THEISTWATCH FOR JULY 25, 1995
Contents:
Colorado & Washington, D.C.--THE NEW POWER ON THE HILL:
JAMES DOBSON
United States-- MUSCLE RELIGION ' MAKES A COMEBACK
(Promise Keepers)
United States--BIBLE DUMBED DOWN FOR AMERICANS IN NEW
TRANSLATION World--THEISTWATCH SHORT SHOTS
____________________
____________________
THE NEW POWER ON THE HILL: JAMES DOBSON
by Conrad Goeringer
Just as the "Hollywood-As-Satan" strategy has been
paying off for Presidential hopeful Bob Dole, last week's
anti-abortion rout in D.C. has confirmed the status of Dr.
James Dobson as a power-broker on the religious right. His
group, Focus on the Family, is a major force in the
"traditional values" movement and has a mailing list which
now reaches 2,000,000 names. Estimates of the
organization's membership run as high as 400,000, and
Associate Press (July 20) noted that Dobson's mailings can
reach 100,000 preachers throughout the nation.
Dobson, who is also a psychologist, is perhaps best
known for his widely-aired radio show which runs on 1,500
U.S. stations and reaches 5,000,000 Americans each week.
While this is only about one-forth of Rush Limbaugh's
estimated audience, it is nevertheless a remarkable figure
and far exceeds the size of many other talk programs.
Dobson is also known for his "Bible discipline" books and
programs on child rearing. According to last week's AP
release authored by Religion Writer David Briggs, Dobson
"regularly meets with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and has
met with Senate Majority leader Bob Dole." He also has a
steady parade of other White House wannabes traipsing
through his Colorado Springs office, including Pat
Buchanan, Lamar Alexander, Phil Gramm, and Alan Keyes, all
of whom are said to have made "political pilgrimages" to
Dobson.
Dobson also echoes other themes popular on the
religious right, such as gays in the military and the "big
tent" strategy that some Republicans are talking about in
hopes of diluting the strength of the Christian
conservatives. Dobson has become a relentless critic of
GOP National Chairman Haley Barbour who wants to make the
Republican Party more "open." We'll see how much unity
there is when they have been thrown out of office," Dobson
warns.
There are rumors that Dobson is ready for a "walk out"
if the GOP doesn't uphold its end of the bargain with the
religious right. As Dobson and others see it, the GOP
"owes big" on its November 1994 victory which gave the
party control of both the U.S. House and Senate for the
first time in more than four decades. In fact, Dobson was
one of the first conservative religionists to declare that
the honeymoon was over, just as GOP strategists were
wrapping up the first 100 days in their "Contract With
America." Dobson's group and other organizations like the
Traditional Values Coalition and the Christian Coalition
had fielded a huge army of grassroots volunteers and
delivered substantial votes in the November 1994 election.
With the economic side of the "Contract With America"
pretty much completed, it was time for the government to
get working on the moral-religious agenda. Dobson may be
the first to lead a walkout from the GOP tent if the party
does not place sufficient emphasis on that agenda.
Briggs notes that according to Dobson, "GOP leadership
does not appear to be moving the same direction. He cites
as an example a recent Gingrich fund-raising letter that
did not mention abortion or family issues. "And that is a
formula for turning off evangelical Christians to the
GOP's peril, Dobson said."
Other Gingrich actions may also be offending the
religious right. The speaker has recently come out against
censorship of the Internet and called for a nationwide
referendum on drug enforcement policy. There are also
rumblings that a GOP presidential candidate (even Bob
Dole) might choose a more moderate running mate, possibly
even one who is pro-abortion. New Jersey Governor Christie
Whitman has been mentioned. If so, that would be a green
light for Dobson to form a third-party, one focusing on
the peculiar issues favored by the religious right such as
homosexuality, abortion, pornography and censorship. Such
efforts have traditionally met with failure in the past;
third-party issues were often incorporated into the
platforms of the major political parties. Even a well-
funded effort, such as the "United We Stand" ticket of
billionaire Ross Perot attracted marginal support and
failed to carry the electoral votes of a single state.
Other groups may not follow Dobson, who is considered a
bit of a "hard liner. And Dobson's claim that 43 percent
of those voting for the GOP last November considered
themselves "evangelicals" and more concerned with moral
instead of economic issues, may be off base. But until the
"big tent" of the GOP either folds or becomes too big for
Dobson, his Focus on the Family group continues to thrive.
The latest target is the U.N. meeting on Women scheduled
for September in Beijing, China. Dobson has already
criticized the conference, charging that it promotes
lesbianism, hatred of male authority, homosexual
acceptance and abortion. And while the Chinese and women
throughout other countries may not know Dobson's name,
politicians in the U.S. consider him a force with which to
be reckoned.
