Landings

I hope Barack Obama will be as steady-handed and lucky with the US economy as Capt. Sullenberger was yesterday as he carefully ditched his US Airways flight into the Hudson River after both engines lost power.

Thanks to multiple bird strikes - the collapse of the housing bubble, the credit freeze it precipitated, and two ongoing wars (do I need to say that wars cost a lot of money?) the economy's engines have choked. Inflation in 2008 was 0.1%, with the last three months of dropping consumer prices figured in. Usually, annual inflation is about 30 times greater - 3%.

Congress is mulling over a landing package of 825 billion dollars. Even if we land just right, without breaking off our wings or turning over in the water, it's likely that many of us will have to stand with freezing water up to our waists for a while, anyway.

The key to yesterday's rescue, and perhaps to the longer economic one will be not only the skill and luck of our pilot, but the fast arrival of ferries and rescue teams - a collective team effort - to make sure that not one person is lost beneath the freezing waves.

Um, no.

No, no, no. Obama is not the Antichrist. Thanks for spreading ridiculous crap, John McCain's candidacy.

I wish I had a snappier comeback - or something more insightful - but basically I've moved from thinking the Left Behind series was just poorly written and harmless, to being a dangerous tool o' manipulation. What else is there to say?

McCain's Race Card

About a week ago (I know, I'm slow on the news cycles...) John McCain jumped on Barack Obama for "playing the race card," by saying that the people running against him will point out Obama's differences from the guys you see on the dollar bills. Now, it might not be a fair accusation, but on the other hand, the McCain campaign moved pretty fast to highlight this remark of Obama's.

The main point here, though, is that while Obama may be trying to turn his racial identity into an advantage, John McCain has a race card that he can play every day, without having to say a word: he's white. That's all the race card he needs.

Obama Approaches Young Evangelicals

I'm excited to hear that Obama's reaching out to evangelical voters. It's even more interesting to learn he has plans to launch a "Joshua Generation" project for young Catholics and evangelicals. The basic idea is that there are some conservative Christians who are never going to vote for him because they disagree with him on abortion and gay marriage.

But there are others who see other issues as important values questions: poverty, the AIDS epidemic, and the environment, for example, and who might be willing to put those concerns ahead of the traditional "family values" litmus tests. I read a quote from one such person in the Christian Century a few weeks ago. He said (I am paraphrasing), "We like to joke that the people having the fewest abortions are married gay couples."

So, they've come up with a name, "The Joshua Generation Project," which is just about pitch-perfect as far as names go: it could be the sequel to The Prayer of Jabez, or one of the Left Behind series books. The basic idea is that Moses brought the Israelites to the promised land, but Joshua had to lead them into it to settle it.

One personal qualm about that choice of a name - Joshua was responsible for a LOT of killing to clear the land of Canaanites. I guess we'll have to assume the Joshua Generation's battles are not going to be quite so bloody.

The Obamas leave Trinity

Well, this has been out in the news for a while, I know, but I have still not decided how I feel about it. It is a shame that this year, at least, it isn't possible for a successful presidential candidate to be a serious, committed member of a progressive Christian church.

When I was a volunteer in DC, Bill and Hillary Clinton attended Foundry United Methodist Church, which was reasonably progressive. There was a GLBT fellowship group, for example, and during one uncomfortable sermon moment, the pastor looked directly at the President and told him to expand a nuclear arms treaty. But he was a white pastor, and this wasn't being recorded for YouTube.

In all, this is a clear reminder to me of the value of separating church and state. The aims of faith and the aims of politics diverge quite a bit. How much worse would it be for Trinity to compromise its faithfulness to God for the sake of political gain! I agree with Obama that his staying at Trinity would continue to provide a wealth of resources for journalists interested in scandal.

I know this, and yet it's still sad.

Obama Speech Part II

So, I've been doing a little more reading about the principles of tax law (any comments, my lawyer friends?), and it seems like the UCC might be in the clear if we consider the fact that Obama's appearance was not an endorsement of his candidacy by the church. It was probably supportive to his candidacy, but the basic purpose of the UCC is not to funnel money to Obama outside the campaign finance laws, or for other hidden/secret political purposes. We have some other stuff to do. So I'm feeling a little more hopeful.

Here's the Associated Press article.