Obama talks about Jesus more than Bush

Politco says so.

Some theories:
1. To win over people who still think he's a Muslim,
2. connect with the majority of Americans who believe in God (83%),
3. Resurrect the Christian Left,
4. show up in the news.

Obama hides Jesus

"Jesus Missing from Obama's Georgetown Speech"
This is the headline on Fox Nation, NBC Washington and the Drudge Report as of 4:19 p.m. ET.

Cybercast News Service (CNS) broke the story that the White House allegedly requested that Georgetown "hide Jesus" and "all signs and symbols" during President Obama's speech.

Media Matters reports that "several commenters on The Fox Nation--as of this posting--have used this opportunity to question Obama's faith, calling the president 'ANTI-CHRIST' and a 'Muslim.'"

Atheists are good too

The Chicago Sun Times reported last week on a study which concluded that non-religious medical personnel were just as likely to care for those without insurance as religious doctors (actually, the non-religious doctors were slightly more willing: 35 to 31 percent, respectively). In the puerile spirit of this study, I would like say: see? I told you you didn't need the Bible to be good.

Notes from the Bible Bending Diaspora

SCOTLAND: Scottish youth need a little more Bible in their lives. At least that is the thoughts of Scotland Bible Society who have recently appointed a youth development minister. "Living with the iPod generation means the Bible is increasingly faced with the 'boring and irrelevant' label." Nothing new here. So what does it mean that the Scotsman is reporting this as news?

TEXAS: A Texas' court rejected the claim filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way that it is unconstitutional for a school district to offer a Bible class. The lawsuit is, as the Christian Post puts it: "on going."

AUSTRALIA: Paul Kelly reveals his appreciation for the Bible in his new album. As an atheist, Kelly utilizes the Bible as his artistic muse. "It's just always been a part of my diet, I guess. Little bits of Shakespeare tend to crop up a lot, too. If I only had two books, Shakespeare and the Bible would probably keep me pretty well occupied."

But despite enjoying the benefits of the Bible, Kelly will not read it to his children. He tells the Australian newspaper The Age, "[...] if you've gone back to read it as an adult, it's just full of . . . I mean, the Old Testament is appalling! The chosen people just slaughtered all the other tribes. (There's) Lot's daughters sleeping with him; there's Noah, drunk, lying naked on his bunk - there's another rhyme."

BULGARIA: Lottery fans who believe in the biblical significance of lucky number seven have caused the jackpot to rise. Only tomorrow will tell who is the luckiest of them all.

ENGLAND: The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Alliance (GALHA) responded to the Bishop of Carlisle's remarks that the recent floods in Britain are a response to pro-gay laws. Bishop Graham Dow commented last week that, “In the Bible, institutional power is referred to as 'the beast', which sets itself up to control people and their morals. Our government has been playing the role of God in saying that people are free to act as they want."

The GALHA chairman Jim Herrick had this insight: "People like Graham Dow [Bishop of Carlise] bring religion into even more disrepute with such fatuous comments. No wonder people are abandoning the Church of England in such huge numbers when it is led by silly people like him."

OREGON: A doctor published an article highlighting what he believes is evidence that the Bible condones marijuana for medicinal purposes. If I were to reduce this man's logic to an SAT analogy equation, it would look like this:
Kaneh bosum : biblical medicine :: marijuana : modern medicine
See? aren't you convinced?

Wrong by Association

Another variation of the "Dr. Laura Letter" appeared today, this time directed at Anglicans who refuse to accept homosexual persons into their congregations.

Here is more "X is wrong because X comes from source Y that also contains Z, and everyone knows Z is wrong":

"The Lord does indeed tell Moses that homosexual acts are wrong. He also warns the prophet not to mar the corners of his beard, not to round the corners of his head, not to have sex with a menstruating woman, not to wear a garment woven with two kinds of thread, not to have carnal relations with certain kinds of female slave, and so on.

