2008 Woodie Awards
“The dark side of faith” from the LA Times, October 1, 2005 is a must-read.
Here’s a preview:
Paul ranked societies based on the percentage of their population expressing absolute belief in God, the frequency of prayer reported by their citizens and their frequency of attendance at religious services. He then correlated this with data on rates of homicide, sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, abortion and child mortality.
He found that the most religious democracies exhibited substantially higher degrees of social dysfunction than societies with larger percentages of atheists and agnostics. Of the nations studied, the U.S. — which has by far the largest percentage of people who take the Bible literally and express absolute belief in God (and the lowest percentage of atheists and agnostics) — also has by far the highest levels of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Before hastily judging this piece as an example of the so-called liberal media attacking the conservative right, read on.
I agree with Robby’s dissent against Asheesh’s opinion regarding the Bolton protests at Yale.
While I certainly understand the motivation for students to display the strength of their sentiments - and also using a traditional Yale code that is understood clearly by Bolton - I do not think there was any one thing about Bolton that merited this kind of interdiction.
Sure, his private character may be publicly flawed, he has anti-UN beliefs, and his personal ideology may get in the way of his enforcement of objective U.S. policy. But - morally indefensible as his position may be - this sort of protest against a snake for being a snake is not as effective or as justifiable against a protest against letting a snake into your house (i.e. protesting before Bolton came to a vote) or a specific crime (which I hope does not happen).
Asheesh’s argument, though motivated by the right intentions, could lead down the slippery slope of shouting down anyone (or any public official) that has views contrary to one’s own. This is simply impossible. There is a place for protest - even rude protest - but I don’t believe this was such an opportunity. On the other hand, I fully support these protestors’ right to be on the barricade - but I would not help man such a barricade.
Bill Bennett didn’t really mean to say that “you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”
And he did qualify his statement.
But this is but the submerged side of a sometimes clever racist nativism.
The headline isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If religious leaders are trusted so much, they are doing something right.
Mary Landrieu may not, but the Rude Pundit does.
Kayne West does as well.
Update: The Gideons don’t.
Hidden within the recent Newsweek cover story on Spirituality in America is an interesting and unaccounted for statistic: between 1990 and 2001 the number of Quakers in the United States has increased 224% (the statistic appears in the print edition only). Quakers, for those of you who may not know, have long been known for their beliefs in pacificsm, racial and sexual equality, and moderate beliefs regarding the Bible.
While Quakerism is one of the smaller Christian sects in the United States (with only 217,000 members), its growth is nonetheless significant. Despite the religious right’s claims that Christians are leaving “liberal” churches in droves (see Dave Shiflett’s book Exodus), statistics like these paint a different picture.
If anybody has more information on either the increasing popularity of Quakerism, or changes in religious demographics relating to politics, send me an e-mail.
Pat Robertson has apparently committed an abomination against God. Is the Lord going to smite him?
I hope you’ll read my colleague Todd Hill’s take on meeting with Cindy Sheehan at CP.org.
MoveOn.org is hosting vigils in support of Cindy Sheehan this Wednesday. There’ll be one in downtown Princeton starting at 7 PM, and you can register online. If you don’t like in Princeton, you can find one in your own community.
Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin continues to attack military families. Some people have no shame. I’m sure Veronica Malkin would be embarrassed by her mother right now 
Cindy Sheehan is going to be arrested on Thursday, the same day Rumsfeld and Rice visit, and a day before a big fundraiser at Bush’s Crawford ranch.
Just another WordPress weblog
RSS 2.0
