Politically correct

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Let's build a wall

José Sancho Hernandez, CNN

7:00PM ET. Fri September 25 2015

Emerging for a joint press conference after two days of high-level talks, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto and presidential candidate Ted Cruz announced a breakthrough in comprehensive immigration reform. After intense negotiations, both parties agreed to build a wall around Donald Trump. 

Negotiations were deadlocked on how to finance the wall until agreement was reached to pay for it by deducting the required amount from alimony payments to Marla Maples and Ivana Trump.  

One man's scandal is another man's success

Not to excuse Josh Duggar, but if he looked like, say, a youthful Warren Beatty rather than a schlub, he'd come in for very different treatment. If you're plain and plump, and you're caught in sex scandal, a lot of people hold you in contempt. If, however, you're a handsome playboy, many of the same people may even have a sneaking admiration. Image literally has everything to do with how some people evaluate misconduct.

Or take people like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. They aren't even handsome. But they project power. That, combined with their bad boy image and swinger lifestyle makes them objects of vicarious admiration.   

Domestic predator drones

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/26/first-state-legalizes-armed-drones-for-cops-thanks-to-a-lobbyist.html

Were the disciples deadbeat dads?

Having been raised by a single mother and a single grandmother in both Mexico and in the United States, I personally know that women can be breadwinners. But I also see how much one income, instead of the income of two or more adults, greatly affected our family. 

The Bad Jesus, pp. 201-203
Heroic Disciples or Deadbeat Dads?

And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men’. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him (Mk 1.16-20). 

In another instance, Jesus seems to make an equally outrageous demand:

Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go’. And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head’. Another of the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father’. But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead’ (Mt. 8.18-22). 

Imagine if a group of twelve men today left their families to follow a man they just met or barely knew. What sorts of questions would arise? For starters, one might ask what happened to their families? How are these families supposed to make a living after being abandoned by their main or only breadwinners? Who will assume the burden of the burial that the scribe abandoned? Is it morally right for someone to abandon a family in the first place? 

Once one begins to think more seriously about what Jesus wanted the disciples to do, it becomes very clear to anyone who studies basic economics that abandonment would impoverish the corresponding families almost immediately. If that family has infants, then those infants may be left without much food. Any wives are now left more vulnerable. 

Any hired servants may go unpaid. There was seemingly no notice given to every affected family by these disciples, but the anxiety of such an abandonment is hardly ever the subject of any compassion or sympathy by New Testament scholarship. These disciples are never labeled as deadbeat dads, cruel or irresponsible. 

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2015/07/dr-robert-myles-and-bad-jesus.html

The flaws in Hector's analysis are legion:

i) Did Avalos abandon his mother when he studied at Harvard for several years? Was she his roommate in the dorm?

ii) There's a general difference between a parent who deserts growing kids and a grown child who leaves home. As a rule, we don't consider it abandonment when a grown child leaves home. Indeed, there's often a cultural expectation that when kids reach adulthood, they ought to strike out on their own. They weren't supporting their parents–their parents were supporting them. In case their parents need financial support, that involves a grown child who's in a position to send money home because he's financially independent. Because he works outside the home. 

iii) There's nothing in Hector's two prooftexts to indicate the disciples in question were husbands or fathers. 

iv) Before the advent of modern contraception, couples usually had large families. Multiple sons and daughters. Indeed, providing for all of them could be a financial burden. You also had extended families.

Losing one or two sons to the mission field wouldn't ordinarily mean the parents had no other children to fall back on to help with the family business. There were lots of helping hands. 

v) Peter, for one, took his wife along with him when he was on the mission field (1 Cor 9:5). He didn't leave her behind. 

vi) Avalos ignores a key passage in which Jesus commands filial provision for needy parents (Mt 15). 

Likewise, a childless widow would be indigent, which is why Jesus revives the only son of a widow (Lk 7:11-17).

It's not as if Jesus has a policy of leaving needy wives and parents in the lurch.

vii) Mk 1:16-20 isn't a general command to Christian men. It was a timebound command during the life and public ministry of Christ, involving only 12 men. 

viii) Yes, there's a sense in which Mt 8:21-22 is outrageous. It sounds harsh to modern ears, and it would sound even harsher to ancient Jewish ears. The shock value is intentional.

In addition, it reflects the self-importance of Jesus. A demand like that either means he's suffers from delusions of grandeur or else he's God. 

ix) It's unlikely that the man's request is realistic. If his father had just died, he wouldn't be out and about with Jesus. He'd be at home making funeral arrangements. And if his father were dying, he'd be by his bedside, holding vigil–or else he'd ask Jesus to heal his ailing father. So the request is an excuse to procrastinate. 

As for Christ's reply, remember that Jesus often resorts to hyperbole. It's naive to take his reply at face value. It seems doubtful that Jesus is really forbidding him from attending his father's funeral. Rather, it's turning the man's mock piety back on him.

What Sort Of Judges Would Trump Appoint?