"MUSCLE RELIGION" MAKES A COMEBACK
Macho Men Are "Reclaiming Spiritual Leadership" Through a
Revival of Male-Focused Religious Rituals
by Conrad Goeringer
There's a new wind blowin', and it's ready to sweep
away those sensitive, wimpy New Age males of the 1970s and
1980s. No more feminization, no more copping out of the
responsibilities of running the show. It's time for god-
fearing men to stand up, declare their rightful role as
head of the household, and tell mom and the kids, "I'm
baaack!"
The new wind is a revival of male-centered religiosity,
a phenomena that is finding its expression in evangelical
Christianity, the institutions of the Black churches
throughout the country, even in the Nation of Islam under
the leadership of Louis Farrakhan. It appears in the
locker-room brand of pep talk found in the stadium
meetings of the Christian men's movement known as Promise
Keepers and in the calls by black leaders such as Rev. Ben
Chavis and Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan that men "atone
to God for the way we have mistreated our women and
girls." It is the male-only ambiance of the "squads" and
arena rallies addressed by charismatic Christian leaders
such as "Coach" Bill McCartney, or the growing presence of
"Christian athletes" like Nolan Ryan and countless others
who see life as analogous to the athletic contests which
have made them American idols. Or it is the "March of
1,000,000 black men" being organized for next week which,
in Farrakhan's words, says that "If a woman is not in the
home, there cannot be a strong family or a strong
community."
A Locker Room Laity
A Coaching Clergy
It is not surprising that the traditionally male venue
of athletic stadiums and arenas serves as a focal point
for religious rallies sweeping the nation, organized by a
group known as Promise Keepers. The objectives of the
movement are vague: Ecumenical News Service reports that
it is an "ecumenical, nondenominational, interracial
Christian men's movement aimed at making men better
Christians and, as a result, better husbands, fathers,
friends and church leaders." The group was founded by Bill
McCartney, former head coach of the University of Colorado
Buffaloes, in 1990. McCartney's vision of thousands of men
filling stadiums to pray, sing hymns, listen to speakers,
cry, hold hands, confess and "witness" has become a
reality. The first meeting in 1991 drew only 4,200 men,
but by 1994, 50,000 had attended Promise Keepers events.
Like Farrakhan, McCartney has the goal of bringing
1,000,000 men to a meeting in Washington, D.C., but in
1998. For this year, the group expects to have upwards of
500,000 men attend its male-only gatherings.
Not only is the venue and ambiance strictly male, so is
the thrust of the message being delivered by Promise
Keepers. McCartney is often referred to as "Coach" by the
membership; according to ENS, "Using a military
organization model, Promise Keepers see themselves as
'soldiers in the army of Christ' and are organized into
'squads'." The group has explicitly confronted and
denounced racism, reaching out to organizations such as
the National Black Evangelical Association last April
during its convention. Coach McCartney addressed that
meeting twice, and Promise Keepers donated $5,000 to the
NBEA for its "work among African-American leaders."
Promise Keepers, however, while perhaps enchanted by
the image of Black athletes "witnessing for Christ" and
joining the male-only movement, are not nearly as kind in
their attitudes toward groups such as gays and, possibly,
women. The Promise Keepers vision sees men as the
"spiritual heads" of nuclear families. Indeed, Tony Evans,
a Dallas preacher who authored the book "Seven Promises of
a Promise Keeper, claimed that the primary cause of
America's current identity crisis "is the feminization of
the American male, which has resulted in "a nation of
'sissified' men who abdicate their role as spiritually
pure leaders, thus forcing women to fill the vacuum."
Being "spiritually pure leaders, however, seems to
possibly reflect the homophobia of "Coach" McCartney, who
"has taken beatings for his outspoken pro-life (anti-
abortion) views, and for his denunciation of the
homosexual lifestyle." At the 1994 Promise Keepers
meeting, gay beat poet Alan Ginsburg showed up to stage a
"diversity rally" and target McCartney's anti-gay, anti-
feminist agenda.
In an article titled "The Wounded Male Soul, Edward
Gilbreath noted that Promise Keepers and similar groups in
the Christian men's movement have "arisen against the
backdrop of a waning secular men's movement." Throughout
the 1980s and 1990s, mostly White baby boomers "displayed
a frenzy of interest over the perplexing puzzle of being a
man and America." The reactions to the economic and social
dislocations of the period saw men retreating to "Wild
Man" groups which focused on male bonding, drum beating,
primal rituals and "getting in touch with your manhood."
