Worldviews

At the Bottom of the Bachmann-WELS Flap

July 16, 2011
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At the Bottom of the Bachmann-WELS Flap

By Lars Walker All right, I’ll come clean. Sam Karnick wore me down, and I have to admit it. I am a Lutheran. And that, at least according to Joshua Green at The Atlantic, would seem to be pretty fringey stuff. Definitely outside the realm of respectable opinion in today’s world. (Which must be a surprise to all those Garrison Keillor fans.) Or… maybe I’m not a Lutheran at all, really. If you were to speak to an official of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, to one of whose congregations presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann used to belong, they’d probably tell you that my own church, a member of a conservative but pietistic fellowship, isn’t really Lutheran in the proper meaning of the term. We’re insufficiently sacramental in our focus, and so not truly Lutheran. And you know what? I’m OK with that. Among ourselves, we other Lutherans laugh at the Wisconsin Synod sometimes. You might call them our Hasidim. A little strict, a little stiff by our standards. They have their own ways, which sometimes can even cause offense, as when we visit their churches and are denied communion. But at bottom we respect them. They have their principles, and

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How Do We Profit from Study?

July 16, 2011
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How Do We Profit from Study?

By Francis Bacon, TAC Correspondent Studies serue for Delight, for Ornament, and for Ability. Their Chiefe Vse for Delight, is in Priuatenesse and Retiring; For Ornament, is in Discourse; And for Ability, is in the Iudgement and Disposition of Businesse. For Expert Men can Execute, and perhaps Iudge of particulars, one by one; But the generall Counsels, and the Plots, and Marshalling of Affaires, come best from those that are Learned. To spend too much Time in Studies, is Sloth; To vse them too much for Ornament, is Affectation; To make Iudgement wholly by their Rules is the Humour of a Scholler. They perfect Nature, and are perfected, by Experience: For Naturall Abilities, are like Naturall Plants, that need Proyning by Study: And Studies themselues, doe giue forth Directions too much at Large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty Men Contemne Studies; Simple Men Admire them; and Wise Men Vse them: For they teach not their owne Vse; But that is a Wisdome without them, and aboue them, won by Obseruation. Reade not to Contradict, and Confute; Nor to Beleeue and Take for granted; Nor to Finde Talke and Discourse; But to weigh and Consider. Some Bookes are

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Mini-quote: Is Harry Potter a British Tory?

July 16, 2011
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Mini-quote: Is Harry Potter a British Tory?

J. K. Rowling’s famous literary creation, Harry Potter, has been casting a spell on readers and moviegoers for many years. Simultaneously, Harry has been casting a spell on individuals and groups who want to claim the young wizard as one of their own. Even though Harry’s story has been told and the final movie, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” will be released this week, this franchise isn’t going to disappear with the wave of a wand. The main character’s appeal is so strong that the slightest hint of an endorsement or rejection of an idea or philosophy can trigger a massive public reaction. Harry might be a fictional character, but his “opinions” and “beliefs” are worth their weight in gold. Let’s speculate about Harry’s political ideology. Is he a conservative, liberal or socialist? To be fair, Ms. Rowling is reportedly nonpartisan and none of her books dealt with either British politics or student politics. Even so, this shouldn’t stop us from taking an educated guess — and all signs point to Harry being a conservative. Read the rest of Michael Taube’s Washington Times article — “Tory Potter” — here.

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Love That Never Dared To Get Tough: The Fruits of Indulgence Towards “The New Left” Have and Will Continue to Cost Lives

July 15, 2011
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Love That Never Dared To Get Tough: The Fruits of Indulgence Towards “The New Left” Have and Will Continue to Cost Lives

By Mike Gray shows that neither then , when it would have counted, nor later, when it would have clarified, did most mainstream liberals offer up anything as direct and definitive as a stern, unqualified denunciation of the New Left, black nationalists, or other activists inspired by them. The more common response was to try to have it both ways, to suggest that the radicals behaved regrettably, at worst, but that the social evils they opposed explained and to some degree justified their conduct. As the years went by, having it both ways meant that this ambivalent response to the radical fringe would be collectively remembered as having been a principled, unyielding one. — William Voegeli Liberal-Progressives have had fifty years to apologize for their more radical confreres, but only now are they expressing any regret — much too late. So the anti-capitalist mentality, hatred of the West, cultural and political Marxism, and anti-Semitism continue to grow among the intelligentsia: . . . . we must go deeper still, to the worldview cultivated in the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s. In the decidedly non-calloused hands of this largely student, spectacularly arrogant, but largely know-nothing