See here. Even if his comments cited by Ponnuru aren't representative of what Trump would do in office, why trust him? Why take the risk when such better presidential candidates are available?

Trump supporters often cite illegal immigration as a major, primary, or sole reason to vote for Trump. But think of all the steps needed to get to the point where Trump's position on illegal immigration would be implemented. You have to:

1.) Think he'll get elected, despite his big electability problems.

2.) Think Trump will do what he says he'll do, despite his character problems and long record of inconsistencies.

3.) Think the Republican Congress, who Trump supporters keep denouncing, will pass his immigration plan.

4.) Think the judiciary, including judges appointed by Trump in the future, will refrain from significantly altering his immigration plan once it's enacted.

Let's see if people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity give prominent attention to the issue Ponnuru has raised, putting it at the top of their radio programs and denouncing Trump in strong terms, as they would if Ponnuru's post were about somebody like Jeb Bush or John Kasich instead. And let's see if Evangelicals and other people supporting Trump do enough research, and have enough discernment, to find information like what Ponnuru writes about and react appropriately to it. Or will they just keep following the lead of Limbaugh, Hannity, et al. so uncritically?

William Lane Craig On Extraordinary Claims, Dwindling Probabilities

Here's the audio from one of William Lane Craig's Defenders classes several years ago (series 1, section 13, part 17), in which he discusses the idea that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and the notion of dwindling probabilities. Both issues are often brought up by skeptics. I've even seen an Eastern Orthodox appeal to the concept of dwindling probabilities to suggest that we can't rely on a historical argument for the canon of scripture. Craig's discussion of dwindling probabilities includes some comments about an exchange he had on the subject with Alvin Plantinga. Craig also brings up some helpful illustrations on both topics, extraordinary claims and dwindling probabilities. A lot of good points are made. I recommend listening to the whole thing. It's only a little more than half an hour long.

How would we ever manage without the Magisterium?

http://www.lifenews.com/2015/08/19/shocking-report-63-catholic-colleges-have-relationships-with-planned-parenthood/

You can have it all!

There are conventional explanations for Trump's current popularity among some Republican voters. These include his image as somebody who's not afraid to be politically incorrect, not beholden to lobbyists and special interests. As well as his rhetoric on immigration. 

However, there may be a neglected reason: envy. I daresay there are probably lots of voters who secretly (or openly) envy his lifestyle. It wouldn't surprise me if many Trumpkins are regular viewers of The Apprentice. 

I think it's probably safe to say that most middle-class or working-class wage-earners belong to that income bracket by necessity rather than choice. For them, that's a hard ceiling. That's as high as they can go. They lack the advantages to become rich, much less superrich. 

Since that's the situation they are stuck in, because there's no realistic alternative, some of them may make a virtue of their situation. But given half a chance, many of them would jump at the opportunity to have his lifestyle.

There are people who are conventionally moral for the simple reason that certain kinds of vice are out of their league. They will never be in the rarefied position to indulge those particular vices.  But if they could have it all, they'd go for it. 

And I'm not just talking about the secular culture. Why do some middle-class and working-class wage-earners dig into their pockets to float the lifestyle of Benny Hinn, Steven Furtick, or Joel and Victoria Osteen? My guess is voyeurism. If you can't be rich, you can still indulge a vicarious fantasy. That's what makes tabloid journalism sell. For a certain audience, there's an insatiable appetite for that sort of thing. 

Isn't that the appeal to The Apprentice? If you win, you enjoy an instant, quantum socioeconomic promotion? And isn't that why people watch it? The vicarious appeal?

Out of curiosity, I've seen a few minutes of a few episodes. As I understand the show, there are two competing teams. However, there can only be one winner, one apprentice. It's not the team that wins. By process of elimination, it comes down to one victor. That means contestants aren't simply competing with the rival team, but competing with their fellow teammates. That's a recipe for backstabbing and betrayal. The more so when you're dealing with a group of ruthless and avaricious contestants. 

From the little I've seen, episodes end with obsequious contestants appearing before Trump. He asks them to handicap the performance, not only of the opposing team, but their fellow teammates. The audience then gets to watch the contestants claw each other to pieces. 

That says a lot about Trump's character. He enjoys wielding that kind of power over others. He enjoys watching ambitious contestants tear each other apart. He enjoys contestants groveling in his presence. 

And that despite the fact that they don't really respect him. They fawn over him because he's their ticket to shot at quick riches. What does it tell you about him that he gets satisfaction out of bootlicking supplicants? Surely he must be aware of the fact that their awestruck admiration is feigned. Like royal courtiers, they flatter him because he has something they want. 

But more to the point, what does that tell you about regular viewers? Doesn't that mean they are projecting themselves into his position? 

On a related note is Ann Coulter, who's currently stumping for the Donald. She'd always coveted the diva role. She reminds me of Arianna Huffington.  Back when Arianna was married to a rich Republican, she palmed herself off as a conservative commentator, but like Coulter, she's a glamourpuss, not an ideologue. 

