Category: Religion

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Pat Robertson seems to have hurt nobody but his own evangelical bretheren by his recent call for the asassination of President Chavez:

Venezuela’s government has temporarily suspended permits for foreign missionaries after a U.S. televangelist said Washington should assassinate President Hugo Chavez.

The policy announcement came four days after conservative evangelist Pat Robertson said Washington should execute Chavez, a former soldier who often accuses the United States of plotting to kill him.

The chief of the Justice Ministry’s religious affairs unit, Carlos Gonzalez, said Friday authorization of permits for missionaries would be curbed while the government tightened regulations on preachers inside Venezuela.

The permits “are suspended for a short time … while we organize a system to see what additional data we need for people coming into the country to preach,” Gonzalez told Reuters.

“We were already working on this, but these declarations have made us speed things up,” he said.

Heh.

Hat tip: AmericaBlog

Oh, the Horror!

Israeli paper cups in a Saudi hospital! Cue the outrage – It must be a Mossad plot!

Riyadh, 22 August (AKI) – Paper cups made in Israel have caused a storm of protest in a Saudi hospital, the Saudi newspaper Arab News reports. Officials at the King Khaled National Guard Hospital says they are investigating after the catering subcontractors for the coffee shops in the hospital ran out and began using Israeli paper cups with Hebrew writing on them, sparking outrage among the customers.

What’s sad is that someone, somewhere, probably does think that my opening joke is for real.

Do You Really Know Your Bible?

I’m not 100% sure about the ultimate provenance of these statistics, but if true, they’re pretty interesting:

* About 92 percent of American own at least one copy of the Bible.
* The average household has 3 copies.
* About 67 percent of Americans say that the Bible holds the answers to the basic questions of life.
* The Bible is the world’s all-time best seller.
* At least 20 million copies are sold each year.
* Gideon International annually distributes more than 45 million copies.

Biblical knowledge (Biblical illiteracy is rampant):

* Perhaps 15 percent of Americans participate in Bible studies.
* The number of people who read the Bible, at least occasionally is 59 percent.
* Less than 50 percent of Americans can name the first book of the Bible (Genesis).
* Only 1/3 of Americans know who delivered the Sermon on the Mount (more people identified Billy Graham than Jesus).
* Twenty-five percent of Americans don’t know what is celebrated on Easter (the Resurrection of Christ).
* Twelve percent of Christians think that Noah’s wife is Joan of Arc.
* Eighty percent of born-again Christians (including George W. Bush) think it is the Bible that says “God helps them that help themselves.” (Actually it was said by Benjamin Franklin.)

Kick Out The … Jams?

By way of a dKos diary, I found this lovely story today about a North Carolina church that told its Democrat members to repent or leave. Some were kicked out. More resigned in protest over the minister’s actions (and kudos to them for doing so).

Religion and Politics Clash
Religion and politics clash over a local church’s declaration that Democrats are not welcome.

East Waynesville Baptist asked nine members to leave. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. Former members say Pastor Chan Chandler gave them the ultimatum, saying if they didn’t support George Bush, they should resign or repent. The minister declined an interview with News 13.

On the one hand, it’s just a small Baptist congregation in the middle of the woods. On the other hand, the church’s actions have threatening implications. Memes have a tendency to spread, and the “kick out the democrats” theme has been floated in other forums as well — notably conservative columnist Larry Elder yesterday suggesting that it’s unhealthy for corporations to hire Democrats.

This Us versus Them stuff is getting stronger and stronger. I don’t like it.

On C-SPAN and Fairleigh Dickinson University

Orcinus has an update on the ongoing mess that C-SPAN is making out of trying to cover Deborah Lipstadt’s book “History on Trial: My Day in Court With David Irving”. he also points to an article at Salon (sorry, registration and/or watching a commercial required) whith this nice graf:

Sooner or later, every Jew who perceives anti-Semitism as an encroaching danger gets described as hysterical or paranoid. The flattering self-deception at the root of that reaction is a way of consigning anti-Semitism to the past, of saying, “Surely we’ve become more civilized than that.” “History on Trial” makes the case, as did “Lying About Hitler,” that we have not become so civilized we are above tolerating David Irving.

Indeed. I also note the following news item today:

A professor who taught history this semester at Fairleigh Dickinson University made disparaging remarks about blacks and Jews on an Internet broadcast and is an active member of a group that calls itself “America’s Nazi Party.”

The university last week relieved Jacques Pluss of his classroom duties, but not because of his white supremacist views. Officials at the Teaneck campus said he missed too many classes.

Pluss said his membership in the National Socialist Movement, the largest neo-Nazi organization in the country, did not color his teaching. The derogatory remarks were made during a Web cast he hosts called “White Viewpoint” on the organization’s site.

On the one hand, I recognize that is it somewhat suspect to fire a professor for holding unpopular views. That’s an approach too easily abused. But still, the fact the that University had to fire the guy for missing too many classes instead of because he’s a racist, anti-semitic bigot is just a little nuts.