Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
– W. B. Yeats

"White Crucifixion" by Marc Chagall

“Depressing”.

I have been seeing and hearing that word more frequently in reference to our current social-cultural-political condition. The other day was driving back to the church office after attempting to visit a woman whose husband had fallen asleep in the Lord the day before. Thinking about what is going on in the world but especially in our nation. And seriously wondering “is this what the beginning of the end looks like?”

How many could imagine 10 years ago that this is where we would be now?

Previous posts have expressed concern about expressing political opinions on this website. There is nothing inherently wrong with Christian citizens expressing their views on social-cultural-political issues. There are some who do it very well. From January 2009:

I am supposed to be a pastor. I do not equate the Christian faith with political conservatism or the Republican party. What of the things of God that transcend our current historical and political circumstances?

Which is a dangerous and possibly a deeply flawed question. Perhaps better to ask, What does God call us to do and who does God call us to be in and during such circumstances? (link added)

Yes I am an American citizen. Who is deeply troubled by what is happening around us. I am concerned on behalf of my family – in what kind of America will my children live? – on behalf of my fellow citizens and even on behalf of the people of the other nations of the world.

One might legitimately ask “what does this have to do with the Christian life? and the mission of the Christian church?” Let me put it to you this way dear readers. How much more difficult will it become during the next few decades to proclaim the teachings of the Christian faith? to practice the Christian life? to engage in Christian mission?

Let me be more specific.

Start with money and budgets.

Severe economic recession means less people work or people work less and/or people have less on which to live. Which also means they are less able to contribute to the ministry and mission of the Christian church. I am concerned about how the moratorium on offshore drilling will affect Louisiana as a whole and University Baptist Church in particular.

I hesitate to attempt to list some of what I see happening to our nation:

• Our nation is becoming increasingly divided and polarized along several different lines.
• Racial relations are arguably the worst they have been in 20-30 years.
• We have trillion-plus dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.
• We have an increasingly unsustainable national debt that will weigh down our economy for decades.
• We have the highest unemployment levels in decades.
• We have a national government that has effectively taken over huge portions of the American economy.
• Let us be specific. (1) Healthcare (2) Finance and banking (3) Energy. There may be others.
• We have a national government that in attempting to address a genuine problem makes it far worse.
• We have a national government that is attempting to take primary control of secondary education.
• We have a national government that makes it increasingly difficult for small businesses to succeed.
• We have a national government that to a large extent chooses winners and losers in the economy.
• We have a national government that increasingly rewards failure and punishes success.
• We have a national government that increasingly transfers wealth from those who invest and produce to those who do not.
• We have a national government that does not follow its own rules and procedures.
• We have a national government that tells the American people one thing but practices another.
• We have an administration that increasingly exercises power outside the limits set by the Constitution.
• We have an administration that attempts to marginalize political dissent.
• We have a national government that does not demonstrate basic reverence. That right there might be the most serious problem that gives rise to most of the others.
• We have an administration that alienates our friends and allies and attempts to placate nations traditionally hostile to the United States.
• We have an administration that appears unwilling to understand and confront terrorism motivated by radical Islam.
• We have an administration that uses genuine crises as bargaining chips for making changes in domestic policy.
• We have an administration that is openly hostile toward states that are attempting to protect the well being of their own people.
• We have a president who consistently misrepresents principled disagreements with his policies.
• We have a president who attacks those who disagree with him precisely when they for reasons of propriety are unable to respond.
• We have a Mainstream Media that subordinates journalism to political activism.
• We have a Mainstream Media that keeps some news from the American people and distorts what news it does report.
• What have an entertainment industry that is openly hostile toward most Americans and the values they hold.
• We have a large percentage of the African-American community suffering the destructive effects of policies promulgated by the very people they support with their votes.

And so on and so on and so on. (Ed – I will work on providing links for many of the points listed above.)

But there are two thoughts that occur to me.

First – why do I have to be the person who keeps up with and writes about these issues? I should trust others to do this. And trust that what they write will not go unread. As a Christian pastor I may read about care about and have strong opinions about these issues. But they are not my primary responsibility. Do I have a “right” to write about social-cultural-political issues? Yes. But I need to trust that other people will do that.

With one qualification. I will keep the links and newsfeeds. Even expand them.  Precisely so that the important things other people write are more likely to be noticed read and cited.

Second – no matter how much “things fall apart” around us do we trust God? Do we trust that God will guide? protect? provide for us during such times? The vast majority of the people of God for the vast majority of human history have had to live in and through far worse. The argument can be made that it is during the worst times that the Christian church shines brightest.