In many cases, Trump's appeal is to voters who are as venal as he is. 

Deistic evolution

Contemporary Christian apologetics devotes massive attention to atheism, but ignores deism. In one respect, that makes sense. Historic deism is long gone. However, there's a version of deism that's fairly dominant in some intellectual circles, and that's deistic evolution. Much of what flies under the banner of theistic evolution is really deistic evolution. And many religious critics of intelligent design theory espouse deistic evolution. Even if they allow for divine intervention in human history, the disallow divine intervention in natural history. Moreover, I suspect some of them are just maintaining pious appearances. 

There are basically two versions of deistic evolution: 

i) Deterministic deistic evolution

This is planned evolution. A frontloaded process where the outcome is inevitable. It isn't necessarily that every detail is predetermined. It's more like general providence. But progress is built into the process. A means-ends relation.

ii) Indeterministic deistic evolution

This is unguided or undirected evolution. Like a stochastic, adaptive program that takes on a life of its own once the program is switched on. 

In both versions you have a noninterventionist God who merely initiates the process. In the case of (i), God takes a personal interest in the ultimate outcome, although there may be multiple paths for arriving at that outcome.  It's broadly teleological, but redundant. 

In the case of (ii), God is indifferent to the outcome. It rejects human exceptionalism. Both versions are consistent with open theism, although (ii) leans more strongly in that direction. 

iii) Deistic evolution raises questions about divine benevolence and rationality. Why would God create sentient beings if he had no concern for their welfare or destiny? Do individuals count? 

In the case of (ii), God did not intend to create humans. He did not foresee their development. Yet once the process happens to produce in sentient beings, would he not take a subsequent interest in the result?

But perhaps, on this view, it's like a science experiment conducted by an alien. Our species is too insignificant to merit his concern. He's interested in the overall process more than any particular result. Humans are like disposable characters in a vast video game. It's the game, and not the fate of any specific character, that's the object of divine curiosity.

In the case of (i), God cares more about the end-result than how the process arrives at that solution. Rupert Sheldrake employs the metaphor of an attractor:

Dynamics is a branch of mathematical theory dealing with change, and a central concept in dynamics is that of the attractor. Instead of modelling what happens to a system by considering only the way it is pushed from behind, attractors in mathematical models provide an explanation in terms of a kind of pull from the future. 

The principal metaphor is that of a basin of attraction, like a large basin into which small balls are thrown. It would be very complicated to work out the trajectory of each individual ball starting from its initial velocity and angle at which it hit the basin; but a simpler way of modelling the system is to treat the bottom of the basin as an attractor: balls thrown in from any angle and at any speed will end up at the bottom of the basin. 

http://www.thebestschools.org/features/rupert-sheldrake-interview/

Simon Conway Morris toys with the same metaphor to model convergent evolution. Cf. The Runes of Evolution: How the Universe became Self-Aware. 

This emphasis puts a premium on the desired outcome at the expense of individuals. After however many failed trials, the goal is eventually reached. 

In natural theology, you first prove the existence of a Creator God. You then show that such a God would be likely to take a personal interest in the wellbeing of the sentient creatures he made. We'd expect him to be actively involved in human history. Reveal himself to humans. Act on their behalf.

An irony of deistic evolution is that it posits the existence of a powerful, rational Creator God. And as the either intended or unintended consequence of the process he put into motion, religious creatures arose. Creatures who believe in a Creator God. Creatures with detailed religious narratives about God's character and agency in human affairs. They believe in a Deity, and there is, in fact, a Deity. Yet what they believe about God bears little resemblance to what he is truly like. Their religious narratives don't correspond to world history. Not just Gen 1-2, but the entire story–from Genesis to Revelation–is a systematic mismatch for God's nature and behavior in deistic evolution. And the same holds true for other religious narratives. 

Conversely, evidence for the religious narrative (e.g. argument from prophecy, argument from miracles, answered proper) will serve to undermine the deistic evolutionary narrative. 

How firm a foundation

A final comment on the Arminian blogger who lost his faith. Obviously, every theological tradition has its share of apostates. Calvinism is no exception. 

However, here's a man who was a Christian from age 18-40. He has a degree in philosophy of religion, and teaches on the subject.

Yet it only dawned in him when he developed a medical condition that Christian don't always get what they pray for? Surely it doesn't take much personal experience or observation of other Christians to find that out. 

Now to some extent his reaction is what Gary Habermas calls emotional doubt rather than factual doubt, although they are intertwined to some degree. I do wonder, though, if his Arminianism didn't create a problem in this sense: so many Arminians define themselves in opposition to Calvinism. That's their frame of reference. They are obsessed with Calvinism.

That can lead to their neglecting to study basic things like the evidence for Christianity. There are many deep lines of evidence for Christianity. But if you devote so much of your time to attacking Calvinism, you may be coasting. 

