Brights News Feed

The influential but always controversial figurehead of philosophical post-modernism, Richard Roty, died on Friday at the age of 75.

His writings are often prominently cited as a prime example of intellectual relativism. Rorty earned often bitterly hostile reviews from analytic philosophers, frustrated by his assertions that no culture and no methodology were any better reflections of reality than any other. Daniel Dennett said he showed “flatfooted ignorance of the proven methods of scientific truth-seeking and their power” and Rorty (in his own words) was often characterized as one of the “smirking intellectuals whose writings are weakening the moral fiber of the young”.

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You’re the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. One of your denominations in the US has gone ahead and consecrated a gay bishop, spakring worldwide controversy, without the full backing of the wider Church. Another of your denominations in Nigeria has protested so vehemently that it has helped the “conservative” (anti-gay) element in the other denomination to break away and form a new denomination. The once-a-decade conference for the whole Communion is next summer and will melt-down if both parties are present.

What do you do?

You refuse to invite either the legitimately consecreated gay bishop, Gene Robinson, nor the head of the new Convocation of Anglicans in North America, Martyn Minns.

Will the maneuveur appease the critics on either side, or will it please no one?

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The New York Times reports a worrying trend in Federal money given directly to religious groups. The article comments: “because the First Amendment prohibits direct government financing of religious activities, earmarks that steer money to religious groups pose constitutional risks. Indeed, several faith-based earmarks were successfully challenged as unconstitutional long after Congress approved them.”

A New York Times analysis shows that the number of earmarks for religious organizations, while small compared with the overall number, have increased sharply in recent years. From 1989 to January 2007, Congress approved almost 900 earmarks for religious groups, totaling more than $318 million, with more than half of them granted in the Congressional session that included the 2004 presidential election. By contrast, the same analysis showed fewer than 60 earmarks for faith-based groups in the Congressional session that covered 1997 and 1998.

More here: “Religious Groups Reap Federal Aid for Pet Projects“.

In a move which parallels the religious agenda of Alcoholics Anonymous’s and the “twelve-step program”, Christian groups in the US now offer financial advice to people who have fallen into debt.

From the New York Times:

“A big part of it is that it has a faith component,” [said one man on a Crown Financial Ministries program]. “God wants you to be good stewards of your money. The money’s all his.”

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Controversial Nigerian archbishop of the Anglican Communion, Peter Akinola, will visit the US next week. The move is intended to establish conservative members formerly of the Episcopalian churches as a new “Convocation of Anglicans in North America”, effectively an offshoot of the “traditionalist” (anti-gay) Nigerian church. As much as this move may consolidate the conservatives, it will only further distance the mainline Episcopal congregation from the Anglican communion.

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Numerous liberal bloggers quickly spread the word about the American Family Association’s transparently biased anti-gay internet poll over the last few days. The AFA clearly expected the poll — asking whether consumers will shun businesses which adhere to what the AFA called the “homosexual agenda” — to be filled out mainly by their own supporters.

But the traffic the AFA site actually received, thanks to the bloggers’ ad hoc democratic publicity, clearly turned the results they expected around. Having at first seemingly faked the results of their homophobic poll the American Family Association now appears to have pulled the page altogether.

For the present, however, you can still see the ridiculous survey in the Google cache.

You can even still see the fixed results in the Google cache (these exact same fixed results, as opposed to the real data, were being displayed to everyone who filled out the survey once the wave of bloggers’ traffic skewed the results in the opposite direction from the skew that they had wanted).

It’s worth pointing out that completion of the poll also submitted users’ details to a mailing list. Not only is this a further indication that the AFA had by and large expected only anti-gay responses from their own sympathizers, it also means that many liberal bloggers are now being emailed their rhetorical diatribes and details of the AFA’s anti-gay activist plans. So presumably the liberal blogosphere will now be able to keep an even closer eye on them.

(Also see: GoodAsYou.org)

The Christian “traditional morality” pressure group the American Family Association has posted an unscientific poll on homosexuality. Not only does the poll appear on their own site (where responses are likely to support the conclusions they want to find), but the results are rigged anyway, with every submission returning the same apparently bogus data.

The poll question is:

If a corporation supports the homosexual agenda, would you:

Be more likely to do business with that company
Be less likely to do business with that company
It would not affect my buying decision

At the time of writing, the results that will be returned after you vote are:

Be more likely to do business with that company. 6,238
Be less likely to do business with that company. 188,722
It would not affect my buying decision. 3,946

These “results” are clearly intended to imply that businesses should avoid supporting “the homosexual agenda”.

(Via Seldo)

Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced yesterday (release) that — following a decade long debate and a lawsuit — the Department of Veterans Affairs had finally settled with them. Americans United said: “The litigation charged that denying a pentacle to deceased Wiccan service personnel, while granting religious symbols to those of other traditions, violated the U.S. Constitution.” The Veterans Affairs department has agreed to add the neo-pagan pentacle to the list of 38 other symbols which it already approves for engraving on the memorial markers of deceased service members.

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The Center for Progessive Christianity in the US has launched “Pluralism Sunday” (which will be May 27th) in order to “celebrate diversity” (in Ekklesia’s words). The idea is to “celebrate the harmony and understanding that is possible among followers of different religions and spiritual traditions”, says TCPC.

Potentially this is a worthy aim. But of course this is limited pluralism, restricted to the religious and based on shared religiosity, not shared humanity.

In fact, the announcement qualifies the scope of “pluralism” even further: “We are encouraging the progressive Christian community…” (it also uses the phrase “…For Progressive Christian Communities” even in the title). And the co-sponsors are the “Institute for Progressive Christianity/CrossLeft, CrossWalkAmerica, and The Network of Spiritual Progressives” (according to Ekklesia); all Christian organizations that lean toward evangelism, rather than a diverse mix of different religious groups and denominations.

And the event is to be held to coincide with Pentecost (rather than choosing a religiously neutral date).

Furthermore, Ekklesia report that Pluralism Sunday is “being billed as an opportunity for Christians to share their faith with those of other religions”. The phrase the Center for Progressive Christianity actually use in their own announcement is “it’s an evangelism opportunity”.

The Anglican Communion has agreed a deadline of September 30th, for the Episcopalian churches in the US to step into line with wider Church doctrine. They are called upon to stop the practice of blessing same-sex unions, and to change the policies which led to the appointment of the first woman bishop. Widely regarded as an “ultimatum” to the Episcopalians, the move represents a hardening stance on the part of the Church authorities, in order to prevent a split with the more demanding Churches of Asia and Africa, which are fiercely set against the liberal Episcopalian line. It also represents a climb-down for Archbishop Rowan Williams, whose previously more liberal views have become politicized by the pressures of keeping the Communion together.

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