So as difficult as it is – and I ask for your prayers and support and encouragement in this – I will attempt to shift the focus on this website back to what it was originally meant to be.

• Christian theology and practice. Which means many different kinds of things including sermons and Bible studies and reflections.
• Fun and personal stuff. Which means many different kinds of things including book and movie reviews as well as posts about music and literature which are areas of interest.

I was planning on neatly contradicting myself with a few “parting shots”. A few points I wanted to make before – by the grace of God – getting away from social-cultural-political commentary. About Journolist. About how “our” side is not allowed to make any mistakes at all while the “other” side never holds itself accountable for a plethora of failures. About Andrew Breitbart. About the whole Shirley Sherrod debacle. About who truly is primarily responsible for the sudden rapid disintegration of race relations. About President Obama as a Marxist-Leninist.

But I will trust God by trusting him to inspire others to address these points.

How much will these stories affect the average American personally? With respect to Opinionated Catholic they do affect us if indirectly. Political culture -> elections and policy.

But quite rightly he urges us to pay more attention to the Obama administration ban on offshore drilling. How it will destroy up to 100,000 jobs in Louisiana. And adversely effect national security. As well as the national economy. Two days ago there was a rally in Lafayette which 11,000 people attended. Governor Jindal says it powerfully and without notes or a teleprompter.

Which leads to a couple other thoughts.

In the car talking with my wife. She asked “If we lived in some other part of the country would we feel differently?” I said yes. I would probably think “Sorry Louisiana we care about your jobs and economy and all but you need to make this sacrifice for the greater good. You can always move to another state and/or get another job”. I would not understand.

But here is the other thing. How much is this not how the federal government works? We praise our representatives when they bring home the bacon. When they speak up and intervene on behalf of our interests. Which by the way raises questions about Senator Mary Landrieu.

How often do politicians in both major parties go the extra mile to save some jobs or some way of life in some other part of the country and yes at the expense of the common good? Let us be more specific. How much has the Obama administration done to help save(?) jobs in California? Michigan? and so on? States that are in such bad economic shape largely because of years of bad policies?

How much has the Obama administration done to help save jobs in certain select businesses? especially large corporations? Corporations that are in such bad shape largely because of years of bad decisions?

Do people see the inconsistency here? Oh those poor teachers and government workers in California. Take billions of dollars of taxpayer money and send it to them in the form of “economic stimulus”. Oh those poor  workers in automobile manufacturing companies. Take billions of dollars of taxpayer money and bail them out. Let me tell you about the millions of jobs that were saved or created! Let me boast about the “economic stimulus” with specific examples of a few hundred or a few thousand jobs here and there!

But when it comes to the Gulf Coast. When it comes to Louisiana.

By indifference inaction and active obstruction the Obama administration helped turn an environmental crisis into wholesale environmental catastrophe. Which in turn devastates a regional economy still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

And then not only doing nothing to help protect the environment and save jobs also doing something to destroy jobs in Louisiana.

Poor California. Poor Michigan. Poor teachers.* Poor government workers. Poor car companies. Poor home owners. Poor this state. Poor that group. Have some legislation. Have some money. At the expense of the common good.

But Louisiana? Bleep you.

*(Disclose: my wife was a state employee and now a teacher. Our family benefits from the very policies that I criticize. Louisiana will have to face the same day of reckoning that other states are now facing.)

One of my friends teaches Chinese to foreign students at Northwestern A and F University in Yangling (an hour from Xi’an), Shaanxi province. Apparently the African Student Association organized a big party/cultural celebration. She was invited and took me along. I was looking forward to it partly because my ministry is with foreign academics. For once the Chinese were not the foreign guests but rather the hosts.

There are something like 150(?) foreign graduate students at this predominantly agricultural university in northwest China. Nearly all of them are from Asia or Africa. They came from several different nations in each continent. There were especially large numbers of students from three nations: Pakistan and Cameroon and Egypt.

It is interesting to compare the situation at Louisiana State University and Southern University in Baton Rouge to the situation at Northwestern A and F University. Here in Baton Rouge most of these graduate students would not have to learn English – although they would still have to take and pass English language exams. But they have chosen to study in China where they must spend at least one year learning to speak and even read(!) Chinese before they can begin their graduate study.

That tells you something about how people in other nations view the quality of education in China. The United States is not the only place bright talented people in other nations consider for advanced degrees. For many Africans China – even with its very different language and culture – is an attractive choice.