He didn't have much to fall back on when his personal crisis hit. Moral of the story: don't neglect to lay a firm foundation. 

First day of school

As I helped my daughter get on the bus for the first day of school today, it occurred to me that her mom had died at the beginning of this summer vacation, on the last day of school (June 5) from the last school year.

In my wife’s case, she certainly did not know the day and the hour. What a blessing that she knew her Lord when he came for her.

What a summer of transitions it has been.

Stranded time-travelers

Time-travel is one of the reasons the SF genre exists. In addition, there are philosophical and scientific debates about whether time travel is physically or metaphysical possible. 

But is there evidence beyond the theoretical debates? I'd say there's some strong, but strangely neglected, empirical evidence for time travel. 

Every so often I see people who look like they just popped out of the 1950s. They are so out of place. 

They always come in pairs. Usually two young white guys. Always two guys. They are dressed in Eisenhower-era attire. Black business suits with white shirts and ties. Even on a hot summer day. They have name tags with quaint designations like Elder Hyrum or Elder Nephi. 

Why they're called "Elder" is perplexing inasmuch as these guys appear to be about 18 years old, give or take. 

I see them knocking on the doors of complete strangers. Clearly they are lost. Trapped in the wrong century. Desperate to get back to the 1950s, where they belong. 

The future shock must be extremely disorienting. When they stepped into the time machine, it was the era of Pat Boone, Buddy Holly, Frankie Avalon, gas-guzzlers with tail fins, ducktail haircuts, TVs with rabbit ears, and hula hoops. The next moment it's 2015. 

I assume they're the result of experiments conducted at Area 51. Ike realized we lacked the technological wherewithal to repel an alien invasion, so the only defense was to escape into the past or future. 

I wish I could give these stranded time-travelers some technical advice on how to return to their own century, but having seen the future, if they took that advance knowledge back with them, it would change the past, which would change the future. Unless the changes they made already happened. Or maybe they'd erase themselves from the space-time continuum. It's all so confusing. What if I unwittingly unleash the clock roaches? Better not to interfere. Unless my nonintervention is what unleashes the swarming clock roaches. But I digress. 

Rewarding virtue

In a recent interview (Inquisitive Minds postcast, part 2), atheist Hector Avalos says:  

It's no virtue in doing good because you're tying to please an invisible being. There's no reward that's going to come to you. That's not really moral action. 

That sounds oh-so idealistic. But let's be honest. What reason does an atheist have to be sacrificial? From a secular standpoint, isn't that irrational? Where's the evidence that Avalos practices moral heroism? 

It also depends on what you mean by "reward." There's the quid pro quo sense of reward, where you do something in exchange for what you receive in return. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

But that's not what's meant by eschatological rewards. To begin with, to be a creature is to be dependent. To have physical and emotional needs. Humans aren't robots. There's nothing intrinsically unspiritual about enlightened self-interest when it comes to having your essential needs met. That's actually a pious, humble acknowledgement that you're not God. 

"Eternal life" is eternal happiness. Although duty takes precedence over happiness, you can't be depressed all the time and survive emotionally. Without hope, existence becomes unbearable. Hell is everlasting despair.  

In addition, the question of whether virtue is "rewarded" and vice is punished goes to the issue of whether there's any ultimate justice. If doing good is an infallible recipe for getting screwed, it is foolish to keep doing good. 

It sounds nice to say we should simply do good for its own sake, come what may, but if the universe was rigged so that do-gooders always lose and always suffer while evil-doers always win and always prosper; if–without fail–evil is rewarded and virtue is punished, it would be irrational to do the right thing. We need something to look forward to. We need to get something out of life. If not this life, then the afterlife. Interminable misery is nothing to live for. That's damnation. 

Why the Republican Party is Dead to Me

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/15/why-we-lose-top-gop-consultant-rick-wilson-trashes-republican-base/

Be nice to "bad Jesus"

In The Bad Jesus, Hector Avalos has backed himself into a dilemma:

He calls himself a Jesus agnostic. He claims we don't know if there was such a person as described in the Gospels. But if that's the case, then he's in no position to say Jesus was a morally flawed teacher. 

If, on the other hand, the Gospels are reliable sources to evaluate the words and deeds of Jesus, then they do more than inform us about what he said and did. They inform us about who he was and is. And the Jesus of the Gospels is more than human. 

If the Gospels give us access to the genuine teaching of Jesus, then give us access to the genuine Jesus. A Jesus who is God Incarnate. The eschatological judge. The coming of Yahweh in the flesh. 

But in that event, how is Avalos in any position to attack the ethics of God? To say nothing more, isn't that foolhardy? If Jesus is bad, and Jesus is God, then Avalos should make every effort to avoid getting on the wrong side of Jesus. Bad Gods make bad enemies. 

The man who would be king

The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most specular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form of exaggeration–and a very effective form of promotion. Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal (Random House 1987), 58.