"Some called it a reaction to the feminist
establishment; others saw it as a way for men to be both
vulnerable and aggressive without being lambasted for
wimpiness or insensitivity," notes Gilbreath.
Economic, Social Dislocation
Since the middle 1950s, when service industry jobs
exceeded the number of jobs provided by basic
manufacturing in the American economy, there has been a
gradual erosion of "male authority" in the economic
dynamic of the family. Lifetime employment at a factory
paying one-income family level wages became a thing of the
past. And by the 1980s, two incomes were often necessary
if a young couple were to "make ends meet." The
traditional role of the woman as "nurturer, staying at
home raising children while "dad" was the "breadwinner,
eroded. Worse yet, both mom and dad faced dislocations in
the workplace itself unemployment and the need for
retraining or even returning to school became the norm.
Black Perspective
The impact of a changing economy was even more
devastating in the Black community where unemployment has
been substantially higher than that of Whites and where
lower wages made the task of being a "breadwinner" even
harder. As the civil rights movement of the early 1960s
snowballed into a militant stage, Black activists ranging
from Malcolm X to Eldridge Cleaver theorized over "what it
meant to be a Black male in America." Complex sociological
forces had resulted in a devastation for the Black family,
and today a majority of Black children are raised by their
mothers in homes where there is no stable Black male
presence.
Despite a liberal economic agenda reflected in
support for affirmative action and other programs, a
number of Black leaders such as Jesse Jackson, Ben Chavis
and even Louis Farrakhan express a growing concern for the
"fate" of the Black family and the need for males to
assume "responsibility." But how far is this
"responsibility" to go? Farrakhan's group is a distinctly
male-dominated cult, with the leadership and "muscle" in
the hands of men. Men and women mimic various Christian
cults or even Jewish sects by sitting apart during
services. Women are to be quiet, "modest, and obedient to
men in their task of raising the family. A Muslim woman is
not running a corporation, heading a research team in a
laboratory, or in the public eye blustering on behalf of
abortion rights.
So perhaps the most telling characteristic of "The
Million-Man March" is found in its very name it is a
"man's" march, designed to show the economic impact of
Black men leaving their jobs and to call upon Black males
to in Farrakhan's words "straighten their backs" and lead
their families. There is even a "sexual politics" overtone
in the role of Rev. Ben Chavis, who last year was
dismissed as executive director of the NAACP after being
accused of using that group's funds to settle a sexual-
discrimination case against him.
Whatever validity there may be to claims that the
family structure in the United States is "eroding, it is
not altogether clear that a return to "male leadership"
and having the man as "head of the family" is either
desirable (especially for women), or practical in a world
undergoing accelerated economic and social change. And
"stability" for children may not necessarily involve
having a patriarchal "father image" at home with a female
"nurturer". There are many possible definitions of
"family, and the future will doubtless give us many more.
But the angst of so many males, Black and White, which
expresses itself in the enthusiasm for projects like "The
Million-Man March" or the "muscle religion" of Coach
McCartney and the Promise Keepers stems from a rapidly
changing economic and social landscape around us. Men may
find no more sense of identity and self-esteem in the
stadium meetings for Jesus, or the authoritarian
paternalism of the Muslims or the Black Christian church,
as they did in the drum-beating camp outs of a
mostly-discredited "warrior" movement a decade ago. The
world is a different place from that time when many dads
drove home from the factory or office, parked the car, and
walked inside to have dinner with mom and the kids a
tableau out of an automobile ad in Saturday Evening Post.
It's a brave, new world out there. Despite the yearning
of some for a paternalistic anchor, the only constant
seems to be change.
BIBLE DUMBED DOWN FOR AMERICANS IN NEW TRANSLATION
by Conrad Goeringer
Remember last week when THEISTWATCH mentioned that in
the 1930s, the average person possessed a working
vocabulary of about 26,000 words. Now, that figure is down
to about 10,000 and that includes all of the new and
trendy entrants into our lexicon, such as "computer,
"skateboard" and "floppy."
It had to happen sooner or later, of course, that the
Bible if not the work of "God, then considered by some to
be a masterpiece of exquisite literature went the way of
all culture and was "dumbed down," rendering its more
understandable and digestible for Americans. As a society,
it appears that nearly everything, from our art to our
music, literature, and politics, is being "dumbed down" to
accommodate shorter spans of attention, diminished ability
to utilize the language property, and inability to think
rationally and critically. With the possible exception of
computer and software "user manuals, everything around us
is being designed for low-IQ idiots.
