Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans! And a special thanks to those defending our freedoms abroad!
My prayer for this Thanksgiving Day is for the safety and security of all the men and women who serve the great cause of freedom throughout the world.
On a personal note, I am a proud father this year and am excited to spend Thanksgiving with my wife, her family and my dear sweet Catherine.
Blessings to you all the world over!
Dan over at tdaxp has an interesting post about a billboard that reads, "Jesus Cares for the Poor, so do We", pictured to the right. He writes:
"A good start by South Dakota liberals, if a hopeless one. The biggest 'liberal' church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is regularly ignored by its members and in terminal decline. The state Presbyterian Church (USA) [DEL: I believe he means PCUSA] worshipers are in loud revolt against the national leftists. The fastest growing churches are known for their conservatism -- the Catholics, Mormons, Orthodox, and 'Baptists.'
But at least they have some 4GPS2 force. After all, half of the battle is just showing up. (The other half is winning.)"
I wrote in the comments section of his post:
" I would imagine the billboard above makes most evangelicals laugh or bewildered rather than to think about how Democrats support religious values.
The best line of attack Democrats have regarding identifying with religion is caring for the poor. However, evangelical, socially conservative Republicans care for the poor as well. Both groups go about it differently. While Democrats often see Republican efforts to promote individual responsibility as cruel or uncompassionate, Republicans see mass social welfare as creating an entitlement, victim class.
Socially conservative, evangelicals also believe the church should be the center of providing aid to the needy, not government, which they often distrust from doing so properly.
I think it is better to teach a man how to fish than to give him a fish, as the old Chinese proverb says. Democrats are wasting money with billboards such as those above.
Your comments about the liberal American churches dwindling is very true. Most churches are more conservative than their leadership, because activists tend to be more liberal. This is very true of church networks. Those content with the status quo do not usually pursue larger church leadership positions.
I have attended 5 Presbyterian churches (PCUSA), all in Southern California, of decent size during my lifetime, and they are all far more conservative than what is reported in the news about the PCUSA leadership decisions.
Until Democrats stop working to remove the word "God" from all areas of life save when one is alone in private, the religious community cannot embrace the Democrat party. As your Sorosnet post describes, the areas with money and influence in the DNC are not the moderates. The Democrats will be in the wilderness for some time to come. I pray they find religion. But based on what lessons they choose to learn from Republican defeats (usually the wrong ones), I sincerely doubt it.
Thanks for the post.
Bill Rice"
I am curious what other readers and bloggers think about the campaign. Maybe Citizen Z will weigh in as well, being a Christian Democrat. Feel free to write in my "Comments" section below or cross post on Dan's site as well. I will update this link if we have a good thread of thought.
Update: John Gillmartin at Sheep's Crib has some interesting commentary here and also links to the orignal picture (thanks for doing the research).
Update 2: Sandi at Vista on Current Events has this post with a very witty analogy:
"A guy passes by a bake sale and sees a pretty girl, a real hottie. He goes over and feins interest in her pies, cookies and baked wares. The guy strikes up a conversation and talks at length about how much he likes her bake wares. He doesn't buy any of course because he is only interested in what she could do for him, and she understands that his drool is for her and not the wares.
That is just what this Democratic ploy is, and holding hands with Jesus will get Christian votes about as likely as the guy looking at the baked goods will get into the bakers nickers. Both ploys are about as transparent as a bay window."
She found the post from Lorie Byrd on PoliPundit. Lorie has this take:
"When I read this my first thought was about how the difference between the two approaches is often highlighted during elections when the tax records of the candidates are made public. I recall specifically the 2000 election when the charitable contributions of Bush and Gore were released. I don’t recall the specific numbers, but Bush had given a sizable amount to charity and Gore had given virtually nothing.
It is not fair for Democrats to say that they care more about the poor because they want to let government do the work, rather than individuals, churches and community groups. It is especially unfair to say that Republicans care less for the poor because they believe that churches and community groups can do a better job tending to the needs of the poor than some government bureaucrat."
Lorie also has over 70 comments on her post if you are interested in a larger dialogue than here. (May 14, 2005)
Update 3: Laer at Cheat-Seeking Missiles writes:
"It is interesting to try alternative headlines and see how they work:
Jesus Cares for the Unborn, so do We.
- Jesus Supported in the Death Penalty, so do We.
- Jesus Healed the Sick without Government Money, so do We.
- Jesus Told the Woman at the Well to Stop Sleeping Around, so do We.
- Jesus Believed He was the Living Son of God, Sent to Die and Rise from the Dead to Sit at the Right Hand of God, so do We.
...I don't think the billboards will hurt the Dem base much, though. Religious Dems will relate to the "Help the poor" line as both Christians and Dems. Unbeliving Dems will forgive the party its sins, knowing this billboard is more about politics than beliefs."
(May 15, 2005)
The Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank, has put out a new study titled "OMG! How Generation Y is Redefining Faith In The iPod Era" (actual study is found here and here).
In the opening Executive Summary, the study states:
"This generation could be - and has been – described as directionless, lacking in community ties and meaningful participation in communal life. This research builds a more nuanced understanding of this generation, revealing that Generation Y does seek community and meaningful involvements, though often in informal and non-traditional ways. Religious faith and commitment is one route by which young people find meaning, value and community, though their religious pluralism complicates what this looks like in practice. The diversity of Generation Y and the informality of much of their religious participation make it difficult to say that there is any one way that religion works in young people’s lives."
As a member of Generation X, which the study describes as a "generation of seekers", to me Generation Y (born after 1980) is a generation of "individuals". There is a tremendous amount of choice available to our youth today, from buying an individual song on iTunes instead of a whole prepackaged album to not 3 major networks but 200-plus cable channels, covering a spectrum of interests to a myriad of religious groups, organizations, spiritual disciplines and online help.