How Early Christians Changed the Sex-Abuse Culture

They redefined the terms for it. From Larry Hurtado this morning:

The sexual abuse of children has now become a major and publicly recognized concern (and high time too!).  A recent study by John W. Martens shows that for early Christians, too, it was a major concern, and that this is reflected in what appears to be a distinctive early Christian vocabulary to refer to the practice:  John W. Martens, “‘Do Not Sexually Abuse Children’: The Language of Early Christian Sexual Ethics,” in Children in Late Ancient Christianity, eds. Cornelia B. Horn and Robert R. Phenix (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 227-54.

As Martens notes, there was a whole Greek vocabulary for the practice of having sex with children:  “pederastia” (“child-love”), “pederastes” (“child-lover”), etc.  Indeed, Roman-era poets and others celebrate the practice, and it seems to have been tolerated widely.  It was particularly slave-children who likely suffered the most.  But (and this is Martens’ contribution) in early Christian texts we see what appears to be a rejection of these benign and condoning terms in favour of terms to express forthrightly that the practice is evil and destructive [emphasis added].

In Christian texts from the second century onward, the person who engages in sex with children is called a “paidophthoros” (“child-corrupter/abuser”), and there is the prohibition, “do not corrupt/abuse children” (“me paidophthoreseis”).  Our earliest instances are in Epistle of Barnabas (10:6; 19:4) and Didache (2:2).  These terms seem to have been coined by early Christians to re-label and condemn the practice and those who engage in it:  Not “child-love,” but “child-corruption.”

Another important observation by Martens is that these texts show, not only that early Christians condemned the practice, but also that they recognized the need to avoid it among Christians.  The exhortations in these passages are in texts written primarily for Christians to read, and, along with the other exhortations, were intended to shape Christian behaviour collectively.

It’s fascinating to see how beliefs and stances on behaviour can generate terminology like this.  And it’s one indication of an early stage in the revolution in “sexual logic” generated by early Christianity that is described by Kyle Harper, From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013).

Is John Boehner Running For President?

Every time Trump supporters refer to Boehner, McConnell, Bush, the establishment, etc., we should keep in mind that they're doing nothing to explain why we should prefer Trump over Rubio, Walker, Cruz, Fiorina, Carson, and other candidates who can't rationally be placed in the same category as Boehner, et al. Punishing somebody like Walker or Cruz by supporting Trump instead, because you're upset with people like Boehner, makes no sense. If you're upset with Boehner, then do something about it in Ohio or in the House, not in a presidential campaign. When you get upset with your representative in the state legislature, do you normally take it out on gubernatorial candidates who have no significant connection with your representative in the legislature?

Besides, Boehner is far more reliably conservative than Trump. That's not because Boehner is so good. It's because Trump is so bad.

And while we are at it, let's throw the Republican anchor cry babies over Trump's Wall...

http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/ann-coulter-joins-trump-rips-speech-nazis/


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Damage Already Done By Trump

Here's an ABC story about how some states have been taking steps to prevent people like Donald Trump from eventually running as a third-party candidate if they want to first appear on the ballot as a Republican. I think it's good for the states to do that sort of thing. But one of the dangers of a campaign like Trump's is that it can so easily be replaced by another movement of a similar nature. The longer Trump is in the race, the more committed some of his supporters are likely to become to notions like the alleged corruption of the Republican leadership and the supposed unacceptability of all of Trump's rivals. Even if Trump were to leave the race without running as a third-party candidate, his campaign has already created an environment that makes it much easier for somebody like Trump, even if not Trump himself, to get significant support as an anti-Republican third-party candidate. Even if that candidate were to get as little as, say, half a percentage point or one percent, that could easily be enough to give the election to the Democrats. Trump's campaign and his irrational supporters have already done a lot of damage, even if Trump were to drop out tomorrow and never run as a third-party candidate. Maybe there won't be a significant anti-Republican third-party candidate in 2016. But the risk should never have been taken by starting or supporting a campaign like Trump's.

The Oedipus effect

I'm going to wade into shark-infested waters of racial politics.

i) The liberal establishment has a vested interest in not solving social dysfunctions. That's a source of power. That's a voting block. 

ii) Some Christians, usually white Christians (in my experience) advocate a colorblind policy. I agree with that in one respect. I think the justice system ought to be colorblind: equal justice under the law.

There are, however, people who disagree with that. They believe in distributive justice–a la John Rawls. They think inequality is inherently unjust. Not merely inequality of opportunity, but inequality of outcome. If there's social equality, that must be due to systemic racism. 

iii) A common contention is that due to past discrimination, it is necessary to have equalizing policies which offset past inequalities. "Level the playing-field." 

One problem I have with that framework is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a people-group is routinely typecast as the victim, there's a temptation to play the part. It perpetuates a cycle of failure when people perform according to script. The script conditions them to views themselves in self-defeating terms. That, in turn, affects how they behave. They make it come true. 

