Civil Commotion

Madalyn Murray O’Hair continues, albeit indirectly, to be in the news. This time, it concerns one of her murderers, whose sentence has been reduced from life in prison to … 50-years.

His attorneys asked the judge to consider his “exemplary” conduct as a inmate over the last two decades, his age and health problems. They also argued the government was asking the judge to “second guess” the jury’s original verdict for Karr.

“The government decided to go back to the well,” said defense attorney Christie Williams.

U.S. Attorney Matt Harding, in turn, argued for the maximum sentence allowable under the law: 20 years for conspiracy to commit extortion, plus 20 years for interstate travel to commit robbery and a combined 115 months for his two other convictions in relation to this case.

The court resentenced Karr to the maximum time available under the prevailing guidelines.

I created a Google news search for O’Hair, and no more than a couple of days go by without returning a hit — usually some editorial ranting about the impermissibility of teacher-led prayer, but occasionally some piece, like this one, concerning ongoing consequences of her life and activism. She led a consequential life, and she remains a vital figure.

I suppose that a seminary president has no choice but to favor more theological education, but the rest of us should not be fooled by Mohler: Theology has no more intellectual dignity than astrology, but is vastly more dangerous.

The problem with theology is that it never does the difficult work of establishing its premises. First, it has to prove that Our Invisible Friend is real. Then (in the case of Christian theology), it has to prove that Our Invisible Friend somehow superintended the production of the anthology known as the Bible. Then — and only then — may theologians begin parsing the text and attempting to discern what Our Invisible Friend expects of us.

I am not holding theology to an unreasonable standard. When an engineer sits down to analyze a problem, every single line of the analysis has a documented pedigree — that’s why it’s possible to build safe bridges that are miles long, dams that safely impound millions of gallons of water. Theology, on the other hand, does not have rigorous intellectual standards, and disrupts lives and even kills people every single day.

No matter how pretentious a theologian may be, no matter how grave the presence, the humdrum truth is that theologians deserve no more regard than the palm-reader at a country fair.

What do you know? Beth Moore’s high-profile departure from the Southern Baptist Convention is causing some of the folk in the pews to wonder about their denomination.

Most in our church don’t think a lot about the SBC. Most are content with our collective mission and happy we give to it at a rate triple what we gave just two years ago.

That all changed this past week after the departure of Beth Moore.

I’m fielding MANY more questions than I used to, from many people who have never asked before and who I never thought would take a critical interest. In the past week I’ve responded to emails, talked on the phone, and over private messages on social media with a noticeably larger number of folks about the SBC. I’ve spent more time in the last week defending our affiliation than I have in the past 5 years combined.

I think it’s sad that a conspicuous departure like Moore’s is what it takes to trigger second-thoughts out in the pews — I mean, what about all the loopy stuff the pastor says every week? — but whatever diminishes their malign influence is a good thing.

FOX News commentator Tucker Carlson triggered a lot of people yesterday with a screed objecting to women in the military.

Ho-hum. So far as I’m concerned, any woman who meets the physical and mental standards for a particular job, and wants that job, ought to be eligible for it.

What is interesting to me about Carlson’s original remarks, and the indignant howling about Carlson’s remarks, is that nobody has mentioned a female distinctive that is vital to post-war reconstruction: Woman can bear children.

This is not a small matter or consideration. It probably figures into the Biblical injunction against homosexuality, written at a time when people lived in tribes and population replenishment was vital to the survival of the tribe. And the post-World War II population growth was much slower in the occupied nations — thanks to the relative decline in men and women — than in the United States.

It certainly isn’t so important a consideration today as it once was, when there is a relatively large population — but it undoubtedly is a factor in the historic injunction against women bearing arms.