Living History

Today is the 221st anniversary of the birth of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, on January 25, 1790. Now, I’m sure you haven’t given a lot of thought to ol’ Jawn (best known as the back half of “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!”, he  succeeded William Henry Harrison upon the latter’s death in office one month after inauguration), but he has an extraordinary legacy: he has living grandchildren. According to Yahoo News:

So, how is it possible that a former president who died 150 years ago would still have direct descendents [sic--he means grandchildren--DSF] alive today? As it turns out, the Tyler men were known for fathering children late in life. And that math is pretty outstanding when added up:

John Tyler was born in 1790. He became the 10th president of the United States in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died in office. Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853, at age 63.  Then, at the age of 71, Lyon Gardiner Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924 and four years later at age 75, Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Both men are still alive today.

Think about that: John Tyler was born less than ten years after the end of the Revolutionary War, less than three years after the ratification of the Constitution, less than a year ater the inauguration of George Washington as our first president. That man has living grandsons, one of whom is only seven years younger than Ron Paul, who is running for president today. Incredible.

 

Quote of the Day

When I spoke with openly gay bishop Gene Robinson about following him through a particularly harrowing period that he was about to enter, I told him that talking to him was like talking to Joan of Arc, in a time when a doc crew could capture the drama of the church/state firestorm he had found himself in. He laughed but said that it was true – he was caught in the crosshairs of cultural change and it was important to record it along the way, so he invited me to follow him for the next four years.

–Macky Alston, director of the film Love Free or Die, a documentary about Joan of Arc Bishop Robinson that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week; what “church/state firestorm” Robinson was supposedly caught up in is a mystery to me, but I suppose it does enhance the Joan/Gene analogy

(Via Matt Kennedy at Stand Firm.)

 

When an Anti-Semite Does Political Analysis

Anti-Semitic loon James Wall of the Christian Century and Veterans Today (whose column is frequently linked by the PCUSA’s Israel Palestine Mission Network) has divined the political tea leaves stirred by the South Carolina Republican presidential primary and announced who the results help: the Jooooooos:

Newt Gingrich is the current holder of the Republican crown. Saturday night, NBC projected Gingrich as the winner in the South Carolina Republican primary over his closet rival, Mitt Romney.

The race for an opponent to run against incumbent President Barack Obama is down to two candidates, a former House Speaker, and a former Governor.

That will come as a surprise to Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. Anyway, after some boilerplate political analysis, Wall gets to the subject that really animates him:

The early South Carolina primary was pivotal for Gingrich and a major setback for Romney. After losing in Iowa and New Hampshire, Gingrich appeared on his way out of politics. He was a distant second  in polls the week before the South Carolina voting. Republican big money was lining up behind Romney.

Money dried up for Gingrich. It certainly did not help that he is a candidate who carries some of the heaviest political baggage this country has seen in these quadrennial shifts in American political power,  three wives, admitted infidelities, two divorces, and an ethics charge that led to disciplinary action during his time as House speaker.

Gingrich was not giving up. He turned for help from one of the richest men in America, Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino owner and Mr. Gingrich’s longtime friend and patron. The two men share a politically conservative ideology and a deep loyalty to Israel.

And for the Israel-fixated Wall, who thinks that the “Israel lobby” (read: Jooooooos) run America, that’s all that really matters.

He then goes on to extensively quote a New York Times article on the Gingrich-Adelson connection (this from a newspaper that has virtually no interest in, for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and any of the big money men who will be raising close to a billion dollars for his 2012 campaign, and who have been involved in scandals from Solyndra to LightSquared to BrightSource). First, there’s this:

Mr. Adelson was building his newest resort casino, the Venetian, and became embroiled in a battle with a local culinary union trying to organize his employees. The conflict soured further when Adelson helped finance a campaign in Nevada to pass legislation curtailing the ability of labor unions to automatically deduct money from members to finance political activities.

Gingrich helped Adelson’s team develop an anti-union pitch in support of the Nevada legislation. Gingrich supported the legislation and was honored with a Nevada fund raiser. Gingrich and Adelson became fortuitous pals out of this initial anti-union campaign.