Either you follow these instructions literally, or else you temper them with your own knowledge and understanding of life. You take large chunks of the Bible with a grain of salt, and you ignore other parts entirely. You opt for compassion instead of righteous vengeance. You don't pour scorn on love.

That had always – or so I hoped – been the Anglican way. I don't know many Anglicans who obey the Lord's command to hold lobsters in abomination."

The Naked Truth
Why stop at a bikini? when clothing is not very biblical--at least that is what the 53 year-old nudist Jim Cunningham argues in his book Nudism and Christianity. "Paradoxically, it's the Christians that oppose naturism the most -- next to the Muslims," says Cunningham, "and it's really their Bible that says so many wonderful things about the body." Incidentally, Cunningham is also blind.



(artwork from MotherPie Culture Art Life Media)
Tapping into the Wisdom of Bush
The "Dear Dr. Laura" letter has cropped up again--this time as a "Dear President Bush" letter. The famous letter that circulated across the country six years ago is a sardonic attack on those who use the Bible support their world view--posing questions on how other passages from the Bible may apply to modern life. Originally the letter was posted on the Internet addressed to the conservative and controversial radio host Dr. Laura Schlesinger and became so popular that in six months time it was featured in an episode of West Wing (you can read its full history here).

Today it is being circulated as an address to President Bush in response to his refusal to provide funds for stem cell research. After flattering Bush's mastery of biblical truths, the author asks questions such as: "A friend would like to sell his daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?" The authorship changes with every print (apparently there are many people out there anxious to point out the vagueness and ambiguity of the Bible) but I have never seen a response to any of the authors. If you have, send it my way.

A Flood is Never Just a Flood
Blame it on Noah. Ever since God wiped out humanity save for one family, he has turned into a serial flooder. There were debates about whether the 2004 tsunami was about God's wrath, an Alabama state senator declared that Hurricane Katrina was an effort to wipe out the New Orleans sins of gambling, and now not even mind-your-own-business England can escape divine retribution.

Rainfalls across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Midlands caused rivers to swell, submerging hundreds of homes in what the Bishop of Liverpool and the Bishop of Carlisle call an "act of God." The Daily News reports that they claimed "the devastation was the consequence of the West's decision to ignore Biblical teaching, with an 'arrogant' world 'reaping what we have sown'." Perhaps as a sign from humanity back to God--I mean, er, Hollywood--Evan Almighty, the modern-day Noah story, has been a box office flop. Too many people already know the story too well.

Bible Bending Movies: More Pain, Less Laughter?

Evan Almighty, a modern day Noah story, opened in theaters Friday and the reviews have mostly lamented the wasted talents of Steve Carell. But at least one review had the good sense to spare a moment to lament the film's Bible bending.

David Plotz, the Slate.com writer of Blogging the Bible fame, does not think anyone involved with the film even bothered to read the Noah story of the Bible. "I'm no great religious scholar, but it doesn't take Pope Benedict to see that the Noah story is not a charming little tale about familial love, but a terrifying lesson about our dependence on God: a warning that we are alone in the world and always at the mercy of a wrathful and demanding Lord," writes Plotz.

Plotz is especially concerned with a scene where God, played by Morgan Freeman appears to Noah's wife and tells her that most people "miss the point" of the famous flood story. Rather than a tale of God's anger, God points to out the cooperation it took to bring pairs of animals and a family together, "I think it's a love story about believing in each other."

This "pander at the Christian market," says Plotz, reveals "Hollywood's embarrassingly stupid approach to religion and faith." The simple coffee-mug morality "strips away anything Christian (or Jewish) about the story and replaces it with a message of universal hokum."

That any writer would have the acumen to recognize Bible bending is so exciting and rare I am loathe to criticize Plotz; but it can not be helped. Plotz was right to call Hollywood out for its infantile morality tales. The Bible is ripe for parody; why the need to come to a sugary resolution? But Plotz's concern is not that they are using the Bible to cater to the belief that its message is eternal, but that the movie uses the Bible wrong.