The narrative about slavery and Jim Crow functions like an oracle of doom that predisposes people to be losers, in the self-fulfilling belief the system is stacked against them. The result is fatalistic. We need to break the vicious cycle of that self-fulfilling malediction. 

iv) In my somewhat limited experience, black evangelicals diagnose the problem is the same way as secular academics and pundits. That includes the white privilege trope.

But if you insist on casting the issue in terms of privilege, it would be more accurate, and less aggravating, to frame it in terms of social class rather than ethnicity. There are people who come from privileged backgrounds. But that's an essentially socioeconomic category, not a racial or ethnic category. 

Now, the socioeconomic category can often overlap with the racial or ethnic category, but that's incidental to the "privileged" component, for anyone of any race or ethnicity can either have a privileged or underprivileged background.

To routinely frame "privilege" in racial or ethnic terms is both inaccurate and counterproductive. Because it's inaccurate, it provokes justified resentment. 

If fact, you can turn that around. What about black privilege? 

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/19/why-white-people-seek-black-privilege-2/

v) In my reading, the black commentariat is paranoid about the police. I realize that's an incendiary way of putting it, but I say it because I think it's true.

When a black "suspect" is shot, they jump to the conclusion that the police must be guilty of wrongdoing. That's not my own position.

I don't think there's any general presumption one way or the other. I don't assume, in advance of the facts, that when that happens, either side was innocent or guilty. I don't prejudge which is more likely. 

Sometimes the "suspect" had it coming. Sometimes the "suspect" was innocent. Sometimes the police overreacted. Sometimes the police were thugs.

On the one hand there's a lot of bona fide criminality in the black community. On the other hand, police abuse is underreported. And I think a fair percentage of police are bandits with badges. 

Let's be clear on what I mean: I don't think it's paranoid for black individuals to be nervous around the police. I don't think it's paranoid for them to be nervous if they sense they are being tailed by police. That's both understandable and justifiable. But I don't think the police are out to get blacks. 

But by the same token, they don't know what feels like to be a white driver when the lights are flashing in his rearview mirror. When you deal with the police, it's a gamble:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421656/black-lives-matter-statistics-police

vi) Apropos (v), the black commentariat says white folks like me just don't know what it's like to be black. That's a truism. But it cuts both ways. They don't know what it's like to be white. 

Whites are harassed by the police, too. Whites are shot by the police, too. 

That doesn't register with the black commentariat. They just assume if it happened to a white guy, that's an isolated incident, or he had it coming. They don't consider the possibility that we have a larger pattern of oppressive policing. 

vii) Apropos (vi), it's my impression that police are apt to profile young men, especially young men who dress and act like gang-bangers. That's the case whether you're black, white, Asian, or Latino. That's the demographic group that's most likely to be hassled by the police. 

viii) It wouldn't surprise me if there's a growing generation gap concerning popular perception of law enforcement. The older generation was raised to respect the police. Regard the police as trusted public servants. It's my impression that the younger generation is becoming more critical of law enforcement. The traditional deference is on the wane. 

v) I think one reason the black commentariat so often frames the issue in terms of white privilege, and discounts examples of police brutality against white "suspects," is that so long as whites are in the majority, that's ipso facto "privileged". 

However, that oversimplifies the nature of majorities. For instance, although whites are still in the majority, that doesn't mean conservative voters are in the majority. Just look at the last two presidential cycles. The minority experience isn't exclusively ethnic or racial. It can break along ideological lines. Conservative voters don't represent the dominant culture. Conversely, a coalition of special interests groups can add up to a majority voting block. 

"Bad Jesus"

1. Recently, apostate atheist Hector Avalos published The Bad Jesus. Last night I listened to his 2-part interview on the Inquisitive Minds podcast.

Even without reading his book, you get can a feel for the argument by perusing the table of contents:

