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Will We Ever Have Another Overtly Religious President?
George W. Bush is probably the last. I remember the excitement at bible study about a praying president. We all thought it was pretty darn cool. It’s a shame economic sensibilities weren’t high on the laundry list he asked for from God.
Somebody asked me about Mike Huckabee recently and I opined that we’d never have another overtly religious president. I thought I’d explain why and see what the masses think.
- The idea that W only needed evangelicals to get elected hit home to the leftists; they’ve chipped away at their influence through all of their many tendrils;
- For all the fuss about it, gay marriage is a losing cause, both nationally and in many states;
- Abortion, that horrible act, is a touchy issue politically even for those against it;
- Mitt Romney never got pressed hard because the Democrats knew all along he’d lose; Magic underwear and his family’s own afterlife planet would have come to the fore if needed;
- Jeb will have to deal with more negativity than his dynastic name. He believes the pope can speak ex cathedra. While the Left will adore the socialist leanings of this pope, the media will hammer Jeb on birth control and women’s issues; and
- If an evangelical gets the nod, there will be dinosaur questions as well as rapture ones.
You get the idea. Whatever faith a person has, there are some beliefs that open themselves up to criticism, derision, or worse….comedy.
It’s Christmastide, so it’s time once again for Newsweek to flex its theological muscles and slam Christians for their intolerable reading of the Bible. It’s a cheap trick. It’s easy to throw bombs at Christians. They’ll refute your claims, but they are not going to strap on a vest of explosives.
There is a divide among American Christians. Less a disagreement between Catholics and Protestants — or other divisions of doctrine and theology — the difference turns on culture, and relates to a fundamental difference in worldviews that transcend the old schisms. In short it, is a matter of orthodoxy, with non-denominational evangelicals and cafeteria Catholics on one side, and traditionalists on the other. It has been talked about within the various churches for decades, but affects almost all of them in the same fashion, and reflects larger trends in the culture that mirror political parties.
It’s nearly Halloween, which means a cornucopia of horror movies on TV. Most of them are just awful, with a few masterpieces occasionally making the grade. Last night some cable channel featured Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and a couple of zombie features I’d never heard of. Frankly, the horror movie genre is in a slump. It’s zombies, zombies, zombies, all the way down and I’ve never understood their appeal. I have a pretty strong stomach — I always have anchovies on my pizza — but I demur when it comes to people eating people. I just don’t understand how they can be the luckiest people in the world.
Paul Rahe’s lovely account of the Sabbath in Jerusalem, below, got me to wondering: What ever happened to the Sabbath here in this country?