professor of philosophy at the University of Idaho recently presented a paper to the American Academy of Religion and Society for Biblical Literature. In the course of his comments, he said, "The story of Psalms 82 raises an obvious question: If the gods of the nations can be removed from office, why cannot the high God himself be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors? We ought to follow the lead of the wise Chinese mentioned above and remove incompetent and abusive deities from office, just as we do our political leaders. Interestingly, we have the Chinese equivalent of Job's indictment of God; but instructively, the Chinese impeach their abusive deity, while Job finally submits to his. How is it that the Chinese and Indians manage to eliminate their dysfunctional deities, but we in the West persist in preserving ours?"
We find this appearance of Arminianism at a tax-supported university alarming, and would encourage the appropriate poobahs to repair this serious breach in the wall of separation between church and state.
U.S. News and World Report informs us that the current global warming trend that scientists have discovered in their computerized tea leaves has HAPPENED BEFORE. Why, 200 million years ago, the average temperature was 70 degrees, 65 million years ago it was 73 degrees, 5 million years ago it was 60 degrees, 25 million years it was 55 degrees, 125,000 years ago it was 59 degrees, 18,000 years ago it was 50 degrees, and 11,000 years ago it was 59 degrees.
Anyone who can read these figures without being thoroughly shaken has a heart of stone. Here, finally, is clear evidence that our planet is getting so warm that some people's brains are starting to overheat.
The United Methodist Church has just approved a politically correct "prayer" which refers to their god-like-thing as a bakerwoman -- "God, like a bakerwoman, you leaven our hopes."
Of course, maybe a couple of hours in the Lord's oven at 350 degrees would do the United Methodists some good.
World magazine reports that witches in Walnut Creek, California want Hansel and Gretel pulled from the shelves of the school library. The thinking is the book encourages the same kind of hatred that once led to witch burning.
We don't think modern witches have anything to worry about. There is, however, growing sentiment for a return to the flogging of dunderheads.
The Freeman cheerily informs us that attempts by businesses to help raise educational standards in the government-controlled schools have been, and we quote, a "fiasco."
And it is our editorial opinion that if the concept of public/private partnerships in education were any stupider, we'd have to water it.
Sister Souljah, a black rap singer, recently added fuel to the fires of racial tension with this much publicized example of a tightly reasoned argument -- "I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"
Liberals are starting to fret because the veneer of racial bonhomie they have managed to place over American public life for the last thirty years has started to wear more than a little thin. And when it wears out we will all see that there is more to unregenerate human nature than can be learned from the Huxtable family.
On a recent visit to an American factory, Boris Yeltsin was given, for reasons unknown to us, a can of Spam.
Now what did they go and do that for?
National Review tells us that Washington State did not have enough white blood cells to fight off a Governor's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. The council seeks to distribute, in senior and junior high schools, condoms, sexual lubricants, and "dental dams" (latex for use in oral sex). Seattle has already accepted the program.
And anyone interested in learning why it took Lot so long to leave Sodom can find out some of his no doubt cogent reasons from the thousands of Christians in Seattle who still have their children enrolled in the Government Copulation Training Centers.
The cause of trendy environmentalism was set back even further when The American Spectator revealed that wind power, a favorite alternative energy source in northern California, has been the death of 567 eagles and hawks in Alameda and Contra Costa counties over the last two years.
Thunder, lightning, and blue ruin! Politically correct birds flying into politically correct energy sources? Something must be done! Everyone knows that birds only die in oil spills! Pass a law!
Christianity Today reports that it looks like an InterVarsity staff member was sacked because he was not TC (theologically correct) in his attitude toward "women and people of color."
Another triumph for pencil-neck Christianity.