Contents 1. Introduction    Basic Elements of the Argument 2. The Unloving Jesus: What’s New Is Old    Loving the Enemy in the Ancient Near East    Love Can Entail Violence    The Golden Rule: Love as Tactical    The Parochialism of New Testament Ethics 3. The Hateful Jesus: Luke 14.26    Jesus Commands Hate    Expressing Preference    Hate as a Motive for Divorce    The Statistics of Hate and Love    The Semantic Logic of Love and Hate 4. The Violent Jesus    Matthew 10.34-37: Jesus’ Violent Purpose    Matthew 5.38-42: Don’t Victimize Me, Please    Matthew. 26.48-56: Non-Interference with Planned Violence    John 2.15: Whipping up Pacifism    Acts 9: Jesus Assaults Saul 5. The Suicidal Jesus: The Violent Atonement    Jesus as a Willing Sacrificial Victim    Mark 10.45: Self-Sacrifice as a Ransom    Sacrifice as Service: Transformation or Denial?    2 Corinthians 5.18: Anselm Unrefuted    René Girard: Sacrificing Apologetics 6. The Imperialist Jesus: We’re All God’s Slaves    Rethinking ‘Anti-Imperialism’    Selective Anti-Imperialism    The Benign Rhetoric of Imperialism    Christ as Emperor    The Kingdom of God as an Empire 7. The Anti-Jewish Jesus: Socio-Rhetorical Criticism as Apologetics    Abuse Me, Please: Luke T. Johnson’s Apologetics    When is Anti-Judaism not Anti-Judaism?    When Did Christian Anti-Judaism Begin? 8. The Uneconomic Jesus as Enemy of the Poor    Jesus as Radical Egalitarian    The Fragrance of Poverty    Sermon on the Mount of Debts and Merits 9. The Misogynistic Jesus: Christian Feminism as Male Ancestor Worship    Mark 7//Matthew 15: The Misogynistic Jesus    Mark 10//Matthew 19: Divorcing Equality    The Womanless Twelve Apostles    The Last Supper: Guess Who’s Not Coming to Dinner    The Egalitarian Golden Age under Jesus 10. The Anti-Disabled Jesus: Less than Fully Human     Disability Studies    John 5 and 9: Redeeming Jesus    The Ethics of Punctuation    Paralyzed by Sin 11. The Magically Anti-Medical Jesus    Miracles, Not Magic?    The Naturalistic Jesus    Psychosomatic Ethics 12. The Eco-Hostile Jesus    Mark 5: Animal Rights and Deviled Ham    Luke 22 and Matthew 8: Sacrificing Animal Rights    Matthew 21: Fig-uratively Speaking    Mark 13: Eschatological Eco-Destruction 13. The Anti-Biblical Jesus: Missed Interpretations    Mel and Jesus: The Hypocrisy of New Testament Ethics    Mark 2:23-28: Jesus as Biblically Illiterate    Matthew 19: Jesus Adds his Own Twist on Divorce    Isaiah 6:9-10: Integrating Extrabiblical Materials 14. Conclusion     The Ethics of New Testament Ethics

http://www.sheffieldphoenix.com/showbook.asp?bkid=294

i) The basic strategy is clear. He cites examples which, based on his own interpretation, show that Jesus held views that are politically incorrect. That makes Jesus "bad." 

Of course, the conclusion only follows if you think the views of the Western secular elite c. 2015 supply the standard of comparison. 

ii) Hence, Jesus is "eco-hostile" because he was responsible for pigs drowning and a fig tree withering. Once again, that only makes Jesus "bad" if you share the views of Peter Singer and radical environmentalists.

iii) The two examples he cites here create a quandary for his position. Both examples involve the supernatural, which Avalos denies. So he doesn't think Jesus really transferred evils spirits from the demoniac to a herd of pigs. Likewise, he doesn't think Jesus really caused a fig tree to miraculously wither. From his standpoint, that's fictional or mythological. 

As for Jesus incinerating the earth when he returns, Sodom and Gomorrah were population centers. It wasn't firebombing nature, but targeting sinners. Smart bombs.

And even if (ex hypothesi), Jesus were to incinerate the earth, that would be resetting the clock. Like terraforming.  

Finally, Avalos doesn't actually believe Jesus will do that.  

iv) He interprets the healings naturalistically, as psychosomatic cures. But at best, that explanation is only plausible for certain kinds of medical conditions.

v) Sometimes his allegations depend on absurd interpretations. He has a tin-ear for hyperbole in Lk 14:26. 

vi) Sometimes his allegations are inconsistent with secular ethics. For instance, even if you say the atonement of Christ was suicidal, secular ethics doesn't consider suicide to be inherently wrong, much less altruistic suicide. Hume considered the taboo against suicide to be superstitious. 

2. In his interview, Avalos made the following claims: 

i) When historians study figures like Herod, Alexander the Great, and Augustus Caesar, they consider the good and the bad. But when they study Jesus, he can do no wrong. They defend his ethical superiority. That's because they filter him through the lens of Chalcedon and Nicea. They treat him as divine rather than human. They continue to employ a "religionist" agenda. That's despite their claim to study him as a historical figure. 

ii) Likewise, that's in spite of the fact that many things Jesus said and did are antithetical to many of the ethical norms we hold to today as good.

iii) If you interpret the Sermon on the Mount in the context of the Olivet Discourse, Mt 5 is a case of deferred violence rather than nonviolence.

iv) Jesus is eco-hostile. He's guilty of "anthropocentric" ethics because he cares more about human beings than animals. 

Likewise, at the day of judgment, he will destroy the biosphere. The day of judgement is like the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah on a global scale. 

v) Jesus was anti-Jewish. That's not at odds with his Jewish identity. Jews can speak against other Jews. Consider the intra-Jewish polemics in Isaiah, or Jewish sects like Qumran. Some Jewish sects accuse other Jews of not being the true Israel. So Jesus could be guilty of "ethnic slurs," like Jn 8:44. 

vi) Some scholars defend Jesus by denying that he said some of the things attributed to him in the Gospels. But that's circular. That's only supposing Jesus couldn't say that. But the scholars have no independent corroboration for what he could or couldn't say. 

vii) Apropos (vi), Avalos is not a Jesus mythicist or a Jesus historicist, but Jesus agnostic. We don't have enough data to know whether there was such a person as is described in the Gospels. 

