A new study out of Baylor has some interesting things to say about secularism and superstition.  Mollie from GetReligion has a piece out in the Journal that looks at the data.

The answers were added up to create an index of belief in occult and the paranormal. While 31% of people who never worship expressed strong belief in these things, only 8% of people who attend a house of worship more than once a week did.

Even among Christians, there were disparities. While 36% of those belonging to the United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama’s former denomination, expressed strong beliefs in the paranormal, only 14% of those belonging to the Assemblies of God, Sarah Palin’s former denomination, did. In fact, the more traditional and evangelical the respondent, the less likely he was to believe in, for instance, the possibility of communicating with people who are dead.

I’m trying to work through how to consider this. (continue reading…)

For all of you who are annoyed when you come here and I’m talking politics again, I have a great surprise for you.  And for those of you who have come here only for the political commentary, I have a surprise for you, too. Henceforth, nearly all of my political comments will be found at newkindofpolitics.com.

Issues that involve church and theology as well as politics will probably be found in both places, but I need a place to spill my thoughts on politics without the burden of knowing I’m outside of the intended focus of this site.

The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Barack Obama’s oft-turned phrase.  He’s said it several times, like this time, June 23rd of last year, in Hartford:

So let’s rededicate ourselves to a new kind of politics - a politics of conscience.

Since then, his politics have been politics as usual, and I’ve got a lot to say about it.

Barack Obama isn’t black.  It’s time to drop the charade.

I thought we had moved beyond the “one-drop rule“.  But it seems that a man with one African parent, and one white American parent is still considered black in white America, and embraced by black America as a favored son.  The problem is, he isn’t black.

I’m not saying this to exclude him from anything, I don’t care if he targets black Americans in his campaign or if he rides the wave all the way to shore.  I’m not really included in black America, anyway, so it’s of no consequence to me.  But what does bother me is that by calling him black, half his family is considered basically incidental.

Calling my son “black” means my wife and her ancestry are not a part of him.  It means his family tree is split down the center. Haven’t we moved past this?

So, Barack Obama is not the first black candidate from a major party in the general.  He may be the first non-white, the first mulatto, or the first…well, I ran out…but he is as much white, as he is black.  That is all.

I haven’t watched a late night talk show in about 4 years, but  was flipping channels and caught Mike Huckabee on the Tonight Show.  It’s the first I’ve really seen of him, aside from the articles I’ve read on blogs I frequent (ScriptoriumDaily.com, GetReligion.org).  I was impressed.

He took the questions well (Leno wasn’t exactly throwing heat…) and was as entertaining as I’ve heard.  What I was excited about was that he got about 2 minutes to talk about the Fair Tax without being interrupted.  Jay asked soft-tossed him a couple of questions about the poor, which Huckabee took advantage of, but It was nice to hear the simplicity of it, and the fairness laid out. (continue reading…)

I was just reading Brian McLaren’s latest post over at God’s Politics, and it had a link to his organization, Red Letter Christians. I’d heard of the group, but didn’t know much about it, so I checked it out. In the first paragraph we read this: “We believe and seek to put in to action the red letter words in the Holy Bible spoken by Jesus.”

Two things about this bother me. First, it makes the letters in the Bible that aren’t in red less important. The Bible prioritizes itself; tell me what is more important: “You shall have no other gods before me,” or, “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.” This is a ridiculous example, but one that is implied when you use this red-letter logic. (continue reading…)

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