-8

⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

I am still waiting to hear whether I have been accepted into the M. Div. program at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I called this past Tuesday to check on the status of my application, to make sure they had received my three personal recommendations and the church affirmation. The admissions assistant was just then forwarding my application to their admissions committee. I am very eager to hear and, hopefully, get moving on this next phase of life.

Though I can’t wait to get going, I am, frankly, very aware of the lifestyle we will be leaving behind. At times I am tempted to chastise myself for this. It seems so unspiritual to think about what we are giving up. If I were truly mature, and less materialistic or worldly, it just wouldn’t matter to me. But, that is a false view of spirituality. We often make ourselves most miserable when we require of ourselves what the Bible does not require, when we set unrealistic, unhuman expectations of ourselves.

For example, we often falsely think that Christianity requires us to act against our own self-interest, or even to be entirely disinterested. But that is completely false. Jesus assumes that human beings are always motivated by self-interest. His command to love our neighbor as ourselves assumes that we do love ourselves. The parables comparing the kingdom of God with finding a pearl of great price or discovering buried treasure teach not abandonment of self-interest but more zealous and wise pursuit of it. The promises of eternal reward contrast what is permanently in our interest against what will disappear.

Or we buy into false dichotomies, thinking, for example, that true spirituality means full-time Christian ministry even though we find more joy in biomedical engineering, robotics, music performance, or management consulting. We ignore the fact that one of the qualifications for an elder is to “aspire” to the office (1 Tim 3:1) and to fulfill its responsibilities “not under compulsion, but willingly” and “eagerly.” (1 Peter 5:2) We forget that because God is at work in the Christian “to will … for his good pleasure,” (Php 2:13) what we delight in is often a reliable indicator of God’s will for us, our vocation.

The disciples were very aware of what they had left in order to follow Jesus. “See, we have left everything and followed you” they reminded him. (Mark 8:28) Jesus didn’t chastise them; instead he said that the one who has left house … or children … or land will receive much more in this life and in the next (along with suffering.)

It simply would be false, and ungrateful, to deny that I have enjoyed our big, beautiful house. I have enjoyed the status and position that came with my secular job. I have enjoyed being a member of a country club with so few members that I never had to make a tee time. God gave these things to us. They are good. But, they do not compare to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. It is the comparison that counts! The joy to be found in following Christ, and in doing what he has called us to do, overwhelms any attachment we have to things that are good in themselves. It is unnatural not to appreciate all that we’ve had; but it would be foolishness not to exchange them for something infinitely more valuable.

I hope I hear soon.

Bible Translations

I am making a second concerted effort at switching from the New American Standard, which I have used for over 31 years, to the English Standard Version. My first effort failed. I could not get past being distracted by slight differences in translation. At first the distraction was useful because it forced me to pause to truly understand the meaning of a passage, but it ended up slowing me down too much.

I was also disappointed with some of the translation choices the ESV makes. For example, the ESV will often translate participles as finite verbs; long, complex sentences with subordinating participial phrases are broken into several simpler sentences with finite verbs. Though this strategy makes the translation much more readable, it hides the relationship among these sentences.

However, as much as I love my New American Standard I recognize that it will never become the dominant American translation. And, I believe that the NIV needs to be displaced as the translation of choice among evangelicals.

John Piper has good reasons for embracing the ESV.

http://www.desiringgod.org/library/topics/word_god/esv.html

I am not sure, though, that I will be as successful as he has been in switching to the ESV. John used the RSV, which was the base for the ESV, for much of his adult life. The ESV and RSV are very similar. I only used the RSV on occasion when leading InterVarsity Bible and Life seminars. The NASB is much more deeply ingrained for me.

(I also wish Crossway would produce an ESV without the two column format. I much prefer a single column of text with cross references or alternate readings in the margin or as footnotes at the bottom of the page rather than in a center column between two columns of text. With the center-column reference format, I have to use a magnifying glass to read the references, and I am far too young to buy a large print edition!)

Update as of April 17, 2005

I am still using my ESV, and recently purchased the Reformation Study Bible, which is very good. One of the main advantages of the ESV is that it is an acceptable alternative for my college-age son and his friends -- in a way that the NASB for some reason is not. It has made it much easier for us to have substantive discussions about the meaning of a text without the distraction of first squaring up the translations.

The paragraphing in the ESV can be very helpful. It often highlights the flow of an argument, especially in the epistles, in a way that the NASB's line-by-line formatting does not. When analyzing a text I outline it with a line-by-line format more akin to the NASB's.

I still do not like the two-column/center-reference-column format! I wish Crossway would do something about this. I also still think we lose important information about the relationship between propositions when participles are replaced by finite verbs. But I'm starting to get used to this translation.

The Necessity of a Firm Faith

If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. (Isaiah 7:9 ESV)

Our highest priority when faced with disappointments and dangers that threaten to dismay us is to fight for a firm faith. If we lack that we are easily demoralized and will be overcome.

Church Bashing Ad

A number of news commentators have characterized the UCC's mean-spirited, church-bashing, race-baiting ad, "Night Club," as "all about tolerance." What a novel use of a word!

The ad shows two bouncers outside the entrance to a church manning a velvet rope. A gay couple comes up to the rope seeking to enter the church and they are turned away. Then a white, heterosexual couple comes up and they are let in. The camera then shows those who have been turned away, a multiracial mix of straights and gays. A voice over then says something to the effect that the UCC is the only church that follows Jesus' example in welcoming everyone.

