Category Archives: Fire This Time

Using & Abusing the Bible to Defend or Challenge Abuse at the Border

I didn’t plan to do a followup to the previous post on the Bible and defending slavery.

But there’s been something tragicomic in the scramble by some reporters to get churchy rebuttals to the use, by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, echoed by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, of the Bible to defend their latest, cruelest border policy of splitting up families and penning up children. This scramble also brings up some similar issues & dilemmas.

Speaking to a law enforcement group in Indiana, Sessions turned to the Tyrant’s old standby, Romans 13. And within 24 hours, even the Friends Committee on National Legislation had a statement out condemning it . . .

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Slavery, The Bible, Southern Baptists & Irony

The Southern Baptist Convention just adopted a resolution condemning the view that the Bible supports slavery, which was the main premise on which the SBC was founded back in 1845. To back up this new view, it cites Bible verses used by 18th Century abolitionists to condemn slavery, which the early SBC long & steadfastly denounced as heretical, subversive, etc. That’s Irony #1.
Irony #2 is that the abolitionists were wrong & the early SBCers were correct: the Bible DOES support slavery, in numerous texts; and Jesus, who spoke of slaves often, never said a negative word about the practice.

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Varieties of Racism: the Carolina Confederate Flag Campaign

The feelings associated with this argument can run high. On August 14, 2017, a Confederate memorial statue at the courthouse in Durham was pulled down by protesters. Some of the same protesters moved on to Alamance County, and on the night of August 19, 2017 approached the Confederate statue in front of its “historic” courthouse.

The Confederate Memorial in Alamance County NC: Bigger, taller, well-guarded; still standing.
They had no luck there. The Alamance statue is much taller, much larger, and looms much higher over the courthouse square. It was also guarded by many ACTBAC sympathizers, not to mention police and sheriff’s deputies. After a several hour standoff, the protesters and anti-protesters dissipated in the dark.

Not long thereafter, yard signs began appearing on a scattering of Alamance lawns, calling for protection of such monuments as history.

So far, NC hasn’t seen a repeat of the August 12, 2017 Charlottesville VA violence over racial symbols. But as the “mega flags” proliferate, the waters are still stirring.

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The Embassy, the White House & the Bigots: Tears For Jerusalem.

Jeffress is, sadly, right that religious bigotry is not unique to him: lots of people share it. But there’s a difference between murderous bigotry and dissent:  after all, I happen to think there’s stuff that’s both nutty and dangerous in Mormon doctrine & theology; I also have serious doubts about various tenets in Islam, and others in some Jewish subgroups. (And did I mention my quarrels with much of so-called “Christianity”?)  Jeffress’s theology represents some of the worst of all (Speaking of “heresies from the pit of hell . . .”) and seeing him put by the White House front and center in a U.S. embassy anywhere, and especially in such a critical and hazardous spot, is way beyond belief.

Except that it’s true.

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After Blowing Up The Iran Deal: Anybody Feeling a Draft?

Thinking about the “backing-up-new-Iranian-sanctions-with-War” scenario, I did some searching &quickly came across several disquieting facts:

1. Iran’s population is at least twice as big as Iraq’s;
2. it’s also more homogenous, linguistically, culturally & especially religiously (90+% Shi’a Muslim; Iraq, 60/40 Shia vs Sunni); further,
3. Iranians tend to be quite proud of their country & culture even if they despise their government . . . .

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