The study is informed by three goals:
" 1) To ascertain how young people are coming to understand their religious identity;
2) To describe what their religious practices look like in this era of customization and change; and
3) To explore the ways religious identity informs the civic participation of today’s youth.
Throughout, we were careful to note that religious life does not operate in a vacuum and we embed the role of religion in the context of their other concerns, such as finding a job or getting good grades in school."
For the non-religious, you may ask why do I think this study is important or relevant? My Protestant religious leanings aside, I would argue several societal gains from a religious society in America. The United States is the most generous nation as far as donations and charity. Religious groups of all faiths play an important role in American largess, both at home and abroad. Additionally, a civic minded society is strengthened by religious involvement. The report notes:
"Religious young people more active in politics, community. In this study, we find a strong relationship between religiosity and a broad range of volunteer activities with 79 percent of the most religious participating in volunteer activity in the last 12 months compared to 43 percent among the least religious. Religion is less closely tied to political and cultural involvement."
As readers of Dawn's Early Light might already know, I am a believer in American Exceptionalism, which is supported by America's Judeo-Christian values. A weakening of these value systems could undermine America's place in the world, which could prove damaging if the US was to become more like Europe, a post-modern, post-Christian continent.
Generation Y is more pluralistic in their social circles, with only "7 percent say[ing] that all of their friends are members of the same religion, and a near majority says that only some or a few of their friends adhere to the same religion as themselves." This bodes well for tolerance in American society in the future, but does it also represent that Generation Y is less beholden to religious tenets?
Other interesting statistics from the study is the relationship between Generation Y identifying themselves as "religious" vs. "spiritual". 44% of the population identified with being "religious" while 35% viewed themselves as "spiritual", and 18% didn't identify with either label. When individuals use the word "spiritual" in describing themselves, I usually interpret it to mean that they do not belong to organized religion but believe in God or hold to New Age beliefs.
For parents, other statistics support that religious families have stronger bonds. 75% of "the Godly" among Generation Y individuals "turn to family for advice (strongly agree)" compared to 57% of "the God-less".
Religious affiliation also builds stronger character, on average, and improved self-esteem.
"Importantly, religious youth have a stronger sense of themselves than less religious youth. In other words, among the less religious, religion is not supplanted by a stronger ascribed or achieved characteristic. In fact, less religious youth are less strongly identified with anything at all, which suggests that religious group involvement is mutually reinforcing with other identities. Or, that feeling connected to a religious community or tradition heightens all other aspects of self-understanding. Religious adherence, in other words, builds social capital not just in terms of participation in civic life, but also in terms of connection with family, self-esteem, and self-understanding. As Christian Smith finds in his study of teenagers, religious youth rank higher than less religious youth on every measure of self-esteem."
Religion's role for Generation Y has to be viewed in light of other priorities of this age group:
Identity Groups (Percent Responding "Very Important") | |||||||||
Jewish |
Asian |
Black |
Hispanic |
Muslim | |||||
Your family |
55 |
54 |
60 |
60 |
62 | ||||
Your religion |
37 |
33 |
56 |
39 |
63 | ||||
Sexual preference |
26 |
33 |
45 |
38 |
54 | ||||
Your gender |
36 |
37 |
39 |
34 |
44 | ||||
Your generation |
27 |
26 |
41 |
32 |
38 | ||||
Your job |
38 |
20 |
24 |
36 |
29 | ||||
Political beliefs |
38 |
17 |
23 |
27 |
26 | ||||
Your school |
31 |
27 |
34 |
30 |
23 | ||||
Your ethnic origin |
21 |
23 |
50 |
32 |
44 | ||||
Where you live |
25 |
20 |
31 |
22 |
36 | ||||
Your race |
15 |
3 |
47 |
32 |
39 | ||||
It is interesting to note that Muslims and African-Americans identify with their religion at almost the same rates as their family. This says a great deal for our progress in assimilation here in America.
Political and social attitudes of the respondents is interesting as this graph describes:
The study concludes with a few observations and my summary of them:
I agree with the findings on the whole. However, creating a community where individuals feel that they belong and contribute is important regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. People have a need to belong. While Generation Y may be better at determining that which seems stale or fake, I don't think they differ from my generation or my boomer parents. We all want to belong to something greater than ourselves. I know I feel my life is more enriched by my faith and community with other Christians, regardless of the form it takes, as long as it is personal and real and encourages me to think beyond myself.
I highly recommend the full study to you.
Open Invitation: Southern California Blogger Alliance and Other Interested Bloggers. I will post a link to your site below for anyone who wants to contribute their opinion on the above study.
Dawn's Early Light reader Larwynn, a Catholic, was the first to email me the news and summed it up very well "The Pope has died, many millions are happy that he had lived."
The world's Catholics will mourn his passing with very good reason. I imagine that a good number of the world's protestants will feel the same way. I know I do.
My first thoughts regarding what Pope John Paul meant to the world and just a small portion of what his legacy will be:
While the Catholic Church like any other institution of humankind is not prone from scandal and conflict, the Pope was a great man with tremendous influence around the world.
He will be missed. May he rest in the truly awesome hands of his Maker and Creator. May the Spirit of God be with those he leaves behind. May the road that Christ walked humbly, be the road we follow along.
Dawn's Early Light invites your comments and reflections on Pope John Paul II. (Non-civil comments will be deleted.)
Additionally, bloggers, please feel free to email me with links to your thoughts on this Pope and I will update this post accordingly.
Update: MSM Obituaries
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