Will Iraq Trump Abortion for Evangelical Voters?

Today’s Top Five

1. What else is in that Pew pollA survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press made some headlines last week for its findings on which presidential candidates are perceived as religious.

Oddly, nearly a third of voters think that Hillary Clinton is not religious — about twice the percentage of the other candidates (except for Giuliani, whom 23% of voters consider not religious). Oh well, I guess it’s not a big surprise that voters are uninformed about the candidates. Take another example from the poll: “Overall, just 22% of the public —and just 31% of Republicans — know that Giuliani is pro-choice,” says Pew’s report. “Even among Republican and Republican-leaning voters who rate social issues as very important, just 33% are aware of Giuliani’s position on abortion.” But it may not matter: “Giuliani’s favorability rating among social-issue Republican and Republican-leaning voters who are aware that he is pro-choice is not significantly lower than among those who are unaware of his position on abortion (76% vs. 80%).”

Evangelical Protestants are even less informed about Giuliani’s stance than the general populace; 21% know he is pro-choice, 6% think he is pro-life, and 71% say they’re not sure of his position on the issue.

This may be why Giuliani is polling well among pro-life evangelicals. So does abortion still matter to social-issue voters (“values voters”)? Less so, says Pew:

Social issues are lagging in importance among members of both parties. White evangelical Protestants are the only major political or religious group in which a majority (56%) says that social issues like abortion and gay marriage will be very important in their presidential voting decisions. Even among white evangelicals, however, social issues trail domestic matters and the war in Iraq: 72% of white evangelicals cite the economy and other domestic issues as very important, while 66% rate the war in Iraq as very important to their vote.

The poll does have some good news for pro-lifers:

After showing consistent increases between 2002 and 2005, the survey finds that support for stem cell research has declined slightly since then, from a peak of 57% in July 2005 to 51% today. Roughly one-third of the public (35%) opposes stem cell research, saying that protecting the potential life of embryos is more important than conducting the research.

2. Hostages home, but the story continues There have been some important updates to the story of the South Korean Christian aid workers since their release by their Taliban kidnappers:

The Korea Times reports that Saemmul Community Church pastor Park Eun-jo tendered his resignation, but that the church rejected it. “He will leave the church for two months to have personal prayer time, according to church members,” the paper reported. (Be sure to read our interview with Park if you haven’t already.)
Saemmul Community Church held a funeral for pastor Bae Hyung-kyu Saturday, with the former hostages in attendance. Bae was deemed a martyr from the pulpit.
The Afghan military says it killed Mullah Mateen, a Taliban commander behind the kidnappings.
The male hostages were beaten “for refusing to take part in Islamic prayers or for rejecting a demand to convert,” according to the chief of the Seoul hospital that treated them after their return. The hospital chief said the men were also beaten for protecting the female hostages, though he downplayed reports that the women had been at risk of sexual assault.
Kim Man-bok, director of Korea’s National Intelligence Service, has been making rare public appearances after the hostages’ release. He refuses to say whether a ransom was paid, saying such discussion is inappropriate. “It will be known later. I will speak at an appropriate time,” he said.

3. After beating, Juanita Bynum files for divorceWeapons of Power preacher Juanita Bynum says she will intentionally be the “new face of domestic violence” after her beating by her husband, Bishop Thomas W. Weeks, last month. She told TBN’s “Praise the Lord” show that she won’t speak negatively about Weeks. “Nobody could give me enough money,” she said. “As long as he’s my husband I won’t break that covenant.” Apparently he won’t be her husband much longer: Bynum filed for divorce last week, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A spokesman for Weeks, who was charged with felony, aggravated assault, and other charges, says he still hopes the couple can reconcile.

Lakeland Ledger columnist Cary McMullen notes that the divorce is a bit different from the week’s other high-profile Pentecostal divorce, that of Randy and Paula White. He wrote:

In the case of the Whites, as far as I could tell, there was not even any discussion about trying to justify the divorce on biblical or any other grounds. Randy White manfully took the blame for the marriage’s failure, but no one mentioned that the biblical standard of adultery is the only justifiable grounds for divorce.

And if the comments posted on my blog in response to entries about the Whites and Bynum are any indication, their followers are staunchly supporting them. I have seen comments such as, “Nobody’s perfect,” “Before talking about her sins, you better look at your own,” and “Don’t judge, lest you be judged.”

But the Whites and Bynum are celebrities, and that is a big difference. Celebrity pastors, especially if they have an independent ministry, tend to get a break. If you’re a pastor of a small-town church, you’re not going to find as much sympathy.

4. Spinning Mother Teresa’s spiritual anguish The pious response to Mother Teresa’s letters about her spiritual emptiness, “is that these sentiments humanize the distant saint, showing that even the great have their struggles,” Michael Gerson wrote in The Washington Post. “But this underestimates the rawness and intensity of the letters themselves, which are in fact disturbing. … This is clearly not an intellectual skepticism, a normal crisis of faith. It is a profound sense of abandonment.”

If it’s not a normal crisis of faith, said Los Angeles Times in an editorial, at least it’s not a solitary one. “Mother Teresa’s agonies of doubt place her in the mainstream of Judeo-Christian belief. Almost from the beginning, those who worshiped God worried that he had deserted them. In the Hebrew Bible, the psalmist cries: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ — a sentiment echoed by the dying Jesus in the New Testament.”

The Los Angeles Times editorial is very good, and theologically accurate. The New York Times doesn’t do as well. Teresa’s anguish “is a welcome reminder that saints, too, are only human, and that stories of dauntless piety tend to be false,” it said in an editorial. “Dead for 10 years, she is poised to reach those who can at last recognize, in her, something of their own doubting, conflicted selves.”

