Topica Email List Directory

Welcome Guest!

SDA Lesson

	Previous Message	All Messages	Next Message

Election	Ron Corson
	Nov 05, 2004 20:22 PST

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_0005_01C4C375.2D250F90
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Election, Enlightenment and the World to Come

By

Ron Corson

Within a day of the Election this November the culture warriors began their assault upon the people of America. The foreign press such as the London Daily Mirror presented the cover page with the question "How can 59,054,087 people be so dumb?" Obviously those people would disagree with the Mirror and its pseudo intellectualism. But the Mirror reveals a symptom of the disease that has infected the media and many people throughout the world.

Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Wills expresses his disgust more directly. To him it is not Americans who are dumb it is their Christianity that is dumb. November 4, 2004 The New York Times published Wills' column "The Day the Enlightenment Went Out". He informs us by means of a rhetorical question that America has lost its Enlightenment. He asks: "Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?" Later he explains how the world is confused by the American Electorate: "The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies." America has not become any more religious since the 1940's but it is likely that modern Europe has become far less Christian. So now to the secular in Europe, Christianity is the anti-intellectual boogie man. The death of reason and enlightenment is now found in the Christian right.
But the anti-Christian bigots like Wills are not the only ones upset that the Christian right came out and voted for their preferred candidate. A number of Seventh-day Adventists find the vote of their fellow Christians to be disturbing. Because if the Christian Right can have an influence on an American election, surely the Sunday Laws cannot be far away. According to national exit polling White Evangelical Christians supported Bush 78 percent, Kerry 22 percent. Catholics 52 percent, Bush, 48 percent Kerry. Black Protestants 83 percent Kerry and 16 percent Bush. In each of these categories the more regular the church attendance the stronger the support for Bush.
Of course the above groups have been important in every election within the past 40 years. Yet when credit is given to the Evangelical Christians by the media for helping to decide a close election there is a section within the SDA church which sees only storm clouds. That section also sees danger in a President who believes in God, who is comforted spiritually by the thought of people praying for him. Even when he espouses values that are similar to their own SDA values their first thought is how this will lead to their "time of trouble".
But our battle is not with the Christian Right; in fact we are very much a part of the Christian Right. In our effort to prove our churches past prediction right we should not denigrate our Christian brothers and sisters for wrongs that they have not done nor intend to do.
The Christian battle is with the secular world which defames God and his followers. As Gaylon Parker wrote in the Mississippi Press on Nov. 5, 2004: "In fact, the tripe I've had to choke down over the weeks and months preceding the election is going to be tough to wash out of my mouth. Bill Clinton's former labor secretary, Robert Reich, said Christians pose a greater threat to America than terrorists; Richard Dreyfuss spews anti-religious hate speech on Larry King's show; Bill Maher says prayer is moronic. You get the picture." Indeed it is Christian morals and values that are under attack in America. The attack is not from our fellow Christians by from those who think that Christianity is the end of Enlightenment. That Christians are foolish to believe in the Virgin Birth, that God could become incarnate and be born into this world. That Christians are foolish if they don't accept the idea that some amino acids formed and amoeba that over time changed into a human being as well as every other organic life form we see.
The battle has begun and it is really all about God, at this time and in this country it is about the Christian God. About a society and media that increasingly disparage God and Christian believers. More and more those forces which claim diversity and tolerance as their credos opening ridicule diversity if it means including and accepting Christianity. Tolerance it seems is only for those who think like the secular Europeans, and if you don't you are just dumb, and your opinions are irrelevant.

