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Rod Dreher on Journalists and Religion

The DMN’s Rod Dreher has penned a great column about Islamic fanaticism, including this part which concludes with my nomination for Sentence of the Week:

That routine is, alas, not alien to American Muslim leaders with whom I’ve clashed since. They obfuscate what they really believe and try to intimidate critics into silence with accusations of bigotry. They cannily understand that’s kryptonite to many journalists, who find Baptists scarier than Wahhabists.

Simmons Says U.S. “Full of Hate for Jews and Muslims”

Hip-hop pioneer Russell Simmons brought his unique spin on business, politics, race, religion and philanthropy to Texas this past weekend. Friday night he appeared at Matthew Trent Jewelry for his Diamond Empowerment Fund nonprofit; Saturday he was in Houston for a meeting of his Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. Before the Trent event (pictured: Simmons and an admirer there), we sat down with the controversial Def Jam Records/Phat Farm clothing founder for a provocative, wide-ranging–and lengthy–Q&A. Among the topics discussed: Simmons’ latest business ventures, the state of race relations in the U.S., why he’s a big fan of Minister Louis Farrakhan–and what Barack Obama could learn about being president from George W. Bush.

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Rod Dreher on Christianity-Lite in Dallas

Over on Beliefnet, Rod Dreher of the Morning News, delivers a thoughtful post that asks whether watered-down religion is any better than no religion at all:

We’re all super-Jesus-y in the Dallas area, but the impression one is left with is that despite the megachurch religiosity regnant in the ‘burbs, there’s a deep hole people keep trying to fill with stuff, and with the manic pursuit of success …

Is it better to live in a society where Christianity is virtually dead, replaced by secular materialism, or in a society where Christianity has been hollowed out by an emotionally satisfying but largely counterfeit version of the faith?

The question comes in response to the argument that America has a claim to stronger morals based on our higher church attendance and belief-in-God statistics. There’s no simple answer, and I’m glad that Dreher doesn’t pretend to have one.

Tibetan Monks at the Crow Collection This Week

On Sunday, seven Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta began a mandala to celebrate new beginnings, in this case the opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center this week. My one IPhone photo does no justice  to the ceremony (the nice pictures sent by the Crow Collection people were too big for the blog, or so WordPress tells me).

The intricate work on the mandala will continue all week on the second flow of the Crow Collection.  On Friday, there will be a prayer flag presentation ceremony at 6 pm, with viewing until midnight. On Saturday, the monks will conduct a shamala meditation sitting from 1 to 2 pm. On Sunday, the monks will conduct a closing ceremony in which the mandala is dismantled, reminding us of the impermanence of all things.

Brad Sham Does Yom Kippur — And Cowboys

The Jewish holiday ends tonight. So how will Brad Sham handle his duties at Temple Emanu-El and then make it to the Death Star in time for the 7:30 kick? Jeff Caplan at the Star-T explains. (And how did Robert Wilonsky not have this scoop?)

Tincy Miller Apologizes for Religion Remarks

Dallas’ Tincy Miller, a member of the State Board of Education, asked a perfectly reasonable question about some of Texas’s new social studies books. Why, she wanted to know, would they have deleted information about Christmas and Rosh Hashanah in favor of discussing other global holidays like “Diwali”? (Drawing a blank? It’s the Hindu Holiday of Lights.) When Miller called Diwali little-known and lacking much “substance” on KERA-FM, the arbiters of political correctness leaped quickly into action. The upshot: Miller has now apologized for her remarks. Even so, I doubt she’ll be on anybody’s Diwali-card list this year.

Episcopal Civil War in Fort Worth

“Anglican Curmudgeon” is a great name for a blog. It’d also be a great name for a rock band. That’s my first takeaway from this excruciatingly detailed account of the latest court battle between the two factions that both claim to be the legitimate Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. Last fall, the Diocese under Bishop Jack Iker voted to sever its affiliation with the Episcopal Church USA over the ordination of an openly gay bishop. They aligned themselves with the Province of the Southern Cone (another great band name), based in Argentina, instead.

The ECUSA in February created its own Diocese of Fort Worth. And the two organizations have been duking it over who has the right to call itself the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, and who therefore owns the diocesan property. The two groups disagree on the significance of what happened yesterday.

Which brings me to my more important takeaway. Let us count our blessings that we’re fortunate enough to live in a land where a dispute like this can now be handled peacably in the courts. Let us hope that someday everyone in our world can too.