Hold that thought for a moment.

A few times during my journey I had a chance to catch up on Chinese news. I noticed several articles in China Daily – and yes I am aware it is to some extent a propaganda organ of the Chinese government – that discussed trade relations with Africa. Americans need to realize that the United States is not the only big kid in the global neighborhood. China increasingly is forming strong relationships with other nations. This is especially true in Africa.

One of the articles in China Daily explained that African nations appreciate working with China on trade and development because China understands African priorities and interests more than Western nations such as the United States. American companies emphasize resources – we are interested in oil metal wood and so on. But China emphasizes agriculture and infrastructure – which is exactly what African nations care about the most. They feel that the Chinese are more sensitive to what Africans consider most important. “Help us feed our people. Help us develop our nations. And then we can talk about harvesting all those wonderful resources that the Americans want so much”.

I started wondering “is America missing out on opportunities in Africa – opportunities for trade and business? because we are not listening closely enough to their needs and concerns? Or is this just Chinese propaganda?”

This weekend I talked with our friend from Kenya – who also did most of the preaching for Church of the Nations while I was on leave. His is finishing a PhD in international development at Southern University. He follows politics very closely and would probably know the situation.

He confirmed my impression and concern. Oh yes – Africa is forming very strong ties to China. In fact African nations look to China more than to the United States. China is Kenya’s number one trade partner. China is helping Kenya build roads and highways. And most goods in Kenyan shops and stores are from Chinese companies.

And recently? Has there been any changes with the Obama Administration?

No. In fact President Obama has done very little with regard to Africa besides a trip to Ghana. My Kenyan friend pointed out that many people seem unaware how much President Bush did for Africa – huge amounts of money to fight diseases such as malaria and AIDS. (In President Obama’s defense he probably needs to focus more on domestic crises – at least for a while.) Recently President Obama sent Vice-President Biden to Kenya to pressure the Kenyan government to pass a new constitution. Even to say that America must “approve” the politicians involved in producing the new constitution.

This does not sit well at all with the Kenyan government or people. Kenya is predominantly Christian. And most of those Kenyan Christians are strongly opposed to this new constitution because of (1) its inclusion/recognition of sharia (2) abortion (3) same-sex marriages. Which if you think about it is a perverse contradiction. Give Muslims more social and political power. Oh and let’s have more abortion and same-sex relations. Which Islam – not to mention Christianity – generally disapproves.

So while Africa draws closer to China – because China’s interests align much more closely with African concerns – the United States is missing out on opportunities for trade and to do business in Africa. Partly because what we care about most is not what Africans see as most important. And partly because we expect African governments to do things our way.

It may look like I am just trying to pick on the Obama Administration again. And to be honest yes I am. For all the hyperbolic rhetoric about “resetting” America’s international relations the stark reality is that we are wasting opportunities. And soon it will be too late. Africa increasingly will see China as its big sister nay its auntie – wise and strong and looking out for African interests. As opposed to that petulant teenager across the Atlantic otherwise known at the United States.

Duflo has been a leader in using randomized field experiments to address important questions concerning public policy in developing countries. In one series of papers, she and various coauthors study the impact of female political leadership on local government spending and attitudes toward women by examining a policy that required one-third of India’s villages, selected at random in each election cycle, to choose a woman as council head. She finds, for example, that villages forced to choose female council heads shift local government spending away from education and towards drinking water and (in some areas) roads. Another series of papers measures the effects of various randomized educational interventions, such as the introduction of teacher aids (local women with some secondary education but no formal teacher training), a computer-assisted math program, reductions in pupil-teacher ratios, ability grouping, various forms of monitoring and incentives to reduce teacher absenteeism, and programs designed to encourage community participation. For example, in work with Abhijit Banerjee, Rukmini Banerji, Rachel Glennerster, and Stuti Khemani, she investigates the effects of three randomly assigned programs targeting community participation. The first informed villagers about opportunities to participate in school governance and monitoring committees, the second trained villagers to use a testing tool, and the third organized literate villagers to hold remedial reading classes for illiterate children. The study concludes that the interventions had no impact on community involvement in the schools, no impact on teacher effort, and no impact on students’ achievement in school.

For the record and much to my shame I have never taken a single economics class. I do not have enough knowledge or authority to evaluate the work of Duflo. But “how to improve results in some area of society” is of interest to me. Especially if that area is education. Often we look at some area of society that could be doing better. We need to do something! And after spending time and money we pat ourselves on the back for caring and for having done something.