Add to the growing list of victims in this pernicious
trend the Bible. Propelled by an advertising blitz
orchestrated by the Bozell International agency (the same
folks who promote Taco Bell and bring those dairy product
ads into your home which show celebrities with moist milk
mustaches), the American Bible Society has released its
"dumbed down" Contemporary English Version of the Bible,
which arrives in bookstores this month. No need for a
dictionary if you are one of the many Americans who,
according to Society research, stumble over words such as
"ark," "manger" and "plowshares". The new version
substitutes more prosaic terms like "boat" or "bed of
hay." All of that phraseological gymnastics about "beating
swords into plowshares" (words which are found on a statue
in front of the U.N. building) has been discarded in favor
of "rakes and shovels."
It's bad enough, of course, that the stories in the
Bible probably did not really occur of, if they did, are
not described accurately, the result of distortion through
oral traditions and subsequent copying of writings and
memories. What quaint argot was in the Bible, however, is
now sacrificed so that "word-poor" American religionists
can understand the word of the god. Ironically, the whole
enterprise which has resulted in the Contemporary English
Version began as an attempt to do a translation of the
Bible FOR CHILDREN! The head of the ABS translation team,
Barclay Newman, told Knight-Ridder Newspapers that "we
quickly discovered that parents and other adults, who were
testing the text for us, liked it so much that we decided
to call it the Contemporary English Version."
Nastier phrases in the text have been massaged and
rewritten, such as the Book of Numbers story of Balaam who
"rose in the morning and saddled his ass." In the new
edition, he sits on a "donkey, but the beast still ends up
talking. In 1952, the talking animal asked "Am I not your
ass, upon which you have ridden all your life?"
We are also told that "The toughest task for the
translators was simplifying complex theological issues
that are the pillars of the Christian faith, often
described in past translations with puzzling terms such
as: justification, sanctification, redemption and grace."
"Dumbing down" these "complex theological issues" may
indeed appeal to a growing segment of Americans,
simplifying the mystery of religion, rendering it easier
than ever to accept --without the least need for thought,
or a polysyllabic word.
THEISTWATCH SHORT SHOTS
by Conrad Goeringer
There's more discontent in the Holy City of Jerusalem
and for a change, it doesn't involve the ongoing Arab-
Israeli conflict and squabbling with the PLO. It's about a
guy named David, the fellow who slew Goliath and became a
subject for the fabulous artistic talents of the artist
Michelangelo. Seems that, in honor of celebrations of
3,000 years of Jerusalem's history, the city of Florence,
Italy, commissioned a replica of the renowned statue of
David. Officials in Jerusalem, however, have turned down
this generous gift since the nude figure would offend that
city's orthodox Jews and Arabs. Maybe they'd prefer
Goliath in the buff?
******************
What happens when religious obsolescence and government
bureaucracy collide? You get the unfortunate fate of an
Amish farmer by the name of Mr. Christ Zook, who has been
fined $1,000 by the good and all-wise State of
Pennsylvania for illegally practicing dentistry. Mr. Zook
has thirty days to pay the fine and must cease practicing
dentistry, which in this case consisted of pulling the
teeth of his Amish neighbors. A spokesman for the
governor's office called the penalty a "fair solution" to
what the Philadelphia Inquirer (July 22) described as a
"church vs. state saga that has been going on for more
than two years."
Zook has defended his actions, insisting that "I know
our people (the Amish) will not go to the dentist. . . .
They will try to cure it themselves, and it really hurts
me that I am trying to do good and the public is telling
me I am doing wrong."
Attempts to solve the problem of Amish cavities, root
canals, and other dental dilemmas failed when a proposal
to establish a clinic for the sect fell through. A
spokesman for the Pennsylvania Dental Society said that
"The one obstacle we weren't able to get over was the
acceptance of the Amish community to see someone out of
the (Amish) community." He also warned about the need for
infection-control and sterilization during dental
procedures.
The Amish sect is a branch of the Mennonite religion,
founded in the seventeenth century by Jacob Ammann. They
are most visible in parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania,
especially in Lancaster County, Pa., where they are seen
wearing their characteristic grey-black clothing and hats
and driving horse-drawn carriages. They refuse to accept
"mechanical contrivances" and usually engage in farming.
They resist numerous state laws, and will not fight in
wars. Unlike the overwhelming number of religious sects,
they are nonviolent and even tolerate the behavior of
youngsters who often leave the sect for periods of time
and "live outside" in the real world.
