Civil Commotion

We note today two important anniversaries in our public life: The Loving decision, and the appalling massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Loving struck-down laws forbidding interracial marriage, and laid the foundation of 2015’s Obergefell decision which made same-sex marriage legal throughout the United States.

The Pulse nightclub massacre was the gratuitous slaughter of 49-patrons at a gay nightclub.

Do you see a pattern here? You should. The great victories for civil liberties, the overdue realizations of America’s promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, overturned laws grounded in the religions of the Bronze Age. And the most grievous offenses against civil liberties arose from the religions of the Bronze Age.

I am saying exactly what I seem to be saying: The Abrahamic faiths are not merely untrue, but contrary to American ideals and a bottomless well of misery. It is time to be done with them, time to stop granting undeserved deference to Holy Men, time to leave behind their inexhaustible malice for the … other, time to openly and frankly refuse to be guided by decadent ideals.

It appears likely that Russell Moore will survive opposition to him as the head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, but nobody should suppose that all is well in ERLC-world. Here is a comment, for example, at an SBC Voices discussion of the release of statistics documenting yet another year of denominational decline.

If I were an artist, I would draw a picture of a ship representing the SBC. Then I would draw a picture of Russell Moore of the ERLC drilling holes in the ship. While this is happening I would draw a large group of fellow travelers on the ship asking him, as well as the captain/staff and other paid crew members, what he was doing and why he was doing it.

Then I would draw a smaller group of fellow travelers on the ship defending Moore and arguing with the other group. In fact, they would be chastising the larger group and shouting at them to understand that holes are good for the ship. The larger group would be disparaged for being “racist” and obviously seen as uneducated buffoons that just need to get off the ship.

Meanwhile, the ship would continue to sink.

This because Moore refused to support The Orange One in the recent election, but did support construction of a mosque that had been refused a construction permit because, you know … MOOZLIMS!!

The commenter, apparently, can’t grasp the possibility that someday it may be his club that can’t get a building permit because, you know … BAPTISTS!! After all, it does require a third-rate mind to fall for the brazen marketing lie that the Bible is inerrant, and who of sound character thinks that Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac is behavior worthy of emulation? Seriously: Who wants a bunch of dimwits with bad character invading their neighborhood every weekend?

People who actually believe-in and uphold religious liberty will applaud Russell Moore’s defense of the Muslims. I do; in fact, it’s the only thing about Russell Moore that I do like. That explains, I suppose, why I haven’t set foot in a Baptist church in years.

Once again, several major indexes are down. In 2016 …

• Membership declined

• Baptisms declined

• Weekly attendance declined

• Giving declined

You know what’s up? The number of Southern Baptist churches — which means more pastors are competing with each other for a steadily declining pool of believers.

I suppose that lots of pastors will arrive in Phoenix with upset tummies, but the rest of us should consider this good news: Their influence, their ability to direct votes, the number of children misshapen by the drumbeat that they’re no damn good, the number of marriages deformed by the teaching that pleasing an Invisible Friend is more important than wedding vows … all down, and likely to continue going down.

Hell — who knows? I may live long enough to see Albert the Pious become the figure of public ridicule that he ought to be, instead of a smarmy nuisance who is treated with undeserved respect.

As just about everyone knows by now, British Prime Minister Theresa May called an election years earlier than necessary — and unexpectedly lost her majority in Parliament.

Prime Minister Theresa May looks like she’s lost her government majority in the UK election, according to the official exit poll. A hung parliament — where there is no overall winner — would make a huge difference to Brexit. Here’s what might happen, depending on the final results:

A disaster for the PM, because she has thrown away the first Conservative majority government for 18 years after just two.

Since reaction worldwide — in the West as well as in the Muslim states — is fueled chiefly by the accelerating decline of the Abrahamic faiths, I think the long view is that this is a good thing; nothing good can happen when the backward-looking are in the driver’s seat.

But how did an experienced politician make such a blunder? I’m not privy to her thoughts and am only thinking out loud, but I’m inclined to speculate that she looked across the Atlantic and could see that the so-called ‘conservatism’ of Donald Trump is wildly unpopular and she decided to firm-up her grip on office before the tide has fully receded.

Whoops.

OK, quick question: Is it the palm reader, or the preacher, who claims to have special cosmic knowledge which will enable you to align your life with the mysterious forces which rule our universe? Give up? BOTH!!

What we’re seeing here is professional envy, not something that anybody should take seriously. They’re both con-artists.