Most Americans would probably consider the idea that unions can take money from members without their consent to fund political activities of which those members disapprove to be more than a little unAmerican. But that’s only a lead-in to the real story:

Their friendship extended to their common support for Israel:

“Both men have long been staunch American allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Mr. Adelson owns a free daily newspaper in Israel [Israel Hayom] that is credited with helping Mr. Netanyahu return to power in 2009.

“In May 2010, the cover of a special section of the paper featured a full-page photograph of Mr. Gingrich in front of an American flag, with Mr. Gingrich criticizing the Obama administration for not moving more aggressively against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

After Obama’s election, the bond that centered on Israel grew deeper. In an interview he gave in December, 2011, Gingrich declared “that Palestinians are an “invented” people — meaning they had no historical claim to have their own state and that they remain committed to destroying Israel.

Mr. Adelson endorsed Gingrich’s comments a few days later in an interview withHaaretz, an Israeli newspaper in which he declared: “Read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people.”

Adelson is the money man; Gingrich the political leader.  Together, once they get past Mitt Romney, they plan to confront Barack Obama in November about his failure  to provide Israel 100% support.

Calling the Palestinians an “invented people” may have been a less than artful way of expressing the truth, but there’s little doubt that Gingrich is correct on the substance, which is why people like Wall have not bothered trying to refute him and instead engaged in character assassination. But of course the real point is that Wall’s weaving a classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theory: Adelson is the Jewish money man, controlling the politician who will do his bidding, and who apparently all by himself buy the politician a presidential nomination for the purpose of giving blind and total support to the Jewish state. And in Wall’s reading, it’s a good thing all that Jewish money turned up in South Carolina:

The South Carolina primary was his last chance. Fortunately for him, Adelson’s PAC money, and a majority of South Carolina Republican voters combined to hand the former Speaker a significant victory.

Leave aside the fact that virtually all observers have credited Gingrich’s debate performances over the last week before the voting for his victory. Instead, note that Mitt Romney and his supporting super PAC outspent Gingrich and his by more than 2-1. That Jewish money is magic, my friends.

Gingrich has once again proven that he is a politician who is smart, tough and attuned to the conservative political pulse, especially in a state like South Carolina, where loyalty to Israel has become a conservative Protestant White Christian biblical belief.

Voters, who once could not find Israel on a world map, have found Israel in their Bibles. This is not a group that will embrace Barack Obama’s reelection. They will go with whatever candidate the Republican Party hands them. Gingrich is, at the moment, that candidate.

Of course, no screed about the power of the Joooooos would be complete without some snide cracks about their willing stooges, the Christian Right. The fact that exit poll information indicated that voters primary concerns were about jobs, the economy, the federal debt, government spending, and defeating Barack Obama in November. If white evangelicals are involved, they must have voted the way they did because of Israel.

Israel supporters form narrow, but strategically located voter blocs, dependable, to be sure, though not yet a national majority. But Gingrich is adaptable and shifty in a political fight. His next primary comes in Florida, January 31, where two dependable voter blocs should help him repeat the South Carolina pattern, once again overlooking his past sins and embracing his devotion to Israel and political conservatism.

The two voting groups in Florida are ethnic Jewish voters who live in the southern part of the state, and conservative biblical literalist Protestant White Christians in the middle and northern sections of the state.

And here’s where it’s clear that what’s operating in Wall’s paranoid fantasy is not merely anti-Israelism, but anti-Semitism. See, those “ethnic Jewish voters” who live in South Florida, who can be counted upon to “embrace his devotion to Israel,” are overwhelmingly Democrats, and Florida has a closed primary. Even in the general election, most Jews (my guess would be 75% or more) would no more vote for Newt Gingrich than they would try to make latkes out of pig’s feet. But in Wall’s world, Jews are not overwhelmingly reliable Democratic voters, they are Mossad robots who will automatically vote for whoever the Jewish money men tell them to vote for.

This is what happens when an anti-Semite tries his hand at political analysis: it becomes all about the Jooooooos. And yes, the IMPN has already linked to it.

