Tasty Tidbits 8/10/11

1. Should Christians stay the heck in the closet?
2. Contraceptives I.
3. Contraceptives II.
4. Regulate the Messenger!
5. What if “the one what brung ya” is too boring to dance with?
6. Fake blessings, real blessings.

1

Andrew Sullivan apparently has called for what he sees as “libertarian Christianity,” and Alan Jacobs mocks/taunts him.

Sullivan’s libertarian Christianity has some attraction, but only superficially.

The problem is not really that “Christianists” are obsessed with others’ sex lives, although we can perhaps argue about chickens and eggs on that one. We had through most of the country a live-and-let-live attitude toward Mr. Sullivan’s sexual preference in the 1970s and early 80s — after most states had decriminalized sodomy and before the AIDS epidemic counterintuitively turned GLBTetcetera folk into the standard bearers of the sexual revolution. Since then, a culture war has been fought largely on the sexual front and Sullivan’s side is the aggressors — seeking to normalize by stronger and stronger legal measures “the love that (once upon a time) dare not speak its name.” The eventuality of this war is the “transvaluation of values” whereby objectors are made out to be “Christianist” voyeuristic perverts for raising their eyebrows at what once universally was thought a bit odd.

Beyond that, does anyone doubt that political blogger Sullivan, a self-identified Catholic, really believes that Christians should stay out of politics? Should hide their light under a bushel? Should stay in the closet?

Whoopa! Whoopa! Whoopa! (That’s my crap detector going off.) The only politics they should stay out of is those implicated by Sullivan’s commitment to normalization of GLBTetcetera relationships — even if it requires calumniating his co-religionists as “Christianist.”

2

The Obama administration has proposed to require private insurers to cover contraception and sterilization, with only the narrowest of religious exceptions.

Christopher Tollefson at Witherspoon Institute thoughtfully argues that we need not a better religious exception, but abandonment of the whole idea of a political right to free contraception and sterilization because of what it implies about the social contract.

3

Dear Black and Latino Animals:

You have now reached reproductive adulthood, so you will enjoy the non-stop rutting season characteristic of your species. We therefore have an important bit of coaching for you.

This is what’s called a “condom” …

Paternalistically yours,

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor

4

Kill Regulate the messenger. Signed, Jeffrey Manns.

Surely it’s important that the government be able to keep people from telling hurtful truths about the government. They do it in all the swanky Banana Republics and Sultanates.

5

Dana Milbank at the Washington Post has a column on a key Tea Party Congressman that the editors provocatively summarized as “Fueled by populists, hijacked by plutocrats.”

If Scott were true to his Tea Party roots, he would have told the growers to get lost. He would have trumpeted the case as evidence that Americans are willing to do the dirty jobs that businesses claim only foreigners will do. As one of the American plaintiffs put it: “We worked hard at our jobs and really wanted the work, but Hamilton didn’t want Americans to work in their fields.” Americans, after all, would be more likely to know the laws and to complain if they’re being exploited.

Instead, Scott chose to side with a large employer of foreign migrants in his district — against his out-of-work constituents.

For what it’s worth, the summary seems apt — and not just in the vignette of Rep. Austin Scott (Tea, GA). There’s little grassroots effort that the plutocrats don’t try to hijack.

6

Their sons are like newly planted saplings in their youth; their daughters are refined, adorned like unto a temple. Their garners are full, overflowing with all manner of store; their sheep are fruitful, abundant in their issue, and their cattle are fat. There is no falling down of fences, no trespassing, neither is there clamor in their streets. The people that are in such a case have been called blessed, but blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.

Psalm 144 (Septuagint 143): 12-15, Miles Coverdale Translation (from A Psaltery for Prayer, Holy Trinity Publications, Jordanville, NY 2011)

Bon appetit!