Leading Off (9/11/09)

1. The Green Line rail opens four stops on Monday, including Deep Ellum and the South Dallas area near Fair Park. People hope it will help revitalize these areas. Spoiler alert: It will help once these areas are revitalized. Sorry to break it to you.

2. Dallas’ longest-running creepy HBO drama, The Clergy, has clearly jumped the shark. I mean, a stockbroker-priest scandal? Ridiculous.

3. And congrats to the Midlothian middle-schooler who saved a classmate who was choking on a chocolate muffin. And now, please fill the comments holding bin with immature comments that will make me giggle before I delete them.

Great Michael Jordan Story, Involving a Dallas Evangelist

Michael Jordan will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this week. ESPN has issued a special collector’s edition “bookazine” to honor the occasion, filled with stories and photos and whatnot. One story you may not have heard before is this one: the time when Jordan was almost sliced in half by a samurai sword (slight exaggeration), as part of a Carolina stop of Dallas evangelist Bill Glass‘ prison ministry. Ball Don’t Lie has helpfully reprinted the piece for those of you without a subscription to ESPN The Magazine. Good stuff.

Former Pastor Skip Ryan Speaks On His Addiction

Three years ago, Park Cities People ran an across-the-front-page headline that Skip Ryan had been dismissed as senior pastor of Park Cities Presbyterian Church.  A week later, it reported what the elders of the church already knew: that he was a drug addict. It was a devastating and very public fall for a man who was recognized as a star of the Presbyterian Church of America.

This week, Ryan spoke at the church’s 37th General Assembly in Orlando. It is a report from the frontlines of the intensely personal struggle of a very “successful” man. I strongly recommend that you take the time to listen to it when you’re in a quiet place sometime today or this week. NB: I had to turn the volume all the way up.

The Only Time A Sex Ed Story Has Depressed Me

Enjoyed this well-written story about how the Richardson school district has updated its sex education film. (Must … resist … linking … to NSFW … videos.) That is, until I noted that its author is Jeffrey Weiss, the excellent former religion reporter at the DMN. You’ll recall that the paper has all but done away with its local religion reporting. Now, I love that a smart writer can give me an interesting story about a local school system, and I think local education reporting is important. But I also think I would much rather read JW’s thoughts on “Why Gay Is Ok.” (Must … resist … )

DMN Loses Its Religion

A converted FrontBurnervian points us to news that the Dallas Morning News has redeployed the last two religion writers it had, Jeff Weiss and Sam Hodges. They are now covering suburban schools. Reached at His country retreat, God said of the DMN’s move: “I have two words for them: brim and stone.”

Yeah, I’m going to go pray over that joke. I think it can be better.

Julie Lyons’ Holy Roller About to Roll Into Bookstores

I had completely forgotten about former Dallas Observer editor Julie Lyons’ debut book until Wilonsky sort of obliquely brought it up the other day. Turns out it comes out in just over a month, via WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House. So, you know, kind of a big deal.

As for what it’s about: A rogue cop is forced to go undercover in a high-profile super church run by his childhood best friend, who may or may not be the kingpin behind a Mexican-American drug cartel. Except pretty much the opposite of that. I’d read that undercover-church book, though. On a plane ride, or maybe around the pool.

Christopher Hitchens Loves The Texas Evolution Fight

The genially acerbic controversialist was in Dallas for the Christian Book Expo (which, we have failed to mention, was a bust) and, naturally, got himself involved in the textbook argument. He now proposes a solution:

In the spirit of compromise, then, I propose the following. First, let the school debating societies restage the wonderful set-piece real-life dramas of Oxford and Dayton, Tenn. Let time also be set aside, in our increasingly multiethnic and multicultural school system, for children to be taught the huge variety of creation stories, from the Hindu to the Muslim to the Australian Aboriginal. This is always interesting (and it can’t be, can it, that the Texas board holdouts think that only Genesis ought to be so honored?). Second, we can surely demand that the principle of “strengths and weaknesses” will be applied evenly. If any church in Texas receives a tax exemption, or if any religious institution is the beneficiary of any subvention from the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, we must be assured that it will devote a portion of its time to laying bare the “strengths and weaknesses” of the religious world view, and also to teaching the works of Voltaire, David Hume, Benedict de Spinoza, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. This is America. Let a hundred flowers bloom, and a thousand schools of thought contend. We may one day have cause to be grateful to the Texas Board of Education for lighting a candle that cannot be put out.