First of all, assuming that there can be such a thing as having a film be "Christian and Jewish," what could possibly be more Christian and Jewish than retelling that story over and over again using whatever cultural means available? Plotz believes that Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, with its portrayal of "suffering and sacrifice" was closer to Christianity than Evan Almighty (I am not kidding, Plotz actually said that). Cinematic tastes aside, how does a film about coffee-mug morality disqualify it as Christian? The Bible is full of coffee-mug morality ("Do unto others as you would have done to you" comes to mind).

The problem with Plotz's conclusion, is that while criticizing Evan Almighty's attempt to distill the Bible's message into a neat feel-good moment about Acts of Random Kindness (or "ark," get it?) Plotz does the same thing, minus the feel-good. "The lesson of the Bible is that faith is hard, and unrewarding, and painful," writes Plotz.

So here is my plea to movie makers and journalists and politicians: stop coming about with lessons we need to learn from the Bible. There is only so much to be squeezed out of a two thousand year-old text; stop trying to make it support every idea that pops into your head.

Catching-up

As my penance for neglecting this site last week, here is a quick up-date of what the Bible is up to these days:

Why the need to report on violent uses of the Bible?
The Melbourne Herald Sun (AUSTRALIA) reports that the man convicted of raping a Muslim woman as punishment for reading the Bible will lodge an appeal against his jail term today, based on new evidence from a witness who was named but never called to testify at his trial. Florida newspapers report that a prison inmate tried to pound a pen into his left eye using a Bible as a hammer. Then there is a man in Tennessee who set several small fires in his hotel room using pages from the Bible. Is the irony too irresistible for a journalist to pass up?

The Bible and Society: An International Debate
In a letter to the editor, a man from Jamaica argues that the Bible is a poor moral muse. If Jamaica were to draw moral values from the Bible, then they would need to support genocide, slavery, and the suppression of women. The letter writer concludes, "What Jamaica needs at this time itself up from the moral abyss into which it has been led is not more religion or the appointment of religious persons to important governmental office. Rather, it needs to provide quality education for its citizens, particularly the young, to enable them to unshackle themselves from primitive superstition and mental slavery--to think, to question and to investigate instead. It is the proper use of our minds that will put us above lower animals."

Other countries are debating how much the Bible should and should not be a part of their society. I have already reported on Hong Kong's debate over whether or not the Bible should be classified as offensive. The government of Burma, a predominately Buddhist country, has restricted Bible imports to 2,000 a year. Some newspapers in Poland insert passages from the Bible into their publications. In the US, a writer for the Mens Daily News argues that the US child support policy is not biblical while another writer hopes the US Congress adopt an immigration policy based on the Bible.
Bible Speak: The Endless Comic Material of the Bible
From Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic" to Monty Python's "Life of Brian," the Bible is a comedian's most valuable muse.

"Evan Almighty," the "contemporized" Noah's Ark story starring comedian Steve Carell, opens in theaters this Friday. Director Tom Shadyac prefers that the film be referred to not as a comedy but as a "Bible parable." Watch a trail here; it promises to be a "film of biblical proportions."

Also seizing the opportunity to mine a comic goldmine like the Bible, Jewish comedian David Steinberg has written a novel about his life--in the style of the Bible. "There is something in 'Bible speak'," observes one book review, "— that vague, generalized cadence where so much is left unsaid — that has set many imaginations on fire."

I think the comedians may be on to something about our Bible curiosity when they play around with its material. Trying to believe the impossible and apply the vague and unrelated to our everyday lives says something about the intensity of our desire for a coherent, mutually agreed upon order to our lives. We are struck by the prisoner and the hotel patron who misappropriated the Bible because it reminds us of just how prevalent the Bible is--it was the only thing readily available to them. No wonder so many societies try to articulate themselves using the language of the Bible. But, just as the image of Steve Carell building a giant ship in the middle of Manhattan strikes us as ridiculous, we have to ask: can't we do better?

