value voters priorities

Richard Land says we shouldn't hate value voters because they want to ban abortion and gay marriage. He is the primary author of the Land Letter, so try to put what he says in context: he supports the Iraq war but somehow values life (at least the lives of his fellow baptists).

He believes that reducing abortions by making them illegal is the way to go. I disagree and think that we need to reduce the the need for people to have abortions in the first place but that women need to be able to freely choose to have or not to have children. Priorities shimorities.

His statement that "marriage is anything but a personal, private relationship" is fine, I agree that recognizing a relationship is not personal, but societal. Richard Land needs to be aware that by not recognizing same sex relationships, christians are marginalizing gays and lesbians. For some reason he needs to be "convinced" that same sex relationships have value to gays and lesbians (I don't see where it is his business) and until he is convinced he will stand in the way of those relationships existing. If those are his priorities I think we have the right to hate him for it.

religious leaders

A bishop was stripped of his position after it became public that he had an affair with his brother's wife. Earl Paulk was the archbishop of a protestant mega-church in Atlanta, but no longer. The wife said that she was manipulated into the affair. The fact that he received praise from the President of the U. S. is no surprise, it seems to be a strong indicator of corruption.

Also Cardinal Frances George was elected president of the U.S. council of catholic bishops. In this NPR story, he is at least partially faulted with allowing abuse by a priest to continue to abuse children in his own archdiocese as late as last year.

Pat (heart) Rudy

Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy Guiliani for president. Everyone is quite quick to point out that Rudy is not a supporter of the three things that Pat Robertson is partially responsible for being in the GOP's platform: guns, gays and god.
It seems clear why Pat Robertson endorsed Rudy to me: Rudy Giuliani is the front runner and Mr. Robertson is notorious for 'predicting' the future based on what he hears in the news.
I have less respect for Rudy for acknowledging Pat Robertson. I know he has to because of politics but the minute that the front runners say to Pat, "you are a nutcase, take your fundamentalist extremism and go hide in a cave somewhere" then Pat Robertson will have no power to call down the wrath of god on people who fail to do his bidding.


Pat had another fit recently and told people that yoga is evil and a form of pantheism. I wonder if Rudy is ok with this.