Team Impact Wants to Save Your Soul

In the current edition of the “print product,” I reported on a visit my 10-year-old son and I paid to Team Impact, an evangelical “feats of strength ministry” wherein big guys rip phone books in half, then save your soul. The article was accompanied by a wonderful illustration, so I thought I’d share some photos. (From left: blowing up the hot water bottle, preparing to get Medieval on a stack of boards, “making it rain” with a torn phone book.)

Flu to Kill All of Dallas

I just heard that St. Thomas Aquinas is shutting down for the rest of the week because it has been so hard hit by the flu and strep. My mother taught at my son’s elementary today and reports that “a lot” of students were out sick. I’m typing this from my dining room table because that same son has been confined to the house for four days, manfully struggling to vanquish the very same wee beasties from his spindly corpus.

Forget the economic crisis. The flu is coming to kill us all! Run for your lives!

Pastor Ed Young Was On Stephen Colbert Last Night

The show. He was on Stephen Colbert’s show. Fellowship Church Pastor Ed Young, aka the pastor who challenged members of his church to have sex with their spouse every day for a whole week, was the guest on last night’s Colbert Report. Highly entertaining. If you missed it, you can watch the whole episode here. (Skip to the final third of the show for the interview.)

Another Welcome Message for George W. Bush

Several news stories have mentioned the yard signs that have popped up in Preston Hollow welcoming George W. Bush back to Dallas. Here’s another such welcome message that I thought I’d pass along:

Zac Crain? Why Are You a Vegetarian?

Just curious.

FrontBurner For Your Ears Launches in 20 Minutes

The show starts at 3 p.m. Won’t you join us? Today’s hosts for the 15-minute recess session will be Tim and Adam. Chat or call in to the show. It’s fun for the whole office!

First Baptist Not Okay With Gay

In the wake of the election, those looking for a little activist action might want to show up at 10 AM this Sunday at First Baptist downtown, where a crowd will be assembled across the street to protest the sign at left. The friend who forwarded this to me says they are asking demonstrators to bring signs and their singing voices, for spirited choruses of “Jesus Loves Me.” Here’s what the Dallas Voice has posted about the controversy.

Dallas And Fort Worth Bishops Take Stand Against Obama

Bishops Kevin Farrell of Dallas and Kevin Vann of Fort Worth issued a pastoral letter that was read from the pulpit at all Catholic masses over the weekend. As you will see, it is thoughtful, clear, and unambiguous. I’ve received anecdotal reports that many people walked out of their churches in response, which I’m sorry to hear. My reaction is entirely different. The Catholic heirarchy in the United States has often seemed muddled and intimidated, perhaps because its members did not have the intellectual capacity to take on the prevailing ethos. If one believes abortion is an intrinsic evil, as the Catholic Church does, it should  fight it, as these two bishops have now done. I disagree with them prudentially (to use a favorite Catholic term) but I admire them for speaking out.

The reason I disagree is that this battle over Roe vs. Wade is now in its 45th year, and achieved very little. The decision will not be overturned, even by a conservative Court. There will be no Human Life Amendment. Therefore, those of us who oppose abortion need to rethink how to engage the larger society in reducing abortion and limiting its effects. One other point: The bishops in this letter shove aside all other Catholic social doctrine to focus solely on the questions of abortion and civil unions. That is not my reading of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, but it is theirs and it might be yours. Regardless, the two bishops have set a marker, and I am thankful for it. It is their job, and I am glad that we now have bishops who know how to do their job. Our job, those of us who are Catholic, is to respond prayerfully and thoughtfully in the depth of our own understanding to what they have to say.

Why The GOP Is Dying Before Our Eyes

It has become the religious party. No, correct that. It is becoming — at least in Texas — the party of one particular brand of religion.

Bible Courses for Texas High Schools Approved

Don’t see how this could possibly go wrong.

Critics contend that the board standards for the course are so vague and general that many schools might unknowingly create unconstitutional Bible classes that either promote the religious views of teachers or disparage the religious beliefs of some students.

Oh. That’s how.

Local Church Buys Hellboy Ad Time

I’d like to share a text I got from Eric, who is enjoying his last day of vacation. It reads:

Just saw commercial advertisement for Park Cities Baptist before Hellboy II. Incongruous much?

I don’t know. Seems like Park Cities hit its target. I’ve been trying for years to get Eric to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. Maybe sitting in that dark theater at NorthPark, the message is finally getting through.