The Bible Experience

The evolution of the Bible continues to reveal its propensity to adapt. Earlier this week Disney purchased the script to "All About Adam," a romantic comedy about the famously doomed biblical couple. The description of the movie is too laconic for analysis: "The story follows the biblical Adam as he trails Eve to modern-day New York after they have a lover's quarrel. Adam discovers Satan was behind the breakup." I am hoping for High Fidelity meets Dogma.

Meanwhile, the Bible Belt continues to debate the merits and pitfalls of building Bible Park USA. The proposed park will be an interactive experience of biblical stories similar to the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Fl.

Many residents are concerned that the park with be a massive, publicly funded evangelization effort while others feel it will cheapen their religion. But Ronen Paldi, the potential park's chief executive, assured the New York Times that "it would simply present biblical scenes without evangelizing; no roller coaster or Ferris wheel, just a 'calm, solemn park,' where visitors of any faith or denomination would feel welcome." Gee, sounds like a blast. You can't tell me Noah's Whitewater Rafting Adventure, Elijah's Fiery Chariot bumper cars, and The Ascension roller-coaster weren't divinely ordained.

More concerning is Paldi's belief that the park, which the promotional material calls "edutainment," will be able to educate Americans about the Middle East. He notes that many people are either too afraid or too financially constrained to visit the Middle East and experience biblical scenes for themselves. This is a dangerous thought for a nation that already understands that region of the world in a biblical context. Instead of spending public resources to build a "Bible experience," these funds would be far better spent helping Americans understand the real experience of present-day Middle East.

Bible Bending and the Six Days War

Today marks the 40th year since Israel took control of the Gaza strip, the Sinai Peninsula, eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Golan Heights in what has become known as the Six Days War. Though a temporally brief moment in history, the war is considered to be the fountainhead of the on-going tumult in the region.

The establishment of Israel's boundaries continues to be understood by many as a fulfillment of biblical prophesy. Even in the media, references and discussions of the event are framed with biblical rhetoric--making the Israeli-Arab conflict the most volatile example of Bible bending.

Because Israel is emotionally connected with the Bible in so many people's minds, the temptation to allude to the Bible is understandable and perhaps necessary. However, there was not one article that directly confronted the relationship between Israel and the Bible. In failing to underscore the emotional concept of Israel that stems from the Bible and its political implications, journalists have done a disservice to both their Western readers and Israel and its Arab neighbors.

As testament to the Bible's role in shaping political and social discourse, here is an overview of articles published in the last few days remembering the Six Days War:

• Several articles pointed out that "Israel won the Six Day War in 1967 in the same time as the Bible tells it took the universe to be created." (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Chicago Sun Times, MidEast Web Views (ISRAEL))
  
  
• Many articles pointed out that the disputed land is "biblical." (Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Canada Free Press, Scotsman (UK), Terence Smith in The Huffington Post, The Brunei Times (BRUNEI DARUSSALEM))
  
  
• The Kuwait Times (KUWAIT), although it does not refer directly to the Bible, describes the conflict as "clashing national and religious claims."
  
  
• The Associated Press article that ran in many newspapers on Sunday argues that it is demographics, rather than religion that will dictate the relations in the region in the future. It also quotes one Israeli man who compares the time since the June of 1967 to "the biblical wanderings of ancient Israelites."
  
  
• Sandy Tolan of Salon argues that we need to re-think who is the "David" and who is the "Goliath" in this conflict.
  
  
• YnetNews (ISRAEL) published a conversation between father and son about the war to highlight the differences between generations. Although both witnessed the Six Days, they recall the event differently. The son is more sympathetic to the Palestinians while the father recalls: "It was an unbelievable mythological event, like the siege of Assyria on Jerusalem that is mentioned in the Bible, that there was a plague and suddenly the siege was lifted and suddenly they were living anew. The Six Day War was a similar biblical miracle."
  
