Remarks and Asides

Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 07:32 AM

Gordon W. Thompson has written one sentence to the Globe:

Johnny Kaje’s remarks (Globe, Feb. 28) stating that women do not have a soul gland in their ovaries to bestow personhood status as an embryo is another example of an arrogant unbeliever mocking God.

Apparently, Mr. Thompson has discovered that women do in fact have a gland that secretes soul stuff, which helps the embryo develop into a full-fledged person. Maybe next time Mr. Thompson contacts the Mother Ship, he can obtain permission to reveal the cure for cancer.
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And Donald Miller has treated us to this little gem:

The croissant-eating wine-drinking liberal pukes can take everything now that we have a foreigner with their mind-set in the White House.

Another patriotic American, brought to you by Limbaugh, Inc. People around these parts sure do love America, so long as America looks and thinks like a Republican.
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On page 4A of Sunday’s Globe an interesting AP story, “Borrowing haunts churches,” shows how even God’s elect got caught up in the ways of the world. The story says:

Roland Leavell, president of Rives, Leavell & Co, a church bond broker in Jackson, Miss., said that firms specializing in church financing often aped their commercial loan counterparts, lending too much money without a thorough check of what their clients could afford.

I wonder how Republican apologists will blame Democrats for forcing religious financiers to loan money to unworthy churches?

Also, I wonder what the evangelical world is coming to:

The Evangelical Christian Credit Union, a major church lender with more than $700 million in loans last year, moved to foreclose on seven of its 1,100 loans in 2008, said Mark Johnson, the company’s executive vice president. The company has had “a noticeable increase” in late payments, and two more foreclosures are expected this year, he said.

Foreclosing on fellow believers? What would Jesus do?
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And on the same Sunday page, another story, “Pastor gives advice to grieving flock,” has the Reverend Al Meredith, whose Ft. Worth church ten years ago fell victim to a deranged killer, seeking to give advice to the latest church victims in Illinois. He tells them:

I don’t have three points and a poem on how to deal with tragedy. I don’t have any magic formula on how to emerge triumphantly.

So far, so good. Then Reverend Al adds:

If out of our tragedy God can use (that) that give hope and help to others, then its not worthless. It’s redemptive.

Let me get this straight: God is using one tragedy to help the victims of another tragedy? If God is busy “using” these sorts of things to help people, why isn’t he at least equally busy “stopping” the tragedies in the first place? Reverend Al’s comments are all too typical of those who are trying to make sense of the senseless via their religious dogma.

Again: If God is active in redeeming senseless tragedies, it is only fair to ask why he isn’t as active in preventing them.