Civil Commotion

The Southern Baptists’ annual convention is underway and, as always, the marketing tweets are thick.

First runner-up:

First place:

Mike Huckabee is still alive? Who knew?

As for The Donald … what is there to say? There’s a bona fide deformity in the man’s character.

… in Pennsylvania, you may find yourself targeted for public odium in the church bulletin.

Roman Catholic legislators say they have been publicly shamed during Mass and disinvited from parish events as the Philadelphia Archdiocese campaigns against a bill that would give victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue the church. State Representative Nick Miccarelli said he was shocked to learn that the weekly bulletin at his church targeted him. Under the headline “Just So You Are Aware,” the announcement read, “State Representative Miccarelli voted in favor of House Bill 1947, which states that private institutions can be sued as far as 40 years ago for millions of dollars, while public institutions may not be sued for any crimes.”

Honestly, I don’t know how any educated, decent-minded adult can belong to any church.

An official with the Georgia Baptist Convention says that the American promise of religious freedom doesn’t include Muslims.

[Gerald] Harris, editor of the Christian Index, the official newspaper of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, initially drew fire when he penned a June 6 editorial asking why the leading agencies of the Southern Baptist Convention were joining other groups in the legal fight by Muslims in New Jersey who faced opposition in building a mosque.

“While Muslims around the world and in our own country are shouting ‘Death to America,’ should we be defending their rights to build mosques, which often promote Sharia Law and become training grounds for radicalizing Muslims?” Harris wondered.

To his credit, Russell Moore, the head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, supports construction of the mosque.

This shouldn’t even need discussion in a country whose greatest conceit is its guarantee of religious freedom for all — implemented by the Founders as a device to end the millennia of sectarian warfare provoked by the uncompromising imbecilities of the devout. It’s a sad reminder, too, of the rarely acknowledged truth that Christian and American ideals are incompatible, that the contest between Caesar and the Invisible Wizard will continue.