This may be one time that First Amendment supporters
may choose to back someone like Mr. Zook and oppose the
current Republican governor, Tom Ridge. Who is HE to talk
about church/state separation, anyway? He sees no problem
with limits on abortion rights and he is still trying to
implement a voucher plan and give hundreds of millions of
dollars in state aid to private, religious schools. I'll
side with Mr. Zook, but about that cavity, I'd prefer
novocaine.
******************
Last week, Pope John Paul II continued his efforts at
forging "Christian unity" (that is, a worldwide Christian
monolith with himself in control) in a series of meetings
with Patriarch Bartholomew I. If all of this sounds like
something out of the next Star Wars, or maybe "Dungeons
and Dragons, Bart the First is NOT a Simpson, but is the
leader of fourteen autonomous Orthodox churches throughout
Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia. He is the "first
among equals" of five Eastern church leaders.
The Orthodox church was once part of the Roman church
until the famous schism in 1054. Since then, the Orthodox
religion has thrived throughout the East, with a network
of Patriarchs and local Metropolitans providing the
leadership. Orthodox sects, in turn, have split numerous
times over such vital and pressing issues as the exact
procedure to be used by believers in making the sign of
the cross.
Bart the First has been criticized by elements within
Orthodoxy for meeting with the Pope. The Roman Catholic
church and the Orthodox are on opposite sides of the fence
over issues like the war in Bosnia, and there is the
annoying question of papal authority and infallibility.
Even so, John Paul II called Bart "brother" and embraced
him outside of the Vatican guest house where the Patriarch
was staying. In keeping with his "Christian unity"
encyclical issued last month, he underscored the
importance of bringing the Orthodox flock back into the
fold.
******************
THEISTWATCH is on the verge of asking readers to fund a
computer and full-time investigative staff to keep track
of the burgeoning number of absurd miracles, weeping /
bleeding statues, and other bizarre "proofs" of religious
faith. Is this pre-millenium fever? We'll have to check
our files on this one --we may have told you about the
"weeping" Madonna in the town of Civita Vecchia, Italy, a
17-inch plaster figure that is said to have cried tears of
blood since last February, according to 55-year-old Maria
Luisa Martini. Now, Ms. Martini (we DIDN'T make up the
name!) says that the Madonna has turned her head. "I swear
it, she told Associated Press.
******************
While sci-fi religions like Scientology or the rock 'n
roll approach of some fundamentalist street-level
ministries has managed to attract the young, mainline
Protestant denominations are in danger of, literally,
dying off. Two denominational studies now show that the
younger adults are not replacing their elders in the pews.
A mere thirteen percent of the Presbyterians are in the
18-34-year-old range, while a third are 65 or older. The
Methodists are in similar straits, as the percentage of
church members aged fifty and older rose from 49 percent
in 1986 to 61 percent last year. And a 1994 Gallup pole
showed that Protestants have a higher percentage of older
members than the Roman Catholic church.
If they could just speed up this process!
******************
In Ireland, abortion is strictly taboo and the "culture
war" battle there is over the tamer subject of divorce.
The government in Dublin announced Friday that it will
again press for the removal of the constitutional ban on
divorce in a referendum to be held later this year. By
U.S. standards, the "liberalized" divorce proposal is
tame. The cabinet, in supporting the legislation,
stipulated that divorce would be permissible after a
couple had lived apart for at least four years. The
biggest obstacle, of course, to divorce is the Roman
Catholic church. In 1986, voters rejected a divorce
liberalization proposal by a 2-1 margin which saw a
vigorous church-orchestrated campaign to defeat it.
Religionists and other opponents argued that divorce would
have an adverse economic impact on pensions and property
divisions; but even under the old law, there are 70,000
separated couples in a population of 3.5 million.
The 1937 Constitution emphasizes the paternalistic role
of the church and state in Irish life, declaring "The
state pledges itself to guard with special care the
institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded,
and to protect it against attack." Yet even within the
Irish Republican movement, where women have gained
substantial voice and input over the last decade, there is
a realization that traditionalist, church doctrine is
suffocating individual rights and choices in Ireland.
Liberalizing divorce may be the first needed step in
correcting that wrong.
******************
During a fishing trip with his sons, Eric Star Smith
became convinced that they were all possessed by the devil
and beheaded his 14-year-old son while his younger sibling
and passing motorists watched. The incident happened in
Estancia, New Mexico. Passing truckers informed
authorities of what was happening; Smith, meanwhile, took
off in his van and threw his son's head out of the window
on U.S. Interstate 40. Following a chase, he was captured
near Albuquerque. According to Torrance County Sheriff
Don Lyles, "The father said they were possessed by the
devil."
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