 

 

That Old-Time Global Warming Religion

You may have seen it on the PCUSA’s web site: “Preach-In on Global Climate Change“. (“Let’s have a ‘preach-in’! It’ll be just like the 60s!”) There we’re told:

Interfaith Power and Light is hosting a national preach-in on global warming on Sunday February 12th. Planned to communicate a love for, and dedication to, God’s creation as Valentine’s Day approaches, this preach-in invites people of all religions to consider preaching, teaching, praying, and otherwise bringing awareness about climate change.

Here’s the flyer calling all environmental religion people to arms, er, mouths, er, whatever:

I will not be registering for this august event, so I won’t get any of the fact-free downloadable resources, or any of the “sample sermons” that I could pass off as my own use as models for my own. But then, I also won’t be promoting a new religion in my pulpit on February 12, either.

 

Wave of the Future

LifeSiteNews reports on a legal case from New Jersey that is of a type that we’re going to be seeing more and more of in the future unless the U.S. Supreme Court puts a halt to it. A judge has ruled that a United Methodist retreat house has to open its facility to same-sex union ceremonies because non-discrimination is a more important value that religious freedom:

A New Jersey judge ruled against a Christian retreat house that refused to allow a same-sex civil union ceremony to be conducted on its premises, ruling the Constitution allows “some intrusion into religious freedom to balance other important societal goals.”

On Thursday, administrative judge Solomon A. Metzger ruled that religious liberty did not exempt the seaside retreat, which is associated with the United Methodist Church, from renting its facilities out for purposes that violate its moral beliefs.

In March 2007, Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association declined Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster’s request to rent its Boardwalk Pavilion for the ceremony. The couple sued, claiming they had been discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. In December 2008, the state Division on Civil Rights found the Christian campground had likely violated the state Law Against Discrimination (LAD) and joined the case.

Judge Metzger said church doctrine was irrelevant. “As to ‘free exercise’ [of religion], the LAD is a neutral law of general application designed to uncover and eradicate discrimination; it is not focused on or hostile to religion,” he wrote. The free exercise clause did not factor into his ruling, he stated, but “a much lower standard that tolerates some intrusion into religious freedom to balance other important societal goals.” He believed the “arm’s-length nature of the transactions” gave Ocean Grove “comfortable distance from notions incompatible with its own beliefs.”

Metzger agreed in his ruling that Ocean Grove “is fundamentally a religious organization, free to form its mission without government oversight or intrusion” and that its owners had not “acted with ill-motive.” The facility “opposes same-sex unions as a matter of religious belief, and in 2007 found itself on the wrong side of recent changes in the law.”

Metzger ruled that, since the facility allowed non-Christians to use its facility for [weddings], it had no doctrinal limitations. But Methodists do not limit their sacramental ministry to Christians and historically do not recognize marriage as a sacrament.

The judge in this case had no business basing any of his decision on his understanding of Methodist doctrine. The only relevant religious issue is whether the Camp Ground Association was using the teaching of its parent denomination in making its decision, and the answer to that is unequivocally yes. At that point, the issue becomes whether to prefer the non-discrimination rights of gays to the religious freedom of practitioners. The place of religious freedom in the First Amendment, and the fact that sexual orientation does not (yet, at least) have protected class status under the SCOTUS doctrine of “strict scrutiny” means that this should have been an easy decision to make in favor of the CGA. That it went the other way is an indication that personal and political preference was at work.

Given the culture of the bench, I predict you’ll see more and more judges making the same choice to prefer gay rights over religious freedom until such time as the SCOTUS makes a definitive ruling in favor of the First Amendment. And if the latter should ever decide the other way, that’s when it’s going to be time to head underground, or give up our consciences and faith altogether.

 

Good News for Religious Freedom

Religious freedom won a victory–and a unanimous victory, at that–today at the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the Washington Post:

The Supreme Court ruled for the first time Wednesday that federal discrimination laws do not protect employees of religious organizations who perform “ministerial” duties.

The court ruled unanimously that the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion dictates the organizations “be free to choose those who will guide it on its way.”

The case involved a Michigan schoolteacher who said Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church violated the Americans with Disability Act in 2005 when it fired her after she tried to return to work after being diagnosed with narcolepsy.

