MainlineTruths

Andrew Sullivan jumps the shark

In the early days of the internet, I read Andrew Sullivan's blog religiously. Not because I agreed with him as much as I felt intellectually challenged by him. I followed him through his initial support of the Iraq war and agreed with much of his criticism as the lessons of the war were revealed. In the early days, he wanted to be recognized as something more than just an outspoken gay Roman Catholic and Sullivan had the unique ability in the early blog world to rise above ideology to make constructive political arguments that would always make you think. Unfortunately, Sullivan, like many successful people in the blog world, has morphed into the ideologue that I think he himself would have despised just 5 years ago.

This became stunningly obvious in the October 3 discussion of his new book between himself and David Brooks at the Cato Institute which aired on C-SPAN (Real Video player required). Where Sullivan used to be able to escape his own world view to critique all people and policies across the political spectrum, he has now confined his opinions within the narrow spectrum of a gay Roman Catholic - as if that were all there was to this brilliant philosopher. In his opening comments and and in his response to questions later, Sullivan repeatedly scorched Evangelicals as a narrow, monolithic bunch as Brooks, who is Jewish, was left to mop up Sullivan's mistakes.  I'm not an Evangelical and I'm not inclined to defend evangelicals, but it's more than a little ironic that Brooks had a better understanding of the diversity within Christianity than Sullivan himself. Sullivan's obvious inability to separate Christian Fundamentalists from Evangelicals (and specifically Mainline Evangelicals) not only demonstrated a lack of intelligence, it's a reflection of just how small the window in which he views the world has become. 

What about the North Asians?

Just thought this was an odd headline:

Church rolls out welcome mat to South Asians

UMC Youth Minister sentenced to 20 years for molestation

OK... when do we admit there's a problem here?

A sometime youth minister and basketball coach has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting a teenage boy in Liberty Hill.

The Williamson County District Attorney's office said Charles Edward Pinkard, 46, plead guilty to two counts of indecency with a child for molesting a boy from 2001 until 2005. He received 20 years in prison for each count. The boy was 13 when the molestation began, and continued until the boy told a therapist of the incidents in 2005.

The D.A. office says Pinkard had worked as a youth minister on service projects, mission trips and recreational activities at Northwest Hills United Methodist Church and as a chidren's coach for a basketball program.

Pinkard will serve at least 10 years before becoming eligible for parole and will have to register as a sex offender every 90 days after his sentence is over.

UCC: Puerto Rican terrorists are unfairly labeled

When UCCtruths.com reported on October 17th that the National Office of the UCC would be hosting a terrorist art exhibit, many were skeptical since the event wasn't mentioned on the UCC's own web site and because the idea was too absurd to be believed. Well... the UCC has finally posted information about the exhibit on their web site.

Adding insult to injury, the UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) also approved a bizarre affirmation of the terrorists without mentioning the dozens of victims killed and injured by over 150 bombings in the 70's and 80's. However, the JWM resolution does claim that "Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar Lopez Rivera are in prison for having advocated on behalf of the people who have suffered under colonization for over 400 years" and were "unjustly labeled as “terrorists” for lifting a prophetic voice through artistic expression on behalf of the voiceless". As we documented last week, Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar Lopez Rivera were convicted of extremely serious crimes and were labeled as terrorists by law enforcement and by members of Congress because of the crimes they committed ~ not because of their "artistic expression".

This will be a widely discussed topic and we'll be posting more on this over the next few days.

Another case of alleged abuse...

This one from the UMC:

The former pastor of a Columbia church pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of second-degree statutory sodomy and second-degree statutory rape in the 13th Circuit Court.

Columbia police said in a probable cause statement that Roberto Edgar Lopez, 36, had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl who attended Horeb United Methodist Church, a bilingual Spanish and English-langauge church Lopez helped establish.

I'm just thinking out loud here, but I wonder if you added the sizes of the Mainline Churches and divided that by the number of allegations of abuse, if Mainline Churches don't have a larger problem than the Catholic Church relative to size. I don't know for certain but this seems to be coming up more frequently.

If only fighting poverty were really this easy

From the ELCA:

More than 1,500 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) were among the 110,332 U.S. citizens and 23.5 million people worldwide who stood up during worship Oct. 15 to fight global poverty. The "STAND UP" event set a national and global record in the Guinness World Records for the largest number of people to stand up for a cause.

I'd like to meet the genius that came up this idea. Of course, not a single person was lifted out of poverty from this stunt. We Protestants have this habit of creating clever stunts that help us pretend that we are really doing something. If only we invested this much energy into doing something that mattered... 

