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12:33 AM: Oh, for Christ's sake.
From the Los Angeles Times, regarding a McCain rally in Iowa:
Before McCain spoke, a Christian pastor offered a prayer that seemed to ask for divine intervention on his behalf. "There are millions of people around this world praying to their God -- whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah -- that [McCain's] opponent wins for a variety of reasons," Pastor Arnold Conrad said. "And, Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens."What I'm struck by isn't that there's some pastor out there making a mockery out of his own religion, but that this was at a rally McCain was at... If we were to apply the standards his own campaign wants to use for Obama, this would indicate that McCain himself is likely opposed to Hindus, Buddhists, and Moslems, and that he believes that God Himself will be terribly embarrassed if McCain doesn't win, so He'd better step up. Heck, by the standards of his campaign, it wouldn't even matter if McCain had come straight out and said it wasn't so.
I wouldn't say any such thing, of course, because those standards are ridiculous. But it'd be nice if somebody would say it ain't so. All the campaign has said in response is...
"While we understand the important role that faith plays in informing the votes of Iowans, questions about the religious background of the candidates only serve to distract from the real questions in this race about Barack Obama's judgment, policies and readiness to lead as commander in chief," Wendy Riemann, McCain's Iowa spokeswoman, said....which, you'll note, stops far short of disagreeing with anything Pastor Conrad said. It doesn't at all address the question of whether God's reputation is on the line here. All it does is say that while there may indeed be questions about Obama's religious background, they're not as important as his other flaws.
Speaking as a theist, it's hard to express how disgusted I am by this. Because I do believe God's reputation can be affected by current events... not by which side in a given contest wins or loses, but by the behavior of those who profess to follow Him. This sort of thing isn't doing Him any favors.
I'm with Diane Duane on this: "I also really wish I could email stuff like this to C.S. Lewis. Imagine the response."
Sunday, October 12, 2008
8:25 PM: Apparently, my life is a B movie.
Your result for The Director Who Films Your Life Test...
Roger Corman
Your film will be 41% romantic, 27% comedy, 42% complex plot, and a $ 24 million budget.
An action-complex tale about a complex character that is you. Corman was responsible for a very early Jack Nicholson film, 1963's The Terror (Francis Coppola was associate producer), filmed in three days! The actor who plays you will emote complexity like Jack ... maybe Christian Slater or Gwyneth Paltrow. Also, Roger filmed the original Little Shop of Horrors film -- which in the 1980s was the basis for a hit Broadway musical and another film. All his films were shot for mere thousands of dollars, sometimes completed within the week. Roger knows talent, and knows how to keep costs down with complex stories such as your life story. His versions of Edgar Allen Poe stories are considered classics (The Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum), and also directed Deathsport and Bloody Mama in the 1970s. Oh, yeah, man, this guy will make your film a cult classic!
Take The Director Who Films Your Life Test at HelloQuizzy
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