The Baptist World Alliance just met in Hawaii. Many in the SBC would love to rejoin the BWA for no other reason than they meet in neat places. We are a convention of conventioneers if nothing else.
Tokyo’s oldest citizen was thought to be an 111 year old man. When someone went to interview him, they couldn't get a syllable out of him. He was dead in his home and had been so for at least thirty years! “Who is thy neighbor?” Jesus asked.
My dear alma mater, The University of Georgia, has been voted the nation’s top party school. Perhaps that ranking had something to do with the fact that downtown Athens, which adjoins the main campus, has dozens and dozens of bars. In somewhat of a reversal of roles, my son has told me, “Daddy, you don’t want to go downtown at night.” The UGA mascot is a bulldog that is usually named ‘Uga.’ I hear they are changing it from ‘Uga’ to ‘Chugga.’
Quotes on the Ground Zero mosque: Newt Gingrich says, There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. Richard Land says, …I strongly support religious communities' right to have places of worship within reasonable distance of where they live…However, no religious community has an absolute right to have a place of worship wherever they choose, regardless of the community's objections. Melissa Rogers, Wake Forest Divinity School professor, says that it would be counterproductive to deny such a symbolic project which she calls a high-profile efforts by Muslims who condemn terrorism to reclaim their faith… Gingrich is the only one in this trio who doesn’t have a good point. We don’t condition religious freedom in America on such in Saudi Arabia.
Samurai says heavy layoffs are in store for the formerly venerable Baptist General Convention of Texas, the outfit that, according to some, spends about 3/4ths of its revenue on itself and is in budgetary freefall. He asks a very good question: “Will they require the folks who are about to be canned to sign a “non-disclosure” document?”
Chelsea Clinton, now wed to a Jewish gentleman, was exhibited as the most prominent case of interfaith (“mixed” to many SBCers) marriage. I confess to sharing marriage duties with Methodists and other mainline protestants (many times), with fellow Baptists (many times), and even with a Roman Catholic Padre (once), but never with a rabbi. It would be a delicate matter, but I’d have to decline that one.
3 comments:
William: Gingrich is the only one in this trio who doesn’t have a good point. We don’t condition religious freedom in America on such in Saudi Arabia.
Jonathan: My "Friedman" side agrees with William. Free markets do work...when there is a actually a free market. But I'm not sure that denying what appears to be a provocative mosque placement when other locations are available is equal to the denial of religious freedom. In the end, I'm not aware that an insistence on reciprocity has ever worked for the US.
William quoting Land: “... However, no religious community has an absolute right to have a place of worship wherever they choose ....”
Norm: Correct, but in this case such an argument is irrelvant; that is, current zoning code permits a building with the intended usage. If Land wishes to make an argument based on perceived value, that is one thing (but it changes nothing, however), but to use the language, instead, of law, his argument is, currently, baseless.
But churches are denied building permits for more than just zoning reasons. Sometimes residents in the locale of a proposed church building will protest it and keep them from putting up a building in their neighborhood. Some city councils are not church friendly and will refuse to rezone a piece of property simply because they think they have enough churches.
Further religious freedom is not tied to the building of mosques or church buildings or synagogues. Denying someone the right to build a building is in no way an infringement on religious freedom. If it is, churches could sue almost every municipality in the land.
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