Culture
Clips —
July 13 , 2006
Gay Activists on the War
on Words
Conservatives had something to celebrate this
past week in the way of a couple notable victories in battles
in our ongoing cultural war. Two high courts, one in New York
and one in Georgia, ruled supporting an understanding of marriage
in state law as that which takes place between a man and a woman.
But, although a couple important battles have
been won, there should be no doubt that a long and protracted
war will continue. And it's worth paying attention to the very
special weapons of this war — words, and how they are used.
Usually, we think of words as building blocks
for sentences, which are then used to construct ideas with which
to make arguments. In today's culture war, battles are not waged
with ideas, but by attacking the building blocks themselves —
the words — and changing their meaning. It's kind of a verbal
terrorism.
In this sense, I've come across an observation
by the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius that really fits
what's going on around us today: "When words lose their meaning,
people will lose their liberty."
Star Parker
Townhall
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/StarParker/2006/07/10/
gay_activists,_sharpton_and_the_war_on_words
--
Don’t Play the Mormon Card
Just Yet
A Washington Post reporter
once described evangelical voters as "poor, uneducated, and
easy to command." As we edge closer to the 2008 presidential
elections, count on the press being the uneducated ones — easily
led by their farcical view of religious Americans.
In a recent Bloomberg/Los Angeles
Times poll, more than a third of registered voters polled
said they would not vote for a Mormon presidential candidate.
Mitt Romney, the Republican governor of Massachusetts, happens
to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
and is a leading contender for the GOP ticket; so "the Mormon
question" has been a hot topic in some political circles.
But although, among the speculators, it is widely believed that
evangelical Christians would no-way, no-how vote for a Mormon,
the poll numbers hint that Romney's real obstacle might be a much
more traditional political one.
Looking at the numbers, John C. Green, a religion-and-politics
expert at the University of Akron, points out, "There appears
to have been an increase in the skepticism about voting for a
Mormon for president since the late 1990s." Green speculates:
"This increase may reflect the opposition to Mormons among
evangelicals and other conservative Christians. But it also may
reflect opposition from liberal Democrats and seculars who recognize
Mormons as a socially conservative group."
In the 2006 poll, self-described "liberal
Democrats" were those most likely to oppose a Mormon candidate.
However, these current generic numbers, Green
says, "don't necessarily predict outcomes. The reason is
that the candidates are real people with records, skills and programs
— all of which can matter more at the ballot box than generalized
opinions about religious groups."
Kathryn Jean Lopez
Townhall
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/KathrynJeanLopez/
2006/07/08/dont_play_the_mormon_card_just_yet
--
A Huge Victory for Religious
Liberty
Today, the Seventh Circuit Court
of Appeals issued an injunction
against Southern Illinois University requiring the university
to "recognize" the Christian Legal Society. This case
presented yet another example of a university using an expansive
nondiscrimination policy to "derecognize" a Christian
organization that had the audacity to require that its voting
members and leaders be, well, Christian and had the audacity to
apply traditional Christian sexual morality to those members and
leaders (no adultery, fornication, or homosexual sexual behavior).
According to the university, these rules violated
university prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of
religion and sexual orientation. A lower court had denied the
Christian Legal Society's request for an injunction and the Seventh
Circuit reversed.
It is difficult to overstate the importance
of this ruling. Over the last five years, dozens of universities
have either tossed (or attempted to toss) Christian groups from
campus because those groups limit membership to Christians or
impose rules of conduct on their members. These actions have represented
a fundamental threat to religious expression, and lawsuits have
been filed against Rutgers University, the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, Penn State, Washburn College, the University
of Minnesota, Cal State, Hastings, and others in an effort to
maintain an evangelical Christian presence on campus. While the
vast majority of cases have settled favorably, there has been
at least one adverse ruling (at Hastings). Against this backdrop,
the Seventh Circuit's ruling is a critical rebuke to university
efforts to outlaw orthodox Christianity.
David French
National Review
http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com
