{"id":7712,"date":"2006-06-17T09:57:03","date_gmt":"2006-06-17T13:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7712"},"modified":"2006-06-17T09:57:03","modified_gmt":"2006-06-17T13:57:03","slug":"this-week-in-god-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/this-week-in-god-22\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in God"},"content":{"rendered":"

First up from the God machine this week is a big shake-up within the biggest Protestant denomination in the United States — the [tag]Southern Baptist Convention[\/tag] elected the Rev. [tag]Frank Page[\/tag] as the group’s president this week. Never heard of Page? You will<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…Page’s upset victory could be very significant, both to the nation’s religious life and to politics. He defeated candidates supported by the convention’s staunchly conservative establishment, which has dominated the organization since the mid-1980s. His triumph is one of many signs that new breezes are blowing through the broader evangelical Christian world.<\/p>\n

No, this is not some liberal victory. Indeed, the Baptist Press reported that Page went out of his way to tell reporters that he was not elected “to somehow undo the conservative resurgence” in the convention. But he also signaled that the spirit he hopes to embody is quite different from that of the angry, right-wing, politicized preacher who has been a stock figure in American life for more than two decades.<\/p>\n

“I believe in the word of [tag]God[\/tag],” Page said. “I’m just not mad about it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Page has a more-tolerant, less-angry style, and even more importantly, was elected over the wishes<\/a> of the SBC’s politically (and religiously) conservative powerbrokers. Page pulled off the victory thanks to grassroots support from SBC congregations — and, yes, Baptist bloggers — that have grown increasingly frustrated with the group’s trend in recent years.<\/p>\n

As Bill Leonard, the dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School, explained, “Some people are tired of just fighting liberals. You need a reason to be a Southern Baptist other than just fighting liberals in the culture or in the church.”<\/p>\n

E.J. Dionne described it as part of the “mellowing of evangelical Christianity.” If that’s right, it’s likely to have a serious impact on the culture, particularly the political culture. The SBC has become an appendage of the Republican Party in recent years. If Page moves the group in a different direction, it will, at a minimum, cause some heartburn in GOP circles.<\/p>\n

Next up from the God machine is a story about religious activism from the opposite end<\/a> of the theological spectrum.
\n<\/p>\n

A federal judge [this week] rejected a lawsuit from an atheist who said having the phrase “[tag]In God We Trust[\/tag]” on U.S. coins and dollar bills violated his First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. said the minted words amounted to a secular national slogan that did not trample on [tag]Michael Newdow[\/tag]’s avowed religious views.<\/p>\n

“There is no proper allegation that the government compelled plaintiff to affirm a repugnant belief in monotheism,” Damrell said in dismissing the suit, Newdow v. Congress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If Newdow’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the same guy who filed the lawsuit about “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance a few years ago that went to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

In this case, Newdow argued that the 1955 law that mandated “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency is unconstitutional because it “excludes people who don’t believe in God.” The court cited a 1970 ruling that ruled the motto permissible. Newdow said the ruling was wrong, the court said it had to abide by precedent, and the case was over.<\/p>\n

Knowing Newdow, it’s only a matter of time before he tries again.<\/p>\n

And finally this week, the God machine leads us to a group of high-profile religious leaders who are taking on a real<\/i> moral crisis<\/a> of our time.<\/p>\n

Twenty-seven religious leaders, including megachurch pastor Rick Warren, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, have signed a statement urging the United States to “abolish torture now — without exceptions.”<\/p>\n

The statement, being published in newspaper advertisements starting today, is the opening salvo of a new organization called the [tag]National Religious Campaign Against Torture[\/tag], which has formed in response to allegations of human rights abuse at U.S. detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.<\/p>\n

Titled “Torture is a Moral Issue,” the statement says that torture “violates the basic dignity of the human person” and “contradicts our nation’s most cherished values.” “Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed?” it asks.<\/p>\n

The signers come from a broad range of denominations and include notable religious conservatives, such as the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; and the Rev. William J. Byron, former president of Catholic University.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good for them. The next time the president wants to talk about “faith-based initiatives,” maybe he’ll give the leaders’ concerns a serious reading. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First up from the God machine this week is a big shake-up within the biggest Protestant denomination in the United States — the [tag]Southern Baptist Convention[\/tag] elected the Rev. [tag]Frank Page[\/tag] as the group’s president this week. Never heard of Page? You will. …Page’s upset victory could be very significant, both to the nation’s religious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}