  
• San Fransisco Chronicle (CA) boils Israel's central problem in the aftermath of the war to this question: "How could the desire to establish a Jewish state in the ancestral Jewish homeland mapped out in the Bible be reconciled with the future of the Palestinian Arabs who had been living in that same land for centuries?"
  
  
• Just to remind readers that Israel is the host to many events from the Bible, several articles felt compelled to point out a location's biblical significance. For example, in a story about two families, the Miami Herald explains: "the growing Bazlamit family bought property in 1993 on an adjacent hillside in Bethany, the ancient town also known as Azariya, where the Bible says Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead." Onet (POLAND) refers to "the biblically resonant hills of Judea and Samaria" and the Los Angeles Times ran an article on returning to Israel where "the heroes of the Bible had roamed."
  
  
• Jacqueline Rose of The Guardian (UK) uses the anniversary to review poetry that came from both sides of the conflict. Rose says of poet Yehuda Amichai who wrote "Jerusalem 1967": "In the Bible, the exiled Daniel is alone capable of translating this deathly warning for Balthazar, which appears on the wall as he drinks from vessels his father tore from the Jewish temple; he dies the same night, and Daniel becomes the third ruler of the kingdom. It is a story of the vindication of the Jews. But no victor is immutable. The vanquished can always return. To write like this in 1967 was counter-intuitive to say the least. Amichai calls on his biblical heritage to subdue the conquering pride of his own people."

Lest I give the impression that articles on Israel always refer to the Bible, I would also like to point out that many articles managed to remember the war and report on its contemporary relevance without reference to the Bible. To name a few: Los Angeles Times, Trinidad and Tobago Express (TRINIDAD and TOBAGO), The Scotsman (UK), France24 (FRANCE), The Jerusalem Post (ISRAEL), The Melbourne Herald Sun (AUSTRALIA), Aljazeera, BBC (UK), Ha'aretz (ISRAEL), People's Daily Online (CHINA), International Middle East Media Center (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES)

Battling presidential canidates, drugs and unions with the Bible; and more

Sun-Sentinel (FL): Florida evangelist Bill Keller says he was making a spiritual--not political--statement when he warned the 2.4 million subscribers to his Internet prayer ministry that "if you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!"

But the Washington-based advocacy group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should revoke the 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt statue of Bill Keller Ministries, nonetheless.

Associate Press: Bobbleheads of Rev. Jerry Falwell holding a Bible are a big hit on ebay. An infamous Bible bender, Falwell will be remembered for statements such as this one, said shortly after 911: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way—all of them who have tried to secularize America—I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen." There is still time to purchase a piece of the man who said this and so much more.

The Guardian (UK): In the war against drugs that ravages Brazil, some preachers, armed with only a Bible, are willing to fight. Certainly there are worse weapons than telling someone that Jesus loves them, but I can think of better ones as well--off the top of my head, reforming a corrupt government that has failed to address the largest economic inequality in the world (according to the Gini coefficient) and educating the more than 15 million illiterate civilians come to mind. (Thanks to Simon for the tip.)

ABC (AUSTRALIA): An outspoken Australian union activist accused the political leadership of preferring to send workers to Bible study rather than negotiate wages. Western Australian Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) secretary Kevin Reynolds has said Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd is out of touch with workers and wants them all to go to "bible class".

At the risk of revealing an ignorance of Australian politics, what does "wants them all to go to 'bible class'" mean? Does it mean that since workers are not going to get the wages they are demanding through negotiations, they have no choice but to pray for them instead? Is Reynolds suggesting that there is something in the Bible that they should explore in greater depth to help them resolve their differences? Is "bible class" a euphemism something? Or does this mean that in Australia, it is insulting to suggest that someone is somehow relying on the Bible? In any case, the deputy Labor leader, Julia Gillars, has said that her party will take these critical comments "on the chin."

