In an effort that is sure to warrant a fatwa calling for my death, FrontPage is headlining today my article, Happy Hajj! You're Not Invited!. Or at best, it will prompt some really creative hate mail. Lest anyone think that the Saudis aren't serious about preventing non-Muslims from entering Mecca or Media - or even approaching either city - be sure to read this article published yesterday regarding an Indian citizen traveling to see his wife who works near Medina who lost his way, was stopped by Saudi authorities and was sentenced to death by beheading earlier this week. No one can accuse the Wahhabis about being soft on crime! As the article reports, it was only through the intervention high-ranking Indian government officials with the Saudis that the man's life was spared. I would have included that information in my own article, but I didn't see that piece until I had already turned it in to my editors.
Also of interest is another article from 2003 by Jonathan Last in the Wall Street Journal that discusses the incongruity of Muslims building mosques in the heart of Christian Europe (in this case, right near St. Peter's Square in Rome), versus the prohibition of non-Muslims from entering Mecca.
And just to prove that I'm an equal opportunity critic, read an old article of mine (from Dec. 1997, as I recall), Happy Kwanzaa! (note: the original location of the article is no longer in service, and this site republished it without permission, but it is the only place I can find it; so don't hold me responsible for anything else there that might offend, because I haven't scoped it out.)
For anyone who might still be skeptical of the treatment of non-Muslims around Mecca, here's some visual evidence:
Happy Hajj! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Hanukkah! And a Merry Christmas to all!
I was delighted to see earlier today that my article for FrontPage earlier this week, "The War Ayatollah," has been translated and republished in France by ResilienceTV, "L'ayatollah de la guerre". Though I'm not quite sure how well my war-mongering piece today for American Thinker, "Bush's March to the (Mediterranean) Sea" will be received by les Francais, where I recommend that our withdrawal from Iraq be through Syria and Lebanon, where we can take out the Assad regime and help the Israelis put the squeeze on Hezbollah before our troops board ship in the port of Beirut to come home. Nonetheless, I was glad to see Existential Space getting some global love!
An article in today's NY Times offers a portrait of uber-perky actress and current it-girl, Kristin Chenoweth ("She Sings! She Acts! She Prays!"). In the first few paragraphs reporter Jesse Green lets us know that not only does Chenoweth carry authentic evangelical bona fides, having released a CD (As I Am) of Christian power pop, but that she manifests all of the politically correct virtues of the Manhattan elite (her regrets at having appeared on the 700 Club, her support for gay marriage, and wearing an Obama Barack for President button). And then there was the racy bikini spread in FHM (and I have to say she looks hot in the knee-high white leather boots in the NYT article).
Kinky!
For years, culturally-minded evangelicals have been urging Christians to engage culture in order to break out of the "evangelical ghetto". We were supposed to go to the rabidly secular universities, be familiar with all the various media (books, magazines, movies, music) that the world had to offer and generally take our place among the central cultural institutions of America - in short, to be culturally "relevant". Many of us bought into that project, myself included. In these positions of cultural influence, we were told, we would be able to affect the transformation of our culture "for Christ".
There is a lot of wisdom in that model of cultural transformation. Jesus himself never shied from the seedier elements of cultural life in his day, a tradition carried on by noble outreach efforts, such as XXXchurch.
That said, I wonder if there isn't in Chenoweth's story a warning to those of us who want to engage culture of the consequences of the many slight accommodations we are forced to make to get into those positions of cultural influence. With obvious talent, Chenoweth went to college and majored in Theater, eventually cultivating her career into wild success on Broadway, television and Hollywood. Bravo! But what does it say that this self-identified Baptist girl has been forced to reshape her standards to fit into these wildly liberal, but incredibly influential, cultural microcosms? Did anything resonate in her conscience when her gay theater clientele forced her contrition for appearing on the 700 Club and demanded her repentance for the crime of being remotely associated with the bane of East Coast and Left Coast sensibilities, Pat Robertson (who admittedly is nuttier than a loon)? Would Chenoweth be able to return to the small-town Oklahoma world she grew up in and that instilled in her the very values that have made her a success?
