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Service and Faith

Wednesday, Jul. 02, 2008 3:43 AM

Retired General Wes Clark has ruffled feathers by saying he doesn't believe Senator John McCain's experience - being shot down and spending time as a POW - uniquely qualifies McCain to be president.

Naturally, there's a swift boat load of How Dare He Impugn The Military Service of a Great Man, even though Clark only spoke to McCain's experience and not his service.


The press is equally quick to assume that when Barack Obama says 'faith-based,' he means exactly the same thing as George W. Bush.

I happen to agree that America has an untapped resource in its spiritual and religious diversity. Obama's remarks make it clear that federal funding in this vein must be spent on secular programs, and that there can be no discrimination in hiring practices on the basis of faith.

Bush's 'faith-based initiatives' were plagued by questions of payoffs and politics, and never rose above the level of convenient photo-ops.


On the other hand, I'm deeply disturbed that Louisiana's Governor, Bobby Jindal (whose name is also being floated as a possible McCain running mate), signed into law a measure allowing intelligent design to be taught as part of a complete science education.

Intelligent design is not, and never has been science. It is not testable, repeatable, nor independently verifiable by third parties, the fundamentals of true scientific theory.

This in no way invalidates one's belief in God or Creation; it simply means that articles of faith should not be taught in a science classroom.


Conservatives are seemingly so frightened by the concept of gay marriage that they've reintroduced the Federal Marriage Amendment, directed at changing the United States Constitution to ban gay marriage.

The irony is that two of the bill's sponsors this time around are David Vitter, who was caught in the midst of a prostitution scandal; and Larry Craig, he of the wide stance.


Apparently, the American Family Association wants to remind everyone that gay really means homosexual and routinely replaces the former with the latter on their website.

Unfortunately, one of the contenders for the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing is Tyson Gay. AFA's website made the above substitution, so he's now 'Tyson Homosexual'.




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