Avalos calls himself an empiricist. We don't have anything from Jesus' time. Nothing contemporary. Our sources date from the 2C and beyond. Since we don't have the "original Jesus," we can't tell how representative our sources are. We lack that standard of comparison.

viii) Modern morality is based on empathy. That's an evolutionary survival mechanism. It makes you care about others. It's not based on rewards.

ix) Some critics of Christianity like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris speak outside their field of expertise. They aren't Bible scholars, and that hurts their case.

3. Let's run back through his interview and assess his claims:

i) What if Jesus really is different? What if Jesus really is divine? 

Avalos erects a false dichotomy between Jesus as a divine figure and the study of Jesus as a historical figure. But if Jesus is God Incarnate, then that's a historical event. A real life. Avalos begs the question.

ii) I agree with him that, considered light of eschatological justice, Jesus was not a pacifist. The Sermon on the Mount is indeed a case of deferred violence.

But that's only morally problematic if you think violence is intrinsically wrong. How can Avalos hope to justify that claim?

iii) Even on evolutionary ethics, man is the apex predator. Likewise, animals typically care about members of their own species rather than other species. So Avalos can't justify animal rights on a secular basis. 

And to say anthropocentric ethics is wrong begs the question against Christian ethics.

Moreover, Avalos is disingenuous. He is spouting radical chic nonsense that he himself doesn't take seriously. He wouldn't hesitate to kill an animal to feed or protect himself–if it came to that.

iv) Since Avalos isn't Jewish, why is he so judgmental concerning intramural disputes about who is the true Israel? That's none of his business. 

Consider intramural wars in atheism concerning who best represents atheism?

He disregards the fact that in Jn 8:44, Jesus is turning the allegation of the critics back on themselves.

v) I agree with him that scholars have no objective basis for distinguishing authentic words and deeds of Jesus from inauthentic words and deeds of Jesus in the canonical Gospels.

vi) To claim that our sources for Jesus date from the 2C at the earliest is bizarre. 

It's unclear what he means by "contemporary" or "from Jesus' time." Does he mean anything written after the death of Jesus is unoriginal? That only something written about him during his lifetime could be original?

If so, that's extremely arbitrary. For instance, a younger contemporary can write about an older contemporary after he died. A son or daughter can write about his late father or mother. He needn't write about them when they were still alive for his account to original. 

Oral history and living memory can be reliable decades after the event. Likewise, a historian can make use of firsthand accounts, even if the historian was not, himself, a firsthand observer. In addition, the sources can be much earlier than the history or biography that incorporates the sources.

Finally, do our sources of information for historical figures like Alexander the Great date from the time of Alexander? 

vii) Hector's skepticism generates a dilemma for his critique. He can only say the historical Jesus was bad if he knows what the historical Jesus said and did. If, however, he considers the canonical Gospels to be historically untrustworthy, then he's in no position to evaluate the ethics of the historical Jesus.

At best, he's evaluating the ethics of a fictional character. But what does that accomplish?

If your aim is to attack Christianity, the way to do that is not to attack the ethics of Jesus, but to attack the historicity of Jesus, and especially the divinity of Jesus. 

If Jesus was either a fictionally character or a merely human historical figure, then his moral teaching has no authority. Proving his teaching to be morally flawed would be superfluous. For the only reason Christians venerate his teaching is because they venerate his person as God Incarnate. 

Conversely, would Avalos attack the morality of Jesus if he thought Jesus really was God Incarnate? So the whole elaborate exercise is a misguided. 

viii) To make evolutionary ethics the standard of comparison is futile. To begin with, even if you accept naturalistic evolutionary psychology, that would only account for the origin of our moral sentiments. It would explain why we have instinctive feelings about right and wrong. But that wouldn't mean our moral instincts correspond to moral facts. To the contrary, our moral instincts would the byproduct of mindless, amoral evolutionary conditioning. Our sense of right and wrong would be arbitrary.

Even if, for the sake of argument, we grant his evolutionary narrative, natural selection doesn't foster universal empathy. Throughout human history, there's a double standard: empathy is reserved for members of your in-group. By contrast, there are no inhibitions on what you do to members of the out-group. 

There's a tension between altruism and self-interest. In case of conflict, do you save yourself at the expense of others, or save others at your own expense? Does the survival mechanism apply to the individual or the population? 

Even if evolution programmed humans to be altruistic, once we become aware of our programming, we can override our programming. It's just a form of brainwashing. It only works so long as you don't know that you were brainwashed. 

Unless Avalos has an objective standard to evaluate the ethics of Jesus, his critique is systematically tendentious. And he can't very well mount an internal critique of Jesus' ethics. He can't attack the ethics of Christ on Christian grounds, for the ethics of Christ are normative for Christian ethics.