Comments on: A Culture at War?

By: Robin

Robin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:42:25 +0000

When God created us He included free will. He must have a purpose in that. Maybe this is evidence of His purpose?

By: Pamela Urfer

Pamela Urfer — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:30:27 +0000

Hi, Don,
I am the director of the Veritas Forum at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Over the past few years, we have sponsored a number of academics speaking on “The Origin of the Universe,” “Is There an Absolute Moral Law,” Quantum Mechanics and Postmodernism,” and such.
The Christians in the area invariably want me to bring in evangelists who will “take back the University for Christ.” The speakers they recommend are always firebrands who are not academics – eg. Joe Boot from RZM, or Paul Nelson from the Discovery Institute.
When I tell them I do not want to contribute to the hysteria and anger of the Culture Wars, they know exactly what I mean and castigate me for it.

By: Ellie K.

Ellie K. — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:03:43 +0000

Hi Don,
It had been a while since I took a look at your blog…but today I did, and I’m so glad to see the discussion that you’ve started here! I’ve been feeling very frustrated and disappointed at all of us who call ourselves Americans for allowing the political process of choosing a new leader for our country to become just a feast of empty rhetoric. I ride in a vanpool most days to and from work, and we’ve been listening to the debates on the radio. The comments I have heard come from everyone around me while one or the other candidate speaks have been making an impact on my view of this entire, so called ‘Democratic’ process. The ability to have a voice and a choice in who becomes our next President is a privilege that I fear is being grossly disrespected and underestimated. I hear people choosing sides, and depending on the side they align themselves with, the language I hear them using next is depressingly predictable! How can we accept this process as Democracy?! I want to see people objectively listening to what each candidate has to say, taking stock of how clear what they actually said is, and then deciding whether their point is valid or not. What I see actually going on is people taking sides, and then their chosen person can say/do no wrong.
This worries me. Whatever happened to independent thinking, and carefully weighing someone’s words and actions based on the merit of the content and not just the ‘assumed correctness’ I see people so freely bestowing on “Their Man/Woman”? I hear such irresponsible things being said by both the candidates and their supporters! We must hold ourselves up to the standards we so easily apply to ‘the other guy,’and not be so quick to approve of someone just because of what we think they represent, nor judge those who we deem to be in opposition to our own ’side.’ I have personally grown disgusted of both main political parties, and consider myself an Independent in the true sense of the word.(not in affiliation with the Independent Party at all). I feel encouraged to look for others who see the folly in the current way this is being done when I see the type of open discussion that is taking place here on your blog. If we are not all much more careful with the way we go about exercising our democratic freedoms, we may very well end up losing them. And that to me is too great a tragedy to just stand by and watch it happen! We really need to think through what isn’t working and find ways to fix things so they more closely reflect what the founding fathers had in mind when they established this great nation.
Sadly when I express my ideas about this, I’m most often dismissed as a hopeless idealist. How terrible that even trying to express individual ideas, and challenge people to their highest potential as thinkers, has become no much more than a cliche label of idealism! Keep the conversation going, it’ll only bring out more of what is actually important!
Thanks Don for your courage in taking on this topic.

By: David

David — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:48:37 +0000

*** I don’t know what you define as a culture war, but I do know your candidate of choice has declared war on the unborn (the most vulnerable of us) and you don’t seem to care. I guess you rather be cool than courageous.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:01:37 +0000

Check out James Morone’s book, Hellfire Nation: the Politics of Sin in American History. It is an an interesting read. A long read though. The central argument is that political dialogue in the US has been shaped by a recurring “us vs. them” theme. It was very popular in academia a couple years back.

By: Jennifer Seidel

Jennifer Seidel — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:22:25 +0000

I have been so frustrated by the marriage of evangelicalism and the Republican party that I had a batch of car magnets (aka bumper stickers) made that read EVANGELICALS FOR OBAMA.

I want non-evangelicals to know that not all evangelicals are for McCain/Palin, and I want my fellow evangelicals to know that they, too, can support Obama. It has stimulated conversations with Christians and non-Christians alike. All profits go to the campaign. (I’ll send you for $10. evs4obama@gmail.com)

By: Mike Moore

Mike Moore — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:48:03 +0000

I tend to think like you do. (concocted tempest created in teapot to sell coffee). I was interviewed by a Christian radio station after watching Ben Stein’s “Expelled,” a movie troubling for the 100% support of every Christian I met, and the 100% outraged, frenzied condemnation by atheist fundamentalists, while most average people never heard about it at all. I found myself being pigeonholed as “us or them?” in the conversation, and fought this fairly heavily. I feared if I was “us” then I had to agree with everything or lose “us” status, and if I were “them” then I’d be annoyed and bothered with preaching and questions intended to produce a questioning of my them-ness. Was tough. I dropped the name “Don Miller” in and got “The Blue Like Jazz guy? I know about him. He’s pretty out there, isn’t he?” And I realized “I don’t think Don’s ‘out there’ at all. I think he’s extremely middle-of-the-road usual in his views. What does that make me?” “Us” but out there enough to be approaching “them” I suppose. The shibboleths were put out there. I said them with an Australian accent, I think.

By: ruth foy

ruth foy — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:54:01 +0000

Hi Im from Ireland and I find I swing from being facinated to horrified by the way that politics and religtion are so intertwined in the USA. We here are not faced with this dilema at all. Free to vote as no party claims to have God on his side.

However we did have the Protestant/Catholic cultrue war to contend with and the church I go to sought, although it was very hard and got criticised for it, to maintain a middle way.

Its helpful to me to look at how Jesus coped with the political/religious clash in his world. He didn’t side with anyone. He stuck to his own agenda which was all to do with love, justice and acceptance of those on the fringes. Maybe we should try the same?

By: Wade

Wade — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:02:54 +0000

It’s cool to see you post about this…

I have the blessing and the curse of being a libertarian (insert pause for gasps and raised eyebrows). I say that to preface the following.

I think you are right on when stating that the “culutre war” is just now being sold in regards to this election. I believe in previous elections the “culture war” has been much more pervasive. There is a couple of interesting articles in this week’s issue of The Economist about how cultural polarities have played a part in presidential elections since the Nixon Era. I also believe that the nomination of Palin, has started the ball rolling on the “culture war”. It was a brilliant move by the Republicans, and has really turned the campaign around for them. They have effectively turned the attention away from the issues and toward a war hero and a hockey mom who can field-dress a moose.

Unfortunately, I think “culture wars” are the only thing that will effectively win votes for either side. Let’s face it, Joe Sixpack isn’t going to take the time to really delve into what each candidate plans to do about investment banking reform, short selling, and economic regulation and de-regulation. He’s probably not even aware of the fact that the Chinese central bank, more than likely, owns his mortgage. However, he can understand the propaganda of an elitist, Ivy-League educated, big city liberal pitted against a maverick war hero, and an attractive hockey mom. This is what people see, and they will vote accordingly. This race is going to be a lot closer than I expected it to be back in July.

By: Jonathan Dallas Tx,

Jonathan Dallas Tx, — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:45:35 +0000

People will usually listen to what you say, as long as you say what they want to hear.