Yesterday on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” Albert Mohler offered a counterpoint to Lisa Miller’s “Religious Case for Gay Marriage.” It was a fascinating conversation, and I thought Dr. Mohler made a compelling and winsome case. You can listen to the program at NPR’s website, or you can push the play button below. [audio:http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/5/98315676/npr_98315676.mp3] Lisa Miller’s argument falls apart when a caller confronts her about polygamy. The caller points out that it is totally inconsistent for Miller to support gay “marriage” while opposing polygamy. Lisa Miller’s appeal to women’s rights as a basis for excluding polygamy fell flat. Dr. Mohler agrees with the caller and argues that if marriage is…
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‘On Faith’ on Gay ‘Marriage’
The ‘On Faith’ blog (a joint venture of The Washington Post and Newsweek) is hosting a discussion about the religious case for gay “marriage.” The topic is inspired by last week’s Newsweek cover story by Lisa Miller (which I wrote about here). Panelists include those from the religious left and right. Albert Mohler, Leith Anderson, and Charles Colson are among those representing the biblical view. Colson has a good word about Miller’s call for ‘inclusiveness’: ‘Miller admits that the argument for a biblical support of gay marriage is usually not made from any particular passage but from, as scholar Walter Brueggemann puts it, “the general conviction that the Bible is…
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Newsweek Comes Out for Gay ‘Marriage’
I would be remiss not to comment on Lisa Miller’s cover story in this week’s Newsweek magazine, “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage.” The title of the article says everything that you need to know about this piece. In essence, Miller argues that a right understanding of the Christian tradition would actually favor gay “marriage” rather than oppose it. She appeals to the Bible and to history to make her point. This piece is disappointing on a number of levels, and the subsequent critiques have been sharp and justified (e.g., Albert Mohler, Christianity Today, Mollie Hemingway). For the most thorough response, see Robert Gagnon’s 23-page essay (HT: Justin Taylor). I…
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Carl Trueman on Growing Up (or not)
Carl Trueman is a great writer. His latest article at the Reformation 21 website is a must-read (HT: Justin Taylor). Here’s the conclusion: “You are, of course, what you worship, as Psalm 115 reminds us, and thus, as long as we idolize our children and the culture of youth, we can expect to – well, be just like them: pouting, irresponsible, hormonal, unpleasant and, frankly, as creepy as those sixteenth century portraits of little children with adult faces. Trapped in Neverland with no hope of escape.”
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James Kushiner on the Election of Barack Obama
There’s been a lot of discussion about the future of the pro-life cause in light of the election of Barack Obama. The most pointed remarks I’ve read come from Touchstone‘s James Kushiner: ‘The irony about the election of our first black president, an irony which I wish did not exist, is that while blacks have risen from the indignities and injustice of slavery in which their bodies were sold and consumed as property, and have endured segregation and second-class citizen status and racial discrimination, and have now one of their own elected to the highest office in the land, this very president-elect, Barack Obama, will increase the death toll among…
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Good News from Yesterday’s Election
The presidential election was over pretty early last night (compared to ’00 and ’04), but I stayed up until after 2am anyway to find out the results of Proposition 8 in California. When I finally went to bed, the vote count was too close to call, and it was still too close when I checked the news this morning. The Los Angeles Times and other news outlets are now reporting that Proposition 8 has passed. So the state constitution of California will now include the following sentence: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The amendment passed with a slim majority, but this…
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Abortion and Racism
From Anne Hendershott at the Witherspoon Institute: “It’s never been a more dangerous time to be a black baby. . . The figures are shocking: Nearly half of all African American pregnancies end in abortion. Since 1973, the number of abortions by African American women has totaled more than twelve million. In some localities, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Maryland, and Georgia, more than half of all abortions are performed on black women. Similar rates are found for black women in New York City. . . The black community has already been changed by abortion. At a time when 50 percent of their unborn children are aborted, many within the black community…
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Against Slavery? Don’t Own One.
There is a snarky pro-abortion bumper sticker that I have seen from time to time, and it reads like this. “Against abortion? Don’t have one.” I concede that it’s a pretty clever slogan, but the line actually amounts to an endorsement of moral anarchy. Libertarianism can never be an ultimate ethic, and no one would be able to tolerate it if it were tried as a matter of public policy. If you don’t believe me, then consider a little thought experiment, and see if the bumper-sticker ethic really works. Try these on for size: “Against wife-beating? Don’t beat yours.” “Against rape? Don’t assault anyone.” “Against murder? Don’t kill anyone.” “Against…
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Does Pro-life Law Make a Police State Society?
In the Washington Post last week, Linda Hirschman alleges that John McCain’s pro-life position could lead to a kind of “police state” if he were elected president. She writes: “In the 1980s, when abortion was severely limited in then-West Germany, border guards sometimes required German women returning from foreign trips to undergo vaginal examinations to make sure that they hadn’t illegally terminated a pregnancy while they were abroad. According to news stories and other accounts, the guards would stop young women and ask them about drugs, then look for evidence of abortion, such as sanitary pads or nightgowns, in their cars, and eventually force them to undergo a medical examination…
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Anchors Away: Olbermann and Matthews Are Out
The New York Times is reporting that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews have been relieved of their anchor duties: “MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election. “That experiment appears to be over.