OVERCULTURED
Re: Mark Tooley's Here Come the Churches:
In many ways it is so sad and maddening what has happened to the
nation's mainline churches -- that is, their seemingly complete
lack of focus on the Gospels and great traditions of the
Protestant movement.
When I came to Michigan from Tennessee as a child, I felt
alienated from this new culture in many ways, and one of them was
the differences among the people who attended Methodist,
Presbyterian, and the other mainline churches. They seemed so
formal and attractive in their well-dressed congregations with
their formal (at least to me, more used to the louder and more
emotional fundamental churches of my parents) services. How I
wished we were part of that establishment culture.
Well, like many other things, be careful what you wish for. When
my dear wife and I married we chose the United Methodist church
as a compromise since she was a Roman Catholic. For the first few
years we both enjoyed the traditional services and music that
dated back to John Wesley who originated Methodism as a way of
educating the poorer classes in England. Wesley actually remained
an Anglican priest throughout his life. We bought a cottage in
the historic Chautauqua village in Bay View Michigan and enjoyed
40 years of the religious and educational activities of the Bay
View Association. Unfortunately we also witnessed the the
church's abandonment of its true mission to save men's souls in
favor of the latest hot button social and political fad --
homosexuality, global warming (I can't remember if the churches
also joined Newsweek in the global ice age hysteria in the 70's),
etc. These liberal churches have become essentially part and
parcel of the federal government just as the government has
become an active partner with our great corporations and it is
not hard to figure out who the true master will be in any such
relationship. This too will pass away and Christianity and the
ancient people of the Old Testament will prevail.
-- Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak, Michigan
Protestantism's being fundamentally shaped by the culture is
without question a foundational trait; its churches' proclivity
for voting on a position regarding same-sex marriage is about as
reasonable as would be their voting on the laws of physics.
Hence, the only question to be asked upon reading Mr. Tooley's
commentary is whether said commentary is more on the order of
grasping at straws, or whistling past the graveyard.
-- Francis M. Hannon, Jr.
Melrose, Massachusetts
CONFLICTING LIBERAL URGES
Re: George
Neumayr's The Purple Prose of Cairo:
The cultural imperialism of white Westerners is on display again.
George Neumayr points out the latest example when he writes: "His (President Obama's) proclamation speaks of LGBT "youth" and the "harassment" they face, as if America is teeming with 16-year-olds who have gotten sex-change operations in brave defiance of their peers, as if it is the president's duty to encourage teens in bisexual explorations."
No doubt this mindset is currently at work on language that will provide for sex change operations in a universal health care bill. (One wonders if the 16 year-olds will need parental consent.)
But if a dark-hued shaman, medicine-man, or witch-doctor were to perform a clitorectomy on a young member of his tribe, the very same Western elitists would express shock and outrage, decrying the procedure as sexual mutilation!
Cultural elitists like President Obama need to develop a more
nuanced view of the world. Their ethnocentric biases lead them
repeatedly to the promotion of simplistic solutions to complex
international problems. President Obama has the ear of kings and
potentates, but the imams see right through him. After all, if
President Obama had any respect for Islam, his daughters would be
raised in the faith and he would cover his wife's arms.
-- Dan Martin
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
President Abraham Lincoln prudently stated, "A house divided
against itself cannot stand." This wisdom proves even more
profoundly true of a man.
-- I.M. Kessel
THE MOST SCANDALOUS STORY NEVER TOLD
Re:
Daniel J. Flynn's Three Times a Felon:
Daniel Flynn tells a tale that has gone amazingly untold. As a recent Massachusetts citizen raised in Chicago, the stench of Massachusetts politics is familiar. But Daniel, have you forgotten the august William Bulger? True, not indicted or convicted, but complicit, shameless and venal enough for mention. (Complicit for aiding and abetting his murdering gangster brother, Whitey, long featured in the FBI’s 10 most wanted...not kidding, true).
The Democrats say Obamacare opponents are a mob. Are they right?
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JerseyJ| 6.8.09 @ 10:55AM
I.M. Kessel wrote ... President Abraham Lincoln prudently stated, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." This wisdom proves even more profoundly true of a man.
A true statement to be sure, but the origin of the statement comes from a source much more pure than Abe. Check Matthew 12:25 and you'll find Jesus spoke those words.
David Govett| 6.8.09 @ 12:56PM
An unspoken aphorism of Honest Abe: Wisdom, logic, and persuasion avail nary a whit against an ideologue.
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