Producer's Desk — April, 2008

My latest blog post at Casting Stones:

Excerpt: “…Try as I might, I cannot imagine how we, as a nation, could have navigated through the dangerous shoals of deeply ingrained racism to racial equality under the law for African Americans without much greater bloodshed, without Dr. King’s courageous and inspirational leadership…”

Read the rest of this post…

• Obama’s Abortion Extremism - Gerson

  “…But Obama’s record on abortion is extreme. He opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion — a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once called “too close to infanticide.” Obama strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the partial-birth ban. In the Illinois state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left alive by abortion…”

• Pro-choice’s guinea pigs - National Post

  “According to obstetrician Barbara Luke’s classic Every Pregnant Woman’s Guide to Preventing Premature Birth, “If you have had one or more induced abortions, your risk of prematurity with this pregnancy increases about 30%.” After two, a woman’s chance of an XPB doubles. A woman who has had four or more abortions runs nine times the risk of XPB, an increase of 800%.

  Studies of black American women throw the problem into bold relief. Black American women, although only 12% of the American population, undergo 35.2% of all abortions. In 1987 it was reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that black American women with two previous abortions had a 91% higher relative risk of a subsequent pre-term birth.”

• Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate - Heartland

  “The 1990 IPCC Summary completely ignored satellite data, since they showed no warming. The 1995 IPCC report was notorious for the significant alterations made to the text after it was approved by the scientists – in order to convey the impression of a human influence. The 2001 IPCC report claimed the twentieth century showed ‘unusual warming’ based on the now-discredited hockey-stick graph. The latest IPCC report, published in 2007, completely devaluates the climate contributions from changes in solar activity, which are likely to dominate any human influence…”

  • (Thanks to Cornwall Alliance for bringing this to our attention.)

Richard Land sits down with John Chowning, Campbellsville U.’s Vice Pres for Church and External Relations. Click to view.

Their discussion includes:

• Purpose and activities of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
• Practical applications of church and state
• Sex trafficking
• First Amendment, religious liberty and pluralism
• Genocide in Darfur
• and lots more…

(Video is streamed in Windows Media format from Campbellsville U.)

Richard welcomes special guest Dr. John Yeats of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. They’ll discuss the spiritual revival and racial reconciliations happening in Jena, Louisiana. (You won’t hear about this in the mainstream media.)

Read up before the broadcast:

• Jena embraces ‘whatever God wants’ - Baptist Press
• Jena revival to enter 7th week - Baptist Press

JENA, La. — The revival that began Feb. 17 in Jena, La., is moving into the heart of the black community as it enters its seventh week March 31…

Tune in at 11:06 am Central tomorrow! Listen Live here.

If you miss the live broadcast or want to download it for later listening or sharing, it will be archived online by 3:00pm Central time on Saturday March 29, 2008 and found here.

My post today at Casting Stones:

EXCERPT: “Contrary to much of the reporting in the media, the Supreme Court decision in Medellin v. Texas was not primarily either a death penalty case or a decision regarding presidential executive power…”

Read the rest at Casting Stones…

My most recent post to OnFaith, (a Newsweek/Washington Post blog) responds to this question:

Which “ism” is more entrenched in America, sexism or racism? Which should religion address?

EXCERPT: “…my personal impressions… is that racism is even more entrenched in the American experience than sexism, although both are still alive and well in our society. Globally, I would argue that sexism is more prevalent…”

Read my complete post…

My latest post at Casting Stones:

“I was aware that the ascension of Nicolas Sarkozy, known affectionately as “Sarko the American” to his countrymen, to the presidency of France was going to have positive ramifications, but I had no idea just how much difference it would make…”

Read the rest at Casting Stones.

An excerpt of my post to Casting Stones:

“Whenever Americans discuss the issue of race, there are always ghosts in the room with us—the ghosts of racial sins and racial hurts from our shared and tragic past.

Race has always been the serpent in the American Eden, the birth defect in our historic genetic code.

Senator Obama’s speech earlier this week used one of my favorite quotes from William Faulkner: “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past,” to make this point. Living in Mississippi, Faulkner understood the “Ghosts of Mississippi” always present in the room and part of every racial interaction. And that’s true of not just Mississippi, but the entire nation as well.”

Read the rest of this commentary…

Brief selections from my latest blog post at Beliefnet’s Casting Stones…

“The government has the right:

• to say that the major and most time-consuming activity of a child between, say, 5 and 18 years of age will be education…
• to stipulate that certain subjects are to be taught…
• to monitor through standardized testing whether or not such subjects are being taught and educational progress is taking place.

However, the government does NOT have the right to dictate where such education takes place and who will provide the education.”

Read the complete entry at Casting Stones.

Also, a related broadcast from March 15, 2008.

• A Tennessee Church expands free English classes - Tennessean
• Rick Santorum says McCain must change views on social issues - Philly Inquirer
• The Washington Times editorializes the D.C. gun ban on trial
• “Newsflash”: The “right” is underrepresented in press’s diversity - Wash. Times
• Catholics Flock to the right Wash. Times