Producer's Desk — homosexuality

The attached (PDF) is a summary of remarks by Dr. Richard Land to Mega Metro Pastor’s Conference – Colorado Springs, CO – April 21, 2009. It is rough and subject to change.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’s CHANGES

Less than 100 days into term in the nation’s highest office, President Obama has already made sweeping changes to policies that bear direct impact on Christians. In many instances, these changes have been to the detriment of families who hold biblical values dear. President Obama has made such changes in at least four broad areas…

Read the complete summary… (152 KB PDF)

As a former Newsweek reader, I am grieved by the blatant non-journalism that the (now-former) periodical ran as it’s cover story this week.

During the course of an ‘AP’ history class in high school (Morgantown High-WV, circa mid-90’s, Go Mohigans!), our teacher (Mr. Field) would pass out the latest Newsweek, every week. As students our task was to read any single article of our choosing and write a response. The guidelines were fairly loose… a minimum word count, the style left up to us.

I’ve longed credited this experience with triggering my own interest in current events, politics, and the like. I find it sad that Newsweek is now (and has been) one of the last sources I seek out to read, learn, and form opinions about any given subject. I wonder if Mr. Fields still hands out Newsweek or if he’s opted for a periodical still run by journalists.

I’m not the only one scratching my head:

Steve Waldman, Beliefnet.com:

• Gay Marriage & Newsweek’s Hail Mary

“This cover may ultimately become known less for its significance in the culture wars but as a watershed in the history of American journalism.” - Waldman

GetReligion.org

Mollie Hemingway:

• Sola scriptura minus the scriptura

“[Lisa Miller] never once speaks with an actual opponent of same-sex marriage. She never once speaks with someone who knows anything about the Biblical model of marriage as understood for thousands of years. This piece is disgusting, unfair and unworthy of a high school graduate. It is the opposite of thought-provoking. It’s a post-frontal lobotomy exegesis of Scripture. This is journalism? This is how people are supposed to cover the news, today?” - Hemingway

• What’s the standard?
• Picking sources for stories
• Newsweek vs. subscribers

Terry Mattingly:

• Embracing straw people at nonNewsweek

“Dear Newsweek, … I already take and read The New Republic. I read a variety of liberal Protestant websites and wire services. It’s amazing to see that your publication intends to take a less journalistic approach to religion news than, let’s say, The Christian Century. I have read Newsweek for many, many years. Should I continue to do so?” - Mattingly

Christianity Today

• Looking for a ‘Serious’ Conversation

“When a writer of Meacham’s stature sweepingly dismisses the history, tradition, ethics, and biblical theology of Christians who have taught and now argue that marriage is, by God’s design, a commitment of a man and a woman—well, you know he has pretty much conceded that he’s run out of arguments.” - CT editors

• GetReligion.org astutely covers the media as they cover declining birth rates in Europe.

“The average number of births per women to maintain a country’s population level is 2.1. A 2002 report showed that birthrates in southern and Eastern Europe had dropped below 1.3. That means that — all else equal — the country’s population will be halved in 45 years and will never be able to recover.”

More info on birthrate decline around the globe at The Death of Liberalism.

• A Texas self-defense case makes headlines in UK newspaper: “A jury in Texas has refused to indict a man who shot dead two men he suspected of burgling a neighbour’s* house.” ( * = UK spelling) :-)

• Anglican Traditionalists reject pro-homosexual theology but seeks to remain in fellowship with greater Anglican Communion.

BONUS:

• The good folks at Lifeway Research lend thoughtful analysis to Pew’s recent report on American religion and provide their own data to boot.

The latest newsletter from Richard Land and the ERLC includes…

• LEDE: What does ‘God Bless America’ really mean? - by Richard Land
• Judicial nominees freed before the fourth
• Prof leaves ethics society for its ‘honoring sin’
• Human rights to go to apes in Spain
• AUDIO: Energy in the USA
• Shifting Standards of right and wrong

And more…

The latest newsletter from the ERLC…

Inside:

• When will progress in Iraq be acknowledged as significant?
• ‘Unfairness’ Doctrine Down but Not Out
• Food parcels bring hope to Zimbabwe
• House drops provision to benefit Planned Parenthood
• Needed: Broken-Hearted Prophets

…and more…

My latest post at Casting Stones:

“The debate over same-sex marriage is certain to heat up again over the summer and into the fall election season. Why?”

Read the complete column…

Americans hold contradictory opinions on the issue of homosexuality, including whether homosexual behavior is sinful. A similar percentage of Americans consider homosexual behavior sinful to those who do not, and neither view gains a majority, according to a new study by LifeWay Research. The study also found that Americans’ views of homosexuality impacts their openness to participation in a church…

Read the full report from Lifeway Research…

The founder of the Weather Channel calls global warming a fraud, suggests suing Al Gore.

• Global Warming Skeptics Insist Humans Not at Fault.

More links on that subject after the break.

Also after the break:

• Obama: Sermon on the Mount supports gay civil unions
• Goldwater, the John Birch Society, and Me - William F. Buckley, Jr.
• Web surpasses TV, papers as top news source
• What, Exactly, Is An Evangelical?