Blog Archive
for September, 2006
Baptist Born? Baptist Bred?
— Thursday, September 7th, 2006 —
I was Baptist born. I was Baptist bred. And when I die, I’ll be Baptist dead. So goes the old pulpit cliche about Baptist identity. A recent study, however, shows that there’s not a lot of Baptist breeding and birthing going on these days.
The September 2006 issue of Religion Watch (not available online) looks at a current Princeton University’s scholar’s study unveiled at the Association of the Sociology of Religion meeting on the link between denominational affiliation and birthrate. The study, conducted by Conrad Hackett, is unique, Religion Watch says, “since it isolates the various denominational affiliations.”
Hackett discovered that Mormon familes have the highest fertility rate (2.69 children born to women 20-44) followed by Mennonites (2.45). Liberal denominations such as the Episcopal Church (1.84) and the Unitarians (1.78) trailed. Conservative denominations such as the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.), the Church of the Nazarene, and Pentecostal groups had high birth rates. The Southern Baptist Convention is an exception. The SBC had a pitifully low birthrate of 1.96, just barely above the Episcopalians and well below the notoriously liberal United Church of Christ.
Hackett’s study is hardly the final word. More research needs to be done. I wouldn’t be surprised if his data is skewed. But the question must be asked, why would our birthrates be so low?
Keep Reading...Testimony Time
— Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 —
Pastor Scott Lamb and Don Hinkle, editor of the Missouri Baptist Pathway, have started a new weekly feature on their “Thoughts and Adventures” site, “Tuesday Is for Testimonies.” The first installment is an interview with me about my conversion, call to ministry, and other matters. Keep an eye out for “Thoughts and Adventures.” It is an interesting and thought-provoking blog from two faithful Baptists I admire.
I have posted the interview below.
Keep Reading...Is Stepin Fetchit Back?
— Tuesday, September 5th, 2006 —
No one would accuse DeWayne Wickham of being a culture warrior, or at least not a culture warrior of the Right. The African-American USA Today columnist is a liberal Democrat and a critic of social conservatives. But Wickham knows racism when he sees it, and he knows what a coarsening culture means for the future.
In his column, Wickham points to VH1 reality show, Flavor of Love 2, as confirmation that Neil Postman knew of what he spoke when he suggested that the future is closer to Aldous Huxley’s vision than to George Orwell’s. Citing Postman’s preface to his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Wickham agrees that the future we should fear is not the banning of books, but a society in which no one wants to read one anyway.
Wickham explains that the reality show features the has-been rapper’s search for the “love of his life” by a competition among an inter-racial group of twenty women. The antics involved among these women will not be described here. Wickham pronounces it as “less than ladylike,” and that’s about as kind as one can put it.
Keep Reading...Why Boyz Hate Skool
— Monday, September 4th, 2006 —
The Summer 2006 issue of City Journal includes a fascinating article about how the school system shortchanges boys. The author, educator Gerry Garibaldi, argues that the feminization of American education has resulted not just in the marginalization of boys, but in their medicalization.
Garibaldi writes:
“Female approval has a powerful effect on the male psyche. Kindness, consideration, and elevated moral purpose have nothing to do with an irreducible proof, of course. Yet we male teachers squirm when women point out our moral failings–and our boy students do, too. This is the virtue that has helped women redefine the mission of education.”
Keep Reading...Baby’s Got Her New Genes On
— Sunday, September 3rd, 2006 —
My wife and I are expecting our fourth child in March. Friends will often ask, “How much longer till you can find out if it is a boy or a girl?” They know I’m hoping for my first daughter, while my wife would like a fourth boy. They know we’ll be thrilled either way. No one has yet asked me, “How much longer till you find out if he’ll have heart disease or pancreatic cancer or Alzheimer’s disease?” These days will be soon upon us as genetic technology is giving us the ability to turn every child into a Mister Potato-Head toy, assemble the parts to get the desired outcome.
The September 3 New York Times glances at the ethical implications of the new technology of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a process where through in vitro fertilization (IVF) parents are able “to detect a predisposition to cancers that may or may not develop later in life, and are often treatable if they do.” Embryos that do show a predisposition to such disorders may be “discarded,” and the couple tries again.
Keep Reading...Why Do People Become Pro-Life?
— Friday, September 1st, 2006 —
The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes takes up the question of why “pro-choice” people change positions and become pro-life. Barnes looks at some anecdotal test cases of Ronald Reagan, Henry Hyde, Ramesh Ponnuru, Wesley Smith, and himself. Barnes concludes:
“So think for a moment about these five experiences: Reagan’s deciding on signing an abortion bill, Hyde’s mulling whether to co-sponsor a pro-abortion measure, Ponnuru’s watching as the Summer of Mercy unfold, Smith’s reading pro-euthanasia tracts as his dead friend’s home, and our–my wife and I–adverse reaction to amniocentesis. One common thread is obvious. All of us, because of the circumstances we found ourselves in, were forced to think about the taking of a life and what that means in both practical and moral terms. Most people avoid thinking about troubling moral issues like abortion or euthanasia. We couldn’t.”
Keep Reading...