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Mini-quote: Nanny State Atheists Flunk Grammar

July 15, 2011
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Mini-quote: Nanny State Atheists Flunk Grammar

Quite simply, the Constitution prohibits the state from interfering with the church, but does not prohibit the church from influencing the state. And there is no limit whatsoever to what states may do in the realm of religious expression. The First Amendment ties only the hands of the federal government. Once again, this truth is hiding in plain sight. “CONGRESS shall make no law …” Congress was prohibited from picking one Christian denomination and making it the official church of the United States (the Establishment clause) and flatly prohibited from telling the church what to do (the Free Exercise clause). In fact, the real separation in the First Amendment is not between church and state but between the federal government and the individual states. The federal government is stringently forbidden to extend its tyrannical little hand into the operation of religious liberty in the individual states. States have unfettered religious liberty under the Constitution, and can do whatever they and their state constitutions permit. — Bryan Fischer, “Freedom From Religion Foundation Needs Grammar Lesson”, RenewAmerica

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Quote of the Day: Agenda 21 — Grassroots Socialism That Could Presage One-World Government

July 14, 2011
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Quote of the Day: Agenda 21 — Grassroots Socialism That Could Presage One-World Government

Agenda 21 promotes European socialist goals that will erode our freedoms and liberties. Most of its vague, lofty sounding phrases cause the average person’s eyes to glaze over, making it easier to sneak into our communities. The environmentalist goals include atmospheric protection, combating pollution, protecting fragile environments, and conserving biological diversity. Agenda 21 goes well beyond environmentalism. Other broad goals include combating poverty, changing consumption patterns, promoting health, and reducing private property ownership, single-family homes, private car ownership, and privately owned farms. It seeks to cram people into small livable areas and institute population control. There is a plan for “social justice” that will redistribute wealth. Once these vague, overly broad goals are adopted, they are being interpreted to allow massive amounts of new, overreaching regulations. Joyce Morrison from Eco-logic Powerhouse says Agenda 21 is so broad it will affect the way we “live, eat, learn and communicate.” Berit Kjos, author of Brave New Schools, warns that Agenda 21 “regulation would severely limit water, electricity, and transportation — even deny human access to our most treasured wilderness areas, it would monitor all lands and people. “No one would be free from the watchful eye of the new global tracking and

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Quote of the Day: Totalitarianism Festers in Academia

July 12, 2011
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Quote of the Day: Totalitarianism Festers in Academia

Much has been made of the “unholy alliance” between the imperial left and a triumphalist Islam in advancing the cause of the modern totalitarian project. The left wants to see a top-down socialist utopia supplant the international order as we know it and militant Islam is determined to impose a Shariate upon the world. Indeed, as Norwegian scholar Hege Storhaug documents in But the Greatest of These Is Freedom, there is a brisk migration “from left-wing totalitarianism to religio-political totalitarianism.” The totalitarian mind is identical with itself, so to speak, differing only in the accidental content of its doctrines. No less important, however, than this deep symbiosis between superficially implausible collaborators is the potent tutorial relationship that has been established between the patricians of the left and the emancipated youth of the contemporary West. Such an alliance, conducted under the aegis of the so-called “liberal” academy, is equally unholy. As with the German universities of the 1930s, modern universities throughout the “free world” have become factories of political indoctrination in which history is reinterpreted as a chronicle of infamy and the young are conscripted into the army of those who promise the advent of a golden millennium. Palpably, the democratic

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Mini-quote: The Rules in Countryspeak

July 11, 2011
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Mini-quote: The Rules in Countryspeak

(1) Just one God. (2) Put nothin’ before God. (3) Watch yer mouth. (4) Git yourself to Sunday meetin’. (5) Honor yer Ma & Pa. (6) No killin’. (7) No foolin’ around with another feller’s gal. (8) Don’t take what ain’t yers. (9) No tellin’ tales or gossipin’. (10) Don’t be hankerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff. — The Ten Commandments as posted on the wall of Cross Trails Church, Gainesboro, TN