The church said Cheryl Perich was not fit for ecclesiastical office and that her threat to sue violated Lutheran teachings that disputes be handled within the church rather than in civil courts.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the court that such decisions are reserved to religious organizations.

“The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important,” Roberts wrote. “But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission.

“When a minister who has been fired sues her church alleging that her termination was discriminatory, the First Amendment has struck the balance for us.”

This was a first, evidently, for the recognition of the religious exemption:

Wednesday’s ruling marked the first time the Supreme Court had acknowledged such an exception. Requiring a religious group to accept or retain unwanted ministers, the justices said, deprives the group of “control over the selection of those will will personify its beliefs.”

The Obama administration supported Perich in her suit, which suggests how far out of the mainstream it is on matters of religious freedom. The usual suspects, meanwhile, threw the expected hissy fit. Americans United belched:

“Blatant discrimination is a social evil we have worked hard to eradicate in the United States,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “I’m afraid the court’s ruling today will make it harder to combat.”

Thank God. The last thing I want is the government stepping into intra-church disputes to decide what constitute permissible and impermissible personnel decisions. Religious organizations practice “blatant discrimination” every day, unless they stand for absolutely nothing. Allow the state to dictate who they can and cannot hire and fire would be the end of the free exercise provision of the First Amendment.

Today’s decision, AU says, reinforces that unfortunate trend. Under the ruling, AU says, a house of worship would have the right to fire a minister for reasons completely unrelated to religion. A pastor who objected to being sexually harassed, for example, could be fired for raising that issue and have no recourse in the courts.

Roberts referred in his opinion to a “parade of horribles” that the EEOC and Perich (and likely AU in their amicus brief as well) imagined could happen if the Court ruled in favor of the school. According to the Post, “He said those questions could be addressed when and if they arise. ‘We express no view on whether the exception bars other types of suits, including actions by employees alleging breach of contract or tortious conduct,’ he wrote.” So if AU hears about a pastor being fired because she objected to sexual harassment, Barry Lynn (who is also a lawyer) should provide her with pro bono assistance in filing suit.

“Clergy who are fired for reasons unrelated to matters of theology – no matter how capricious or venal those reasons may be – have just had the courthouse door slammed in their faces,” Lynn said.

Near as I can tell, Lynn has never served a local church, which would explain how he could say something so detached from local church reality. Pastors are fired every day in this country for reasons that would seem to them to be capricious, venal, or downright evil. One might irritated the congregational patriarch, another might have put his congregation to sleep with his preaching, a third might not have visited the shut-ins often enough. Some of the reasons for which clergy are fired are good, some are bad, some are Satanic. And the state is incompetent to judge between them, especially when it comes to a secularist fetish such as “discrimination.”

The idea that the only firing offenses for clergy should be connected to “matters of theology” is like claiming that a manufacturer should be unable to fire a lazy or uncooperative employee if he happened to know how to run his machine. It’s an absurdity in business, and a recipe for state tyranny in religion. I’m delighted to see that the Supremes, conservatives and liberals alike could see that, even if an anti-discrimination fetishist such as Barry Lynn cannot.

 

Bad News for Virginia Anglicans

There is big news out of Virginia this morning that has to do with the Anglican churches in the state, but which could have an impact on any PCUSA churches that seek to leave that denomination in the future. Even if it doesn’t, there are a lot of Anglican brothers and sisters that need our prayers. From BabyBlue Online:

Seven Anglican congregations in Virginia that are parties to the church property case brought by The Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia are reviewing today’s ruling by the Fairfax County Circuit Court that the property should be turned over to the Episcopal Diocese.

The Circuit Court heard the case last spring after the Virginia Supreme Court remanded it in June 2010. The congregations previously had succeeded in their efforts on the Circuit Court level to defend the property that they bought and paid for.

“Although we are profoundly disappointed by today’s decision, we offer our gratitude to Judge Bellows for his review of this case. As we prayerfully consider our legal options, we above all remain steadfast in our effort to defend the historic Christian faith. Regardless of today’s ruling, we are confident that God is in control, and that He will continue to guide our path,” said Jim Oakes, spokesperson for the seven Anglican congregations.