New York Times (NY): In an editorial, US Senator and GOP presidential hopeful Sam Brownback clarifies his position on evolution. In the first presidential debate, Brownback was one of three candidates who raised their hand when asked, "is there anyone on stage who does not believe in evolution?" (YouTube clip here.)

Predictably, Brownback distinguishes between "creationism" (a literal interpretation of Genesis) and Intelligent Design (a more pliant Bible bending position that combines the biblical god with evolution). Brownback explains how he determines what "aspects of evolutionary theory" do and do not receive his approval: "Man was not an accident and reflects an image and likeness unique in the created order. Those aspects of evolutionary theory compatible with this truth are a welcome addition to human knowledge. Aspects of these theories that undermine this truth, however, should be firmly rejected as an atheistic theology posing as science."

Chicago Tribune (IL): Readers discuss whether the newspaper the usage of "Old Testament" in their articles with "Hebrew Testament."

A Bible Blog of Biblical Proportions!

Everyone has a fight to pick with Matt Drudge. He can create scandal out of thin air; he can make scandals disappear. He secretly controls the 2008 presidential elections. He is not a serious writer. Etc., etc., etc.

While his uncanny knack for digging up sensational stories and his pre-eminent access to breaking news secures his place on the desktops of news addicts around the world, his to-the-minute headlines could do without the constant references to the Bible. A reference to the apocalypse here, a mention of Noah's ark there, this is all part of the old-school tabloid feel, I understand. But Drudge takes a headline like "Naples's Trash is a challenge politicians are flunking" and turns it into: "Garbage crises of biblical proportions has gripped Naples, Italy."

But if you can not fight them, join them; and many newspaper editors have. So in honor of Drudge, here is a list of other headlines of "biblical proportions":
"Pomegranate ale holiday brew of biblical proportions"
"Developer, builders share their thoughts of biblical proportions"
"It was a bomb scare of biblical proportions"
"A crisis of biblical proportions"
"A gamble of Biblical proportions"
"Lamb--A History of Biblical proportions"
"Court debate of biblical proportions"
"Saints Predict a Miracle of Biblical Proportions"
"Family Dysfunction of Biblical Proportions"
"Conservatives condemn error of biblical portions"
"Souls cry out to God after a cataclysm of biblical proportions"

In brief, what we have here is an an ale festival, some real estate property, an environmental crisis, a film release, some lamb recipes, a Supreme Court hearing, a baseball come-back, a movie-marketing trend, gay marriage, and a tsunami of biblical proportions!

Negating the obvious question--what is a biblical portion?--I would like to answer an easier, though equally pressing one: should the word "biblical" be capitalized?

The grammatical answer: No, it is an adjective. The Bible Bending answer: trick question. Stop describing your festivals and disasters as "biblical."

Can you hear me Drudge?

When it comes to judgement, NYT refuses to bend

New York Times (NY): Edward Rothstein of the Museum Review provides a relatively balanced review of Answers in Genesis' Creation Museum opening May 28th.



In the style of "some say, others say," Rothstein wanders around the hybrid natural museum/Bible fantasy land, marveling at the meticulous detail and cognitive dissonance. There is an exhibit depiction two prehistoric children playing in a stream while Apatosaurus innocuously dine on ferns near-by, a film that explains how Noah's flood carved the Grand Canon, and a chance to experience The Fall by passing through the comforting glow of Eden into the dark cement corridor of an ersatz urban slum.

Noting that the balk of the museum's exhibits is "a series of catastrophes," Rothstein summarizes the experience this way: "For the skeptic the wonder is at a strange universe shaped by elaborate arguments, strong convictions and intermittent invocations of scientific principle. For the believer, it seems, this museum provides a kind of relief: Finally the world is being shown as it really is, without the distortions of secularism and natural selection."