Presbyterians, Jews plan talk series

Good news out of Arizona:

Local Presbyterians and Jews are now working in tandem, though they were once at odds over a church call for divestment from companies that support Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A new Wednesday evening public education program will continue for the next month, jointly sponsored by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) churches and the Jewish community.

Tensions between the two faiths erupted in 2004 when the General Assembly of the national Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted to explore a policy of selective divestment from companies doing business in Israel.

Shortly after this decision by the General Assembly, clergy and leaders from the Tucson Jewish and Presbyterian communities began a series of meetings to discuss this controversial decision as well as other concerns.

But Jewish leaders were heartened this year when the General Assembly voted 483-28 against targeting Israel.

Two more cases of abuse

Is it just a bad week or is there a problem in Protestant churches?

From WAVE:

A south-central Kentucky minister will be arraigned next month in Bowling Green after being indicted on child pornography charges.

U-S Attorney David Huber says a federal grand jury indicted 52-year-old David Meadows of Park City in Barren County. He faces charges of possessing and distributing child pornography.

Meadows is pastor of Park City United Methodist Church.

The indictment was returned in Louisville. It alleges that Meadows distributed child pornography and also possessed pictures and videos depicting child pornography between April 17th and October sixth.

And from the Associated Press:

A former Mississippi pastor who is now serving at a church in Tennessee has been charged with molestation of a boy over a four-year period in DeSoto County, authorities say.

Maj. Don Gammage, chief of detectives for the Olive Branch Police Department, said the Rev. Jack Price was arrested earlier this week in Fayette County, Tenn.

Price, 53, is the former pastor at Fairhaven Baptist Church in Olive Branch. He is presently pastor at Ebenezer Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Mason, Tenn., authorities said.

United Church of Christ's National Office Hosts Terrorist Art Exhibit

I've gone off the deep end on this over at UCCtruths.com, but it's worth mentioning here as well.

No issue has bothered me more than the UCC's relationship with convicted Puerto Rican terrorists that are responsible for over 150 bombings in the U.S. during the 70's and 80's. There is no moral or theological reason for defending members of this group who have killed and injured dozens of people. What is further shocking and completely contradictory to any of our beliefs is that there is no record (in the nearly 30 years that the UCC has been advocating for these terrorists) that our denomination ever reached out to the victims of FALN violence.

From November 16 until December 1, the national offices of the United Church of Christ will be co-sponsoring and hosting the traveling art exhibition "Not Enough Space" commemorating the 25 years of imprisonment of terrorists Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar López Rivera.

In their promotional materials, the UCC is positioning the terrorists as political prisoners "serving long prison terms for acts and beliefs in favor of Puerto Rican independence."

Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it? The truth is much different.

Oscar Lopez-Rivera, was convicted on August 11, 1981 of seditious conspiracy, interference with interstate commerce by threats or violence, possession of an unregistered firearm, carrying firearms during the commission of seditious conspiracy and interference with interstate commerce by violence, interstate transportation of firearms with the intent to commit seditious conspiracy and interference with interstate commerce by violence and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.

Oscar Lopez-Rivera, was convicted a second time, on February 26, 1988 of conspiracy to escape, to transport explosives with intent to kill and injure people, and to destroy government buildings and property, aiding and abetting travel in interstate commerce to carry on arson, and using a telephone to carry on arson.

Lopez was sentenced to fifty-five years and fifteen years, respectively. He rejected the offer of clemency from President Clinton in 1999 (which was heavily promoted by the UCC), which would commute his total effective sentence from seventy to forty-four years.

There's more... much more at UCCtruths.com.

Sabeel Conference in Kansas

It's tough to say just how much influence Sabeel still has over Protestant churches in the United States. After the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s General Assembly rescinded its decision to specifically target Israel for divestment, it is hard to believe there is still a market for its "end the occupation and the violence will end" narrative offered by Sabeel. This prescription has proven useless with the events of this summer. Rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip increased after Israel's withdrawal in 2005 and Hezbollah attacked from territory Israel left in 2000.

And still Sabeel is flogging this narrative at a Presbyterian church in Kansas.

Anyone interested in attending the event might want to bring this list of questions with them.

Having been to a fair number of Sabeel events myself, I'm not confident these questions will elicit direct responses. I offer them in the off chance that they might be heard by someone in the audience who realizes that peacemaking begins with truth-telling.

Hint: If you get to the microphone ask your question as clearly, quickly and politely as possible. Long speeches will not work. Just asking a good question will let journalists in the room know that there are legitimate challenges to Sabeel's narrative.

And by gum, one of the speakers at the conference will be James M. Wall, a man who seems unable to untangle the chronology of the recent conflict between Hezbollah and Israel!