Among the seven are two of the best known evangelical Anglican congregations in the United States, the Falls Church and Truro Church, as well as one in the town I live in, St. Margaret’s Church in Woodbridge.

The full ruling is here, but this is a summary from the opinion:

1. TEC and the Diocese have a contractual and proprietary interest in each of the seven Episcopal churches that are the subjects of this litigation. Specifically, the Court finds for TEC and the Diocese in their Declaratory Judgment actions and, among other relief, orders that all real property conveyed by the 41 deeds, as well as all personal property acquired by the churches up to the filing date of the Declaratory Judgment actions (on or about January 31, 2007 or February 1, 2007) are to be promptly conveyed to the Diocese. (Additional instructions are provided at the conclusion of this Letter Opinion.)

2. The CANA Congregations‟ Amended Counterclaims are denied in their entirety. Specifically, the Court finds that the CANA Congregations, in that they are notEpiscopal Congregations, do not possess either contractual or proprietary interests in the property of the seven Episcopal Churches at issue. They are, therefore, enjoined from further use or control of these properties and must promptly relinquish them to the Diocese. Moreover, the Court finds no merit in the CANA Congregations‟ claims for unjust enrichment, quantum meruit, and constructive trust and grants TEC‟s and the Diocese‟s motions to strike these claims.

3. The vestry empowered to elect directors to the Falls Church Endowment Fund is the vestry recognized by the Diocese as the Episcopal vestry of The Falls Church, that is to say, the Continuing Congregation.

This is from the Fairfax County Circuit Court, which means that if the congregations want to pursue appeals, there are ways to go. BabyBlue doesn’t indicate whether it will be appealed, and I’m sure it will take some time for them to decide whether to do so. I would expect that at the least they’ll ask for a temporary stay that would prevent their immediate eviction from the properties. Regardless of how they decide to proceed, you can be sure that their priorities are straight. The Rev. John Yates, rector of the Falls Church, said:

The core issue for us is not physical property, but theological and moral truth and the intellectual integrity of faith in the modern world. Wherever we worship, we remain Anglicans because we cannot compromise our historic faith. Like our spiritual forebears in the Reformation, ‘Here we stand. So help us God. We can do no other.’

Please be praying for these seven churches and the decisions they have to make.

 

Quote of the Day

The Minister for Family of the Papal Government, Cardinal Antonelli, told me a few days ago in Zaragoza that UNESCO has a program for the next 20 years to make half the world population homosexual. To do this they have distinct programs, and will continue to implant the ideology that is already present in our schools.

–Roman Catholic Bishop Demetrio Fernández of Cordoba, Spain (I’m as leery of the United Nations as the next guy, but this is either tinfoil hat material or got mangled in translation)

(Via Religion News Service blog.)

 

They’re Really Called K-nig-its

You know how on I Can Has Cheezburger sometimes it’s the cats that are “talking,” and sometimes the hoomans? I’m not sure which is doing the speaking in this picture, but as one who has spent almost fifty years playing the Royal Game, I can relate to the frustration of playing someone who really doesn’t get the game:

Truth be told, I can’t imagine why a cat would want to capture only “horses.” It’s not like cats eat horses, after all. Those things in the front row of pieces, on the other hand…hmmmm, prawns.

(From…well, you know.)

 

Best Seller

For reasons completely unknown, downloads of my short story “Ezcape From Sobibor” have taken off on Amazon. Over 300 copies have been snapped up by Kindle users and others in the last three weeks (in addition to the 161 at Smashwords), with the result being that it is currently ranked 3,740 among all the free ebooks Amazon carries (of which there are tens if not hundreds of thousands). So if you haven’t yet gotten it, and you like horror or zombie tales with a twist, hie thee hence and download away. Did I mention it’s free?

By the way, I should mention that you don’t need to own a Kindle to download and read stuff in that format. Amazon gives away free ereader software, so that you can download it to your computer (Mac or PC) and read it, or you can read it online on Amazon’s site by going to the “Your Digital Items” button and finding the story on the list. C’mon, you know you want to!