Of course, it is true Jesus does invite everyone to come to him. He is extravagant in his welcome, as the ad claims. However, in explaining himself to the religious hypocrites of the day, he said he had not come for the righteous but to "save sinners." He challenged the crowd to judge the woman caught in adultery but then turned to her and said, "go and sin no more." What the UCC leaves out of their ad is their view that any use of the word "sin" or the biblical concept behind it is itself unwelcoming. The UCC's Jesus is half-a-Jesus who never addresses or deals with sin. Apparently his only mission was to make people feel good about themselves, no matter what. I am curious what their view of the purpose of the cross is. Does he accomplish anything a good dose of prozac couldn't do?

As for the "tolerant" implication that all other churches are racist, this is outrageous! It is absolutely true that the Congregational church, expecially in Connecticut, has a stellar history of civil rights activism. This was a center of abolitionism and integration. The UCC is justly proud of that heritage. And, they are certainly right to assert that as one of their historical distinctives. But, it is a libel to imply that other churches today are turning African Americans and others away and barring entry into church. This is a slander.

As an aside, this is the same denomination whose representative, Davida Foy Crabtree, says, "we take the Bible too seriously to take it literally." I'm curious what their correspondence with the networks refusing to show their ads looks like. Do they write letters seeking to persuade the networks to change their position? Do they seek to explain the intent of the ads? What if the networks take these letters too seriously to take them literally and freely read into them any meaning they choose? Does the UCC get upset? ... Why?

31 Thanksgivings

I've spent 31 Thanksgivings with my wife. We celebrated one together the year before we were married, and the next 30 as husband and wife. It is the first we've ever spent just the two of us, without any family. Our first year of marriage we celebrated Thanksgiving in Canada with a bunch of expatriates studying at Canadian Theological College in Regina, Saskatchewan, so I suppose that one also could count as one we spent without family, but we were certainly not alone.

We actually were invited to neighbors' yesterday, and spent the day with them, but I found it so unsatisfying not eating my wife's cooking that we decided to redo it, today.

Though we desperately miss our two sons -- this was our first Thanksgiving without them since they were born -- we managed to enjoy each other and be profoundly grateful. We prayed, ate, then read John Piper's, Don't Waste Your Life, out loud to each other. It's a good celebration.

I am very thankful to God. I am grateful for my wife. She is truly the Proverbs 31 woman. I am grateful for my two boys. I learned a lot about God's love when I first tried to comfort a collicky first son and was overwhelmed by a sense of love for him that has only grown over the years. I am grateful for my second son whose joy-filled faith seems to have grown since leaving home.

Hidden Learning a Good Thing

I'm rereading Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. I read it once before from beginning to end and have reread many of its chapters on occasion as needed. I have the same reaction to this book that I have to D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones's sermons; both men hide their learning. They use very simple language to express profound thoughts informed by extensive reading and research. This is an example to emulate.

Age and Study

This past weekend I submitted an application for the M. Div. program at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary beginning, D.V., January 18th.

It would seem an odd thing for a 51-year old to do. It's fairly common for 50ish types to change careers, but it's not too common for them to choose second careers that require at least 3 years of schooling before they can get started. By the time I finish I will be close to 55.

Age is irrelevant, though, if you don't think about retiring. If your criterion for evaluating options turns from what I can do to be most comfortable in retirement to what I can do to be most of service for the remainder of my life, however long that might be, then a seminary education looks appealing. If we are called to love God with all our strength, and education adds to our strength, then the 3 years are worth it.

Rights from Wrongs

I spent the day, yesterday, preparing myself to read Alan Dershowitz's new book, Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights. He wants to argue that human rights do not need to be transcendent, that is, they are not derived from natural law or nature's God. At the same time, he recognizes that having no external source of rights may create a problem for the concept of minority rights. If rights are simply an expression of societal will, then rights are conveyed always, and only, by the will of the majority.

Dershowitz proposes an experiential theory of rights. It seems to be very much like Justice Potter Stewart's approach to obscenity laws, "I can't define it [obscenity], but I know it when I see it." We cannot define rights a priori, but we recognize their violation when we see it. Human rights evolve through some sort of trial and error approach. Rights are not transcendent, but are a response to recognition of wrongs.

Again, I haven't yet read the book, so it is probably premature for me to even be writing this much, but I am eager to see how he handles this. I am eager to see who, in his scheme, is responsible for identifying these wrongs and rectifying them. If it is the popular will, then we're back to a majoritarianism that excludes minority rights. I suspect he will argue that it is the responsibility of judges, or an enlightened few, and we are left with the kind of thinking that gave us Lawrence v. Texas where cloistered judges respond to the latest thinking of the lawyers' guild, among whom Dershowitz and other Harvard and Yale law professors, his peers, take a lead.

How did I get myself ready to read this book? Very simply. I read the Declaration of Independence. "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people ... to assume the ... equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them" and "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The ignorance displayed by the media in ridiculing Bush's assertion that freedom is God's gift to man, an ignorance of our own Declaration of Independence, only reveals that they have already bought into Dershowitz's arguments, probably without even being aware of it.

As I get older, I become more convinced that God must be presupposed if knowledge, morality, and human rights have any validity. If we begin with ourselves, we end up with solepcism.

Thomas Sowell on Specter

Thomas Sowell has an interesting series on Arlen Specter beginning with this piece:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20041109.shtml

He reminds us of the Bork hearings -- the lies and smears perpetrated against an eminently qualified, honorable man. If the Democrats want to find the real source of division in this country they ought to review their behavior in those hearings. Those hearings made me a Republican.