------=_NextPart_000_0005_01C4C375.2D250F90
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>
Election, Enlightenment
and the World to Come<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
By<o:p></o:p>
Ron
Corson<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Within a day of the Election this
November the culture warriors began their assault upon the people of
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The foreign press such as the London
Daily Mirror presented the cover page with the question "How can 59,054,087
people be so dumb?" Obviously those people would disagree with the Mirror and
its pseudo intellectualism. But the Mirror reveals a symptom of the disease that
has infected the media and many people throughout the world.
<o:p></o:p>
<H2 style="MARGIN: auto 0in">Pulitzer
Prize winner Gary Wills expresses his disgust more directly. To him it is not
Americans who are dumb it is their Christianity that is dumb. <st1:date
Month="11" Day="4" Year="2004">November
4, 2004</st1:date> The
New York Times published Wills� column �The Day the Enlightenment Went Out�. He
informs us by means of a rhetorical question that
<st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region> has
lost its Enlightenment. He asks: �Can a people that believes more fervently in
the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?� Later
he explains how the world is confused by the American Electorate: �The secular
states of modern <st1:place>Europe</st1:place> do not
understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they
had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those
nations less than we do our putative enemies.�
<st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region> has
not become any more religious since the 1940�s but it is likely that modern
<st1:place>Europe</st1:place> has
become far less Christian. So now to the secular in <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>,
Christianity is the anti-intellectual boogie man. The death of reason and
enlightenment is now found in the Christian right.
<o:p></o:p></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: auto 0in">But the anti-Christian bigots like Wills are not the only
ones upset that the Christian right came out and voted for their preferred
candidate. A number of Seventh-day Adventists find the vote of their fellow
Christians to be disturbing. Because if the Christian Right can have an
influence on an American election, surely the Sunday Laws cannot be far away.
According to national exit polling White Evangelical Christians supported Bush
78 percent, Kerry 22 percent. Catholics 52 percent, Bush, 48 percent Kerry.
Black Protestants 83 percent Kerry and 16 percent Bush. In each of these
categories the more regular the church attendance the stronger the support for
Bush.<o:p></o:p></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: auto 0in">Of course the above groups have been important in every
election within the past 40 years. Yet when credit is given to the Evangelical
Christians by the media for helping to decide a close election there is a
section within the SDA church which sees only storm clouds. That section also
sees danger in a President who believes in God, who is comforted spiritually by
the thought of people praying for him. Even when he espouses values that are
similar to their own SDA values their first thought is how this will lead to
their �time of trouble�. <o:p></o:p></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: auto 0in">But our battle is not with the Christian Right; in fact
we are very much a part of the Christian Right. In our effort to prove our
churches past prediction right we should not denigrate our Christian brothers
and sisters for wrongs that they have not done nor intend to do.
<o:p></o:p></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: auto 0in">The
Christian battle is with the secular world which defames God and his followers.
As Gaylon Parker wrote in the Mississippi Press on <st1:date Month="11"
Day="5" Year="2004">Nov. 5,
2004</st1:date>: �In
fact, the tripe I've had to choke down over the weeks and months preceding the
election is going to be tough to wash out of my mouth. Bill Clinton's former
labor secretary, Robert Reich, said Christians pose a greater threat to
<st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region> than
terrorists; Richard Dreyfuss spews anti-religious hate speech on Larry King's
show; Bill Maher says prayer is moronic. You get the picture.� Indeed it is
Christian morals and values that are under attack in
<st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The
attack is not from our fellow Christians by from those who think that
Christianity is the end of Enlightenment. That Christians are foolish to believe
in the Virgin Birth, that God could become incarnate and be born into this
world. That Christians are foolish if they don�t accept the idea that some amino
acids formed and amoeba that over time changed into a human being as well as
every other organic life form we see.<o:p></o:p></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: auto 0in">The battle has begun and it is really all about God, at
this time and in this country it is about the Christian God. About a society and
media that increasingly disparage God and Christian believers. More and more
those forces which claim diversity and tolerance as their credos opening
ridicule diversity if it means including and accepting Christianity. Tolerance
it seems is only for those who think like the secular Europeans, and if you
don�t you are just dumb, and your opinions are
irrelevant.<o:p></o:p></H2></DIV></BODY></HTML>

------=_NextPart_000_0005_01C4C375.2D250F90--


	Previous Message	All Messages	Next Message

Concerned about privacy? Topica is TrustE certified.
See our Privacy Policy.