Still, the New York Times editorial pages does a lot better than Katha Pollitt in The Nation. Not that it’s a surprise, but Pollitt seems desperate to dethrone Christopher Hitchens as Teresa contrarian. “Mother Teresa herself didn’t let her lifelong dark night of the soul get in the way of her extreme religious orthodoxy,” she laments. “I think her example … says, if you have doubts, keep quiet, don’t use them to question dogma, challenge authority, open yourself up to new ways of thinking. Just keep kissing the rod. If Mother Teresa wasn’t such a big humanitarian icon, we might think there was something a bit masochistic in her devotion to a God who made her so miserable.”

Masochism has nothing to do with it, says Gerson. He continues:

Other noble religious traditions promise serenity, detachment from striving and release from the suffering of the world. Christianity, in contrast, teaches that grace is found in the worst of that suffering, and through a figure who despairs of God’s presence in his parting words. This anguish is not convenient — “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” is hardly the best religious marketing slogan. But for millennia this abandonment has offered hope that God might somehow be present even in shame, loneliness and betrayal, even on the descending path of depression, even in the soul’s hardness and doubt, even in the silence of God himself — and that all these things may be the preface to glory.

5. Pastor and wife murdered in Islamabad, Pakistan Trinity Baptist Church pastor Arif Khan and his wife, Kathleen, were shot to death August 29. Police initially classified the murder as an “honor killing” and said the suspect, former church member Honey Haveed, had accused Khan of an affair. But police have now reportedly backed off this claim and are seeking a different motive. Khan, church officials said, “was a man of integrity and a very godly man.” The couple, missionaries from New Jersey, had been serving in Pakistan for 11 years.

“Seeking to spread Christianity in a non-Christian country such as Pakistan can be a dangerous proposition,” said an editorial in Parsippany, New Jersey’s Daily Record. “The evidence that has surfaced so far, however, indicates that the murders had nothing to do with religious conflict or political strife. Well, it’s small consolation to all involved, the Khans lost their lives doing the ‘Lord’s work,’ as they saw it. For that, they have our endearing respect.”

Quote of the day “For a long time I have been thinking over the case of Jesus Christ, and I’m convinced—I have been convinced for a long time—that Jesus was not given a fair trial and that the trial was a nullity, as a result of which he suffered crucifixion. I then decided to instruct counsel so that the same can be challenged in court with a view of correct record because as we stand today Jesus Christ remains a convicted criminal. We want the records to be set right.”

— Dola Indidis, plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in that country against Italy, Israel, King Herod, Pontius Pilate, Annas, and several other respondents seeking redress for the death of Jesus. Indidis is also spokesman for Kenya’s judiciary.

Negotiating with Taliban | Korean hostages’ experience | South Korean missions | Other South Korea | Politics | Politicians’ faith | People | Mother Teresa | Atheism | Offending Islam | Judaism and Israel | Psychology & faith | Books & media | History | Education | Higher education | Canadian schools | British education | Grenville College | Abuse | Crime | Crucifixion lawsuit | Soliciting sex in bathrooms | ‘Spitting’ vicar | Juanita Bynum and Thomas Weeks | White divorce | Mojave cross | Pro-life website ‘threat‘ | Abortion and life ethics | Darfur | Pakistani couple killed | Persecution/ religious rights | Church and state | China | New Orleans | Missions & ministry | Outreach | Africa | Anglicans and Africans | Catholicism | Benedict’s trip to Austria | Benedict and environmentalism | Environmentalism | Eastern Orthodoxy | Church life | Homosexuality | Gay marriage | Money & business | Other

Negotiating with Taliban:

Report: Taliban kidnapper killed | Afghan police killed a Taliban militant alleged to be behind the July kidnappings of 23 South Korean church workers, authorities said Tuesday. Up to 27 other insurgents were also slain, while separate suicide attacks killed three police officers (Associated Press)
Taliban free remaining 7 Koreans held captive | Signs quickly emerged that South Korea’s decision to hold direct talks with the Taliban might have emboldened the group (The New York Times)
Taliban tied to abduction is killed, Afghan says | The Taliban commander who masterminded the kidnapping of 23 Koreans in Afghanistan was killed in fighting on Monday evening, an Afghan official said (The New York Times)
South Korea top spy to reveal hostage deal “later” | South Korea’s spy chief has refused to deny his government paid a ransom to the Taliban to release 19 hostages last week, a lawmaker said on Thursday (Reuters)
Spy chief against indemnity of hostages | The nation’s spy chief said Thursday that it is legally groundless for the government to make the Korean hostages held by Taliban militants in Afghanistan bear the costs incurred in securing their release (The Korea Times)
Korean hostages freed — at a cost | Some observers are wondering what it really took to broker a deal with the Taliban. (Time)
South Koreans turn anger at hostages | Critics said the group’s actions forced their government into negotiations with the Islamic militants that damaged the nation’s international reputation (Associated Press)
Korean spymaster, home with hostages, parades his triumph | Kim Man-bok, South Korea’s spy master, made a secret trip to Afghanistan. He went on Aug. 22 to “personally command the negotiations from the front line” when “the situation called for a breakthrough,” the National Intelligence Service said in a highly unusual news release for an agency used to conducting clandestine operations (The New York Times)
‘Secret terms’ for Korea hostages | South Korea’s intelligence chief has refused to deny that his government paid a ransom to the Taleban to release 19 hostages last week (BBC)
Spymaster keeps mum about ransom for hostages | Kim lashed out at the Korean media, saying they simply relayed foreign news reports on the alleged ransom payments, which showed a lack of patriotism (Chosun Ilbo, South Korea)

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