The Christian Carnivalvis up at Neophyte Pundit. I had intended to submit something, but due to my cold I never had the chance to write what I intended to write. Perhaps next time. In any case, some posts that especially struck me:
* Kerry, The Democrats, and Postmodernism in Politics at "Digitus, Finger & Co." This is actually less about Kerry or Democrats than it sounds. A good portion of it is about Canada, which, as an American in Canada I found particularly interesting. Some of it is a bit hard on the Canadians, I think, but, just going on my own limited experience, a good portion of it rings true. This is especially true on the contrast between the Canadian and the American sense of national identity. Once after class I was hanging out with some of my students at the GSU pub, and somehow or other the discussion got off of philosophy and onto the question of national identity. And I said at some point that what seemed to me to be the difference between Canada and the U.S. on this point is that Americans don't worry much about national identity and they don't worry much about assimilating other cultures, whereas Canadians (insofar as one can discern from public figures and the like) seem to worry about them a lot. The point, of course, was not that Americans never worry about these things, nor that Canadians always worry about them; but they occupy very different roles in the public discourse of the two nations. One of the students, though, said that this claim didn't seem to fit well with the notion of an American 'melting pot'. I don't remember what I replied to that. But Neil provides what I think would be a major part of a good response. I'm a bit less convinced by the application to the Democratic Party; but I think it does describe quite accurately how the Democrats look from a fairly common perspective.
* I was surprised to learn from Joshua Clabourne about Louisiana's State Marriage Amendment. It's rather strongly worded; and I don't really see what is gained by putting it in the state constitution. We'll see what happens in terms of the courts.
* Jimmy Swaggart Incites Violence Against Gays at "The Journey" on some comments by Swaggart that are being rightly condemned by evangelicals.
[On this point, incidentally, there's a great comments discussion going on at "Parableman" here. I especially like the comment that (I'm paraphrasing) a problem with the attitude of many Christians towards homosexuals is that they think in terms of homosexuality, i.e., a set of issues, rather than in terms of homosexuals, i.e., real people like oneself.]
* The Rise and Decline of Modern Atheism at "viewpoint", reviewing Alister McGrath's book of the same name. McGrath is perhaps on to something in his discussion of the rise of modern atheism; I'm not convinced it's in decline, though. It's just that its mushier side has been growing more dominant. You know the sort of thing I mean; I read a blog not too long ago, for instance, in which an atheist was lamenting the fact that, because he was an atheist, everyone assumed he wasn't spiritual. Spiritual Atheism does seem to be the order of the day. You do still find hardheaded atheists, though; I like them better because they make more sense.
* "At first I saw a person..." at "Constantly Abiding" (a great post, highly recommended, on seeing people as people)
* Rebecca continues her series on God's attributes with God's Truthfulness at "Rebecca Writes"
As usual, it's a good carnival.
