While I find the story of Sarah Palin's blessing by Thomas Muthee a less-than-compelling reason to condemn her or her beliefs, it does bring to the fore certain lines of Evangelical thinking. (For background on the Palin/Muthee brouhaha, see "Targeting cities with 'spiritual mapping,' prayer", "Palin under fire over African pastor friend who waged witch-hunt against woman he believed caused car crashes" and "Palin linked electoral success to prayer of Kenyan witchhunter" for a small selection of news stories.)

The whole "spiritual warfare" concept seems a dangerous philosophical practice. No matter how much the "spiritual" aspects are emphasized, couching it as "warfare" leads to a general perception of a life-or-death struggle. In that context, justification of the most horrible tactics becomes easy. If you are part of a war between Good and Evil and you consider yourself on the side of Good, what won't you do to vanquish all opposition? And what keeps you from lumping all those that oppose you into the Evil category?

There's a saying (the source escapes me at the moment) that what people do in the name of evil pales beside the atrocities people are willing do in the name of good, God or country. I don't mean this to damn all efforts to fight injustice but to point out the pitfalls of such extreme dichotomies of view, allowing no areas of grey and diversity of opinion. Believing only in absolutes is a poor match with a pluralistic democracy like the USA.

On a wider level, we can see this playing out in US politics. Rank and file political partisans are encouraged to demonize the opposition, to use flagrant insult and taunts in place of political discussion of positions and options. Classical debating styles are viewed as too intellectual, too boring, too forgiving of differences.

I had much more to say on this subject but time has run short tonight. I may return to it later.

Labels: debate, Dominionism, intolerance, Palin, politics, Presidential race 2008

While researching Dominionism/Christian Reconstructionism for my last post, I came across this tidbit:

However, in some areas the application of theonomy could increase the authority of the civil government; prominent advocates of Christian Reconstructionism have written that according to their understanding, God's law approves of the death penalty not only for murder, but also for propagators of idolatry[3][4][5], active homosexuals[6], adulterers, practitioners of witchcraft, and blasphemers[7], and perhaps even recalcitrant youths[8] (see the List of capital crimes in the bible).

And that List of capital crimes in the Bible article came up with this:

According to the Torah (or Mosaic Law), these are the offenses which may merit the death penalty in a Jewish major court of 23 judges.

1. Murder, applies to Noachides as well (Genesis 9:6, Exodus 21:12-14, Leviticus 24:17-23, Numbers 35:9-34)
2. Striking a parent (Exodus 21:15)
3. Cursing a parent (Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 20:9)
4. The "degenerate son" (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
5. Kidnapping (Exodus 21:16, Deuteronomy 24:7)
6. Negligent homicide, specifically by ox-goring (Exodus 21:28-32)
7. Sorcery and Augury (Exodus 22:18, Leviticus 20:27)
8. Bestiality (Exodus 22:19, Leviticus 20:15-16)
9. Sacrificing to gods other than God alone (Exodus 22:20, Leviticus 27:29)
10. Sabbath breaking (Exodus 31:12-17, 35:2, Numbers 15:32-36)
11. Sacrificing to Molech, probably Human sacrifice (Leviticus 20:1-5)
12. Adultery (Leviticus 20:10)
13. Incest (Leviticus 20:11-12)
14. Male homosexual sexual relations (Leviticus 20:13, Leviticus 18:22, see also Leviticus 18)
15. Marrying your wife's mother (Leviticus 20:14)
16. Prostitution by the daughter of a priest (Leviticus 21:9)
17. Blasphemy (Leviticus 24:10-16)
18. Worshipping Baal Peor (Numbers 25:1-9)
19. False prophecy (Deuteronomy 13:1-10, 17:2-7, 18:20-22)
20. Contempt of court (Deuteronomy 17:8-13)
21. False witness to a capital crime (Deuteronomy 19:15-21)
22. Unchastity among those engaged to marry (Deuteronomy 22:13-29)

I just love Wikipedia.

Labels: Christian Reconstructionism, Dominionism, intolerance, religion, Wikipedia