(1) Cal Thomas appeared at my seminary alma mater this week to discuss “God and Politics” with Albert Mohler. Thomas wrote a column about the experience: God and politics reconsidered
Mr. Mohler noted that “God and Politics” wasn’t meant to be “either/or,” and he was right. Christians have the freedom, he said, even the obligation, to speak to leadership and culture from a biblical viewpoint. Right again, but my main point was that in an increasingly secular society, conservative Christians must find a better way to make their message heard, if they hope to prevail, especially on social issues. To quote a biblical passage they should be “wise as serpents, but harmless as doves.”
…Religious language infused the nation’s Founders and even the late liberal icon, Justice William O. Douglas said, “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.” The problem has always been how one applies such a presupposition to government and culture. It is a tension that has been with us from the beginning of the nation and most notably influenced the debate over slavery, the civil rights movement and in our day, abortion and human relations.
That Christians seem to be losing ground in what has erroneously been called the “culture war” may not be a bad thing. It might force them to rethink their primary calling, which is to a kingdom “not of this world.” By following the instructions and example of Jesus of Nazareth to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, care for widows and orphans and love your neighbor as yourself, the result might be what they are seeking in politics, but can never find: a bubble-up “morality” that results from transformed hearts, which cannot come through politics.
(2) The First Lady of Texas, Cecilia Abbott: “We are each called to service” (San Antonio Express-News)
Cecilia Abbott didn’t give up her volunteer commitment to Meals on Wheels when her husband was elected governor, knowing that the program means more than food to the homebound people it serves.
“We are not just providing a nutritious meal. We are also providing a human touch and a moment of conversation to feed a hungry soul,” she said, expressing gratitude to her fellow volunteers for their service.
On Wednesday, Abbott launched an initiative to help spur others to give their time or money, saying it would be her priority after more than a year of meeting volunteers around the state as Texas’ first lady.
“I believe that we are each called to service,” she said, surrounded by representatives of a variety of volunteer organizations in front of the Governor’s Mansion.
(3) MSU sued by student who told professor he wouldn’t counsel gay couples
A former student is suing school officials at Missouri State University claiming he was kicked out of the counseling program after he said he wouldn’t counsel gay couples.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, Andrew Cash said he was removed from the master’s counseling program at MSU in 2014 after he tried to complete his internship at a Christian-based counseling agency.
The lawsuit says Cash was a student at MSU in January 2011 when he began an internship at the Springfield Marriage and Family Institute, a Christian-based organization.
(4) “Shut up and Bake the Cake”—SJR 39 dies in committee, Missourians denied chance to vote
Missourians will not get the opportunity to have their say on Senate Joint Resolution 39, also known as the Missouri Religious Liberty Amendment. The House of Representatives’ Emerging Issues Committee on Wednesday voted 6-6 on the bill, thus ending its chances of making it out of committee to the full House, and ultimately, the citizens of Missouri.
“I am sorry to report that freedom suffered a severe setback today,” said Don Hinkle, public policy adviser for the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Three Republicans – Caleb Rowden of Columbia, Anne Zerr of St. Charles County and Jim Hansen of Frankford – joined the three Democrats on the committee to ensure the 6-6 tie.
“I will add that the bill did not get the support needed by Speaker of the House Todd Richardson, who was asked by at the last minute to pull SJR 39 out of the Emerging Issues Committee and assign it to another, but he declined to do so,” Hinkle said.
The 6-6 tie marks a quiet end to what has been a tumultuous and often bitter debate in the halls of the Capitol and in the media.
“I want to thank everyone who worked so hard for the past 8 months to get SJR 39 to this point,” Hinkle said. “They say, ‘Just shut up and bake the cake.’
(5) TN Gov signs religious counseling bill into law (AP)
“As a professional I should have the right to decide if my clients end goals don’t match with my beliefs - I should have the right to say somebody else can better serve them,” Gov. Bill Haslam said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “Lawyers can do that, doctors can do that. Why would we take this one class of professionals and say you can’t do that?”
The American Counseling Association called the legislation an “unprecedented attack” on the counseling profession and said Tennessee was the only state to ever pass such a law. Opponents say the legislation is part of a wave of bills around the nation that legalizes discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.
(6) Where Are the Leaders? (Charisma News)
If prior to the Republican Convention, Mitt Romney or John McCain had held a press conference to announced that he favored weakening the pro-life plank of the Republican Platform a united movement conservative leadership would have been quick to conduct a counter-press conference to denounce him.
And his high-profile public supporters would have been called-out and conservatives would have expected them to—at a minimum—help correct the candidate, if not actually jump ship over such an apostasy.
But as usual, when Donald Trump advocates breaking a bedrock principle of conservative policy, and in the case of the right-to-life morality, large segments of the conservative leadership have once again remained silent and given him a pass.
(7) David French: Amendment 1 & Abortion in Tennessee: Federal Judge Disenfranchises Pro-Lifers
No one should ever doubt the Left’s commitment to abortion. For the sake of preserving the right to kill an unborn child, the Left will sacrifice democracy and even reason itself. Pro-life lawyers have a term for liberal judges’ tendency to twist the Constitution for the cause of death — the “abortion distortion.” The latest example comes from Nashville, Tenn., where an Obama-appointee federal judge just wrote perhaps the least credible judicial opinion I’ve ever read.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.