Tony Jones Slays a Unicorn (Updated)

Tony Jones posted last week on the question of whether Christian progressives have a moral foundation.  The discussion  was raised with a question from Steven Kurtz

Johathan Haidt’s new book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. He says that research has shown that Western and Educated people from Industrialized, Rich, Democratic countries (or WEIRD people) who self-identify as “progressive” (socially) use, almost exclusively two moral “foundations” as criteria for making moral judgments: Harm/care and Fairness/reciprocity. We progressive WEIRD people do not use the remaining 3 foundations: Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect, or Purity/sanctity – the 3 that conservatives do use, in addition to, and in a higher priority manner than Harm and Fairness.

But progressives then have a problem with the God of most traditional and especially Christian formulations – especially with retribution, punishments, curses, condemnations, as well as problems with the unfairness of the treatment of women, slaves, and other outsiders. This gives us a huge problem with the bible and the god it describes, which forces us to re-think everything. Thus our problem speaking much, or coherently about God. Where do we go for information? Obviously from the comments I’ve read, anywhere available to our tastes.

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Ben Shapiro on Bullies

Not sure I relish all of Ben's recommendations or the notion we have to embrace tactics that lean toward "incivility", but there comes a point where self-defense requires a bit of force. Long video, but worth watching. Bright mind, brave soul.

Guns 3 - The Good, The Bad and the Progressives

Jim Wallis presented the progressive view of the NRA's Dangerous Theology over at "God's Politics".  He tries to respond to Wayne LaPierre's cute little formula "“the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” by suggesting LaPierre has a simplistic view of human nature where people are either good or bad.  I'm quite sure LaPierre understands that human beings are a bit more complex than white hats and black hats, but that is hardly the point.  At a given moment, if a guy who is very bad at that moment has a weapon, it is a good thing for a cop, a security guard, a soldier or a conscientious citizen to be able to stop him - if necessary with a weapon.

But the real howler of an argument Wallis proposes goes like this:

When we are good, we want to protect our children — not by having more guns than the bad people, but by making sure guns aren’t the first available thing to people when they’re being bad.

The utter absurdity of that argument is very simple.  Gun laws do not accomplish that goal.  Gun laws do not prevent mass murderers from having guns.   (More)

Roe V Wade at 40

40 years ago today, the phrase Roe v Wade became etched in the nation's conscience.  It remains, in my mind, the singular source of the polarization of the political landscape in this country for one simple reason:  The Supreme Court found a right in the constitution that simply was not there.

That singular ruling set off decades of debate about "original intent" of the founding fathers vs the notion of a "living constitution" that evolved with the times.   At stake was the simple question of whether law itself had meaning apart from the momentary whim of a judge, whether the written law could ever again be appealed to as a norm.

The Constitution did not mention abortion.  "Personhood" - that one was thought to have been settled in the debate over slavery, that the law could not declare a human being a non-person or partial person by the stroke of a legal pen. 

The crux of the Roe decision was the "right to privacy" which the court simply left undefined - privacy to do what?  Privacy with what limits?   Can any and every action be considered off limits to law if committed in private?

Trust Your Feelings - Steve Chalke on Inclusion

This  issue will not go away because the gay rights advocates will not let it.

Prominent British Evangelical Steve Chalke has come out in support of gay inclusion.  Of course this follows a predictable trajectory that has been documented on this blog for a number of years, not only in my short-lived experiment with Anglicanism, but also in the steady drift to the theological left of figures such as Brian McLaren and Tony Jones.  More

Guns 2

 The New York Times, hardly a right-wing handmaiden of the NRA lobby, published a surprisingly honest story on Obama's plans for gun control, plans that go "beyond mass shootings".  Ah.  So the plan is not limited to ending mass murder, but control of firearms that goes somewhere "beyond"...

Key quotes: 

"The semiautomatic rifle that Adam Lanza used to shoot 20 schoolchildren and 6 adults complied with Connecticut’s assault weapons ban, the police said, and he did not buy the gun himself." 

and "In 2011, 6,220 people were killed by handguns, and 323 by rifles"

and "Better background checks would have had little effect on several recent mass shootings"  (more)

Guns

The tragic shooting of schoolchildren in Connecticut has led to a significant call for more gun laws, including the absurd trial balloon floated by Joe Biden that president Obama can take some sort of action by Executive order.  Such a call shows contempt for the constitution these men are sworn to defend.

Once again, as has happened so often in the past, emotions are set forth as arguments while reason and principle are smothered.  (More)