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Mamet and Breitbart: A Tale of Two Political Conversions

July 11, 2011
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Mamet and Breitbart: A Tale of Two Political Conversions

By Larry Kaufmann The culture war has taken some interesting turns lately, but few are more surprising than David Mamet’s recent move to the right.  Mamet is probably the most important playwright of the last 40 years, in addition to being a prolific screenwriter and essayist.  He has also directed about a dozen feature films, several shorts and TV episodes, and was Executive Producer of the TV series The Unit.  Although not a household name (how many playwrights are, other than Shakespeare?), he is an A-lister in creative circles and particularly respected for plays like American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross, which cast a caustic and cynical eye on capitalism. So, when his essay “Why I Am No Longer A Brain-Dead Liberal” appeared in the Village Voice in March 2008, it must have stung.  David Mamet taking to the pages of the trendy lefty magazine Village Voice to bash progressivism is like Pat Robertson going on the set of the 700 Club to declare God is dead.  It’s also likely to rattle a few latte cups in Hollywood and the other elite cultural circles where Mamet travels. That article, though, was only a warm-up for The Secret Knowledge, Mamet’s recently

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Mini-quote: Liberal-Progressive “Love”

July 9, 2011
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Mini-quote: Liberal-Progressive “Love”

Long before the teachers unions ruined their whole profession, liberals made the decision that the goal of racial integration would trump the merits of the individual. Long before busing policies caused white flight and turned truly integrated schools into ghetto ganglands, the outright rejection of objective standards in our public schools was set in policy stone. Cheating administrators and teachers led to cheating students and ‘round and ‘round it went. Long before God was completely removed from public classrooms, liberals decided that lying and cheating for the sake of appearances would be just fine. Long before metal detectors had to be installed, the culture of crime was set by the elites. Long before the special-education kids were brought into the mix, liberals decided that the appearance of rights granted would trump genuine education. Long before the drugging of kids to avoid the difficulties of real discipline, liberals decided that appearances of a calm classroom would trump real learning taking place. America’s public education system has been a sham since those very first look-the-other-way decisions were made by social-engineering elites. The biggest lie of all is that liberals will say to their dying day they did it for the children. Never

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Mini-quote: The Memorial with PC Amnesia

July 8, 2011
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Mini-quote: The Memorial with PC Amnesia

This Sept. 11, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks upon America, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will dedicate the massive, $600 million National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center. What Americans have not been told is that this “memorial” will remake Ground Zero so that it does not acknowledge 9/11. Instead of acting as a constant reminder of the attacks, a symbol for us and future generations of the evil that struck, the death and destruction it caused and the heroism and sacrifice in response, the memorial will wipe out all evidence and memory of the attacks. . . . . It will not include the initials FDNY, NYPD or PAPD. It will not include the words “firefighter” or “police officer.” Recognizing the heroism and sacrifice of the firefighters and police officers would contrast those virtues with the barbarism and crime of the terrorists. And though Mr. Bloomberg has said our values demand a Ground Zero Mosque, he will not allow the Rev. Mychal Judge, the FDNY chaplain who died while praying the Lord’s Prayer in the lobby of WTC 1, to be identified as “Fire Chaplain Father” Mychal Judge. It is only traditional

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Mini-quote: On Changing History to Conform to Ideology

July 8, 2011
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Mini-quote: On Changing History to Conform to Ideology

Singling out a segment of the population for specific inclusion in school studies programs on the basis of their sexual preferences elevates what — rightly or wrongly — many see as a form of sexual perversion, to a civil right. The bill, SB 48, passed on a party-line vote , adds lesbian, gay, bisexual and so-called transgendered people as well as those with physical or mental disabilities to the list of groups that schools must include in the lessons. It also would prohibit material that reflects adversely on gays. Unless I’m badly mistaken, what the legislature has done is to classify sexual preference as a form of disability, meaning that those who adopt the lifestyle are mentally or physically disabled though no fault of their own. Somehow I seriously doubt that gays or cross-dressers will appreciate being classified as disabled as a result of their sexual orientation or preferences. This is just another example of the tendency of legislators sticking their noses into the personal lives of the citizenry. It will prove instructive to see how the state’s lawmakers go about the job of implementing this absurd legislation. Will they, for example, rule that textbooks must describe

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