As we saw last week in the hand-wringing over uber-evangelical Rick Warren's AIDS conference and the resignation of Christian Coalition president-elect Joel Hunter after a rejection of his "social justice" agenda, these questions about who is really being influenced and in what ways when evangelicals engage culture are not insignificant or inconsequential. In fact, it seems to be the very issue we should be talking about, but really aren't.
Strangely, I think the world has much to teach us here. We only need to look at the many evangelical leaders tripping over themselves to preach on Third World debt (see my thoughts on Bruce "Prayer of Jabez" Wilkinson's disastrous project in Swaziland, "When Jabez Just Isn't Enough)", the environment and AIDS to be able to get a photo op with Bono, and then see that Bono and his U2 pals moving their assets out of Ireland to avoid paying the taxes to fund the very policies they promote. When given the opportunity, the world isn't willing to put their money where their principles are; they just are expecting you to pay for their policies without any complaint. The world must look at the Christian community (rightly so) and laugh at our desperate attempts to be hip and emergent. We are not much unlike the Seinfeld episode when Elaine shows off her horrid dancing skills completely oblivious to how bad they really are.
And I'm sure the Manhattan and Hollywood limousine liberal crowd applaud themselves when they see someone like Kristin Chenoweth fall right into line with their cultural agenda. In becoming agents of cultural change, we need to ask who we have become agents of cultural change for.
If anything, Kristin Chenoweth's success heralds the rise of a new kind of culturally relevant Christian, the Metroevangelical™ - a trend that should give Christian leaders a moment of pause. I would roughly define a Metroevangelical™ to be a thoroughly postmodern American Christian evangelical, who under pressure from popular culture feels compelled to transform objective moral values into subjective personal/political preferences. With that in mind, we would do well to remember that Jesus made a point about being in the world, but not of it.
Some of my previous observations on Evangelicalism:
It's been a great season for football in Central Ohio. Not only are my Ohio State Buckeyes headed to Arizona to play for the National Championship next month after defeating two No. 2 ranked teams - Texas and Michigan - during the season and securing an outright Big Ten conference title, and quarterback Troy Smith looks to be a shoe-in for the Heisman Trophy (Ohio State's seventh, by the way), but also last night my high school alma mater, Hilliard Davidson, won an astounding 2OT victory to win the Ohio Division I-A State Championship 36-35 over Mentor in the first I-A overtime game in history. Since 1972, only one other Central Ohio team has won the I-A championship, which is usually dominated by the mammoth play-for-hire teams from Cincinnati and Cleveland (Mentor has double the enrollment of Hilliard Davidson). In their first trip to the state championship (falling last year in the semi-finals to the eventual winner), the Wildcats clawled their way back from a 14-0 deficit, intercepted a pass in the closing seconds of regulation to push the game into overtime, and in the last overtime went for gutsy a 2-point conversion to win the game, exhibiting Coach Brian White's philosophy - GO FOR THE WIN! Last week, the Wildcats had to beat the USA Today 12th nationally ranked Cincinnati Colerain to get into the title game to play against Mentor.
Congrats to my Hilliard Davidson Wildcats - Ohio Division I-A State Champions!
Greetings to everyone visiting today from my article in today's American Thinker, "Islam and the Problem of Rationality". You can find some of my Islam-related blog posts linked on the sidebar to the right, as well as links to my other articles for The American Thinker and also for FrontPage Magazine. Thanks for visiting!
In an effort that is sure to warrant a fatwa calling for my death, FrontPage is headlining today my article, Happy Hajj! You're Not Invited!. Or at best, it will prompt some really creative hate mail. Lest anyone think that the Saudis aren't serious about preventing non-Muslims from entering Mecca or Media - or even approaching either city - be sure to read this article published yesterday regarding an Indian citizen traveling to see his wife who works near Medina who lost his way, was stopped by Saudi authorities and was sentenced to death by beheading earlier this week. No one can accuse the Wahhabis about being soft on crime! As the article reports, it was only through the intervention high-ranking Indian government officials with the Saudis that the man's life was spared. I would have included that information in my own article, but I didn't see that piece until I had already turned it in to my editors.