In a democracy rather than meritocracy of ideas, where every world view commands equal New York Times review space, Answers to Genesis is another well-funded fruit stand in the marketplace of ideas. But all world views are not reported on equally. While Scientology and its creation story involving the intergalactic warlord Xenu, a volcano, nuclear bombs, and Body Thetans, has been regarded with the puzzlement, disbelief, and amusement that it deserves, the Judeo-Christian Creation story has been caught in a laissez-faire limbo.

It is little wonder that in the last few years an angry deluge of scientific rebuke from Sam Harris, Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett has come thundering down on the claims of creationism. If Answers in Genesis insists on using the language of science, it must withstand the scrutiny of science. But lecture circuits, think-tanks and museums like the one opening next Monday continue to knot themselves into such a tangle of science and Bible that perhaps Rothstein was right to dedicate a two-page article to observing its strange beauty rather than untangle the mess.

UPDATE: The "indecent" Bible

Following reports last week that Hong Kong's local censoring body, Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA), rejected calls to label the Bible "indecent," supporters have launched a website: truthbible.net.

The Chinese website include this warning in English:

Efforts are well under way to bend the Bible to meet the requirements for censorship. Visitors can read or post passages from the Bible under the categories such as slavery, inaccuracies and "destroys families."

Shakespeare is stretching as we speak--no doubt he will be bending to censorship shortly.

The Changing shape of the Bending Bible

Christianity in the U.S. is evolving.

An early start to the 2008 presidential election and the death of Rev. Jerry Falwell last week brings this evolution into new focus. What does it mean that the leading GOP presidential candidate, Rudy Guiliani, is pro-choice? What does it mean if a large number of Christians are beginning to support a liberal Christian Democrat, Sen. Barack Obama? Will Christianity play a similar role in redefining the Republican platform as Falwell's Moral Majority did in the 80's?

An article today in the New York Times suggests that the baby boomer generation is seizing this moment of transition in the U.S. to shift the Christian focus away from issues such as abortion and same-sex marriages to issues such as global warming and the AIDS epidemic. It is the laid-back style of Rev. Rick Warren and Rev. Bill Hybels rather than Pat Robertson and James Dobson who are rousing the social and political energy of Christians.

Young Christian activist such as Gabe Lyons, are not as interested in influencing politics. "I believe politics just isn’t as important to younger evangelicals as it has been for the older generations because we recognize from experience that politics does not shape the morality of a culture,” Lyons told the NYT. “It simply reflects what the larger culture wants.”

With that view in mind, Lyons has founded the Fermi Project, a "broad collective" of Christians collaborating to incrementally shift "the conscious of the culture over time." Fermi's projects include Rwanda Clean Water and Advent Conspiracy, which hopes to alter the way Christmas is celebrated by "resisting the empire when they tell us to buy more and more for ourselves [and] re-distributing our wealth so others can see the greatness of God's gift Giving ourselves relationally just as he gave himself."

In a short essay entitled Influencing Culture: An Opportunity for the Church (PDF), Lyons lays out the "cultural mandate" that Christians have to "restore God's creation." He argues that because the Seven Channels of Cultural Influence (business, government, media, church, arts & entertainment, education and the social sector) produce the ideas that shape the moral fiber of a nation, Christians should claim a stake in every avenue of cultural influence. Just like the "Homosexual Movement" tapped into all channels of cultural influence to shift the cultural perception of homosexuality as "abnormal and abhorrent in society, to being an acceptable and normal alternative life-style" so should Christians utilize all cultural means available.

Lyons' insight are hardly innovative and certainly not new (as a cursory glimpse at the history of Western civilization would quickly prove) but, as the NYT article highlights today, at this moment in U.S. history they feel new.

Unfortunately, Lyons' essay is vague on the details of the cultural shifts he has in mind as though Christians speak with one mind when converting the Bible into an idealistic social model. Any reader of Bible Bending would know that that is hardly the case. Still, the enthusiasm for innovation seems genuine. I for one look forward to watching this evolution. As Matt Drudge would say: Developing...