Even though it did not make any difference.

When my wife worked at a school for troubled youth in Dryden New York there was a professor from Cornell who spent a year working with the students to help improve their self-image and thereby improve their behavior and their academic performance. At the end of the year he had to admit that his best efforts did not make any discernible difference. Good theory and best intentions are not always enough. This is something most good conservatives understand.

My intent is not to criticize or mock those who attempt to intervene in such situations. Or to suggest we should never attempt to do something. Only that I found it interesting that a top economics professor looked at a nation’s best efforts to improve something and found that it did not work.

So what does work?

H/T Greg Mankiw

Gay Patriot makes the interesting comment that they feel more comfortable being gay at a Tea Party gathering than being conservative at a gay community gathering.

In another post they ask:

So, why, I wonder, can’t White House officials, Democratic Congressman and Senators and left-of-center opinion-makers show the same respect for the Tea Party movement? To be sure, many do, but they appear drowned out by a narrow-minded multitude.*

We’ve got reports of Democratic officials in one state bending over backwards to deploy Tea Party Crashers.*   And we’ve got one guy boasting of his efforts to do the same.  Should they succeed, I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that some in the MSM will report the left-wingers’ masquerade as genuine tea party hatred.** (emphasis added)

*What was that about defining by extremes?

**You find that difficult to believe? Let me tell you a story.

For 3 years was president of the “pro-life” group Cornell Coalition for Life. There was no “pro-choice” group until 1988. They kicked off with a big Rally for Choice on the arts quad with speakers and a band. Fair enough. People should be free to advocate for what they think is just and against what they think is unjust.

I organized a counter-march. 20 against 200. Just carry “pro-life” signs and walk quietly around the quad. We ran into another group carrying signs against abortion and women who seek abortions. The signs were inflammatory and offensive. I recognized some of these people as active in far left causes. One brave woman from our group confronted them. They said they were taking a stand for women’s reproductive freedom. Oh.

Later that year we put up fliers for a “pro-life” presentation. The next day they were gone and replaced by fake fliers that were similar in design. “Life” was replaced by “Obey”. Nazi salutes were added.

Just as the presentation began these fake “pro-life” activists burst into the room singing patriotic songs and carrying American flags. Announced they were from the Coalition for Life. I said no you’re not. They made some offensive and inflammatory remarks against abortion and finally left.

In my 1989 Cornell yearbook is a picture of the Rally for Choice. There is a picture of these fake “pro-life” activists with their offensive signs. Beneath the picture is a caption. “Members of the Coalition for Life stage protest”.

Update 04/20/2010: Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney spent time at a Tea Party rally and found that even though he disagrees with Tea Party activists on 95% of the issues they are not angry racist violent people.

For the record I am not in that 24%. I am sympathetic to its concerns about the size and reach of government and its deleterious effect on freedom opportunity responsibility and prosperity. The leader of the local Tea Party movement is a good man with a servant heart who used to be part of my ministry team.

H/T Ace of Spades HQ.

After basking in the glory of having made the Sweet Sixteen in men’s college basketball Cornell University is in the news because of strongly offensive words a faculty member allegedly said to two African-American graduate students at a conference on black intellectuals in Rochester. Many students and faculty are not pleased with the administration’s apparent lack of response. Not good.

H/T Althouse.

Congressman Barney Frank was on a plane from Los Angeles to Boston. Two ophthalmologists on their way to a conference began to complain loudly about the health care reform legislation. Congressman Frank said sorry I would just like to sit and read. His partner said something impolite and it quickly turned into standing and shouting. Finally the two women calmed down and kept quiet for the rest of the flight.

I have a very low opinion of Congressman Frank but the way these two doctors behaved was completely unacceptable. This was an airplane at 30,000 feet. Wrong place and wrong time. Leave the man alone. Props to Congressman Frank for a genuinely clever comment:

“It reminds me of the joke about the woman who’s in a restaurant and Clark Gable‘s there. She complains to the waiter, ‘Clark Gable is annoying me.’ The waiter says, ‘He’s not even talking to you,’ and she says, ‘Yes, and I find that very annoying.’”

Heh. Good one.

H/T Althouse.

Tea Party 48% Obama 44% says Rasmussen.

For the record I am not terribly interested in tracking approval or disapproval of President Obama. I am much more interested in tracking approval or disapproval of Congress. My interest is in the first part of that report.

Close your eyes click your heels three times and say “There’s no narrative but ours”.

Update 04/16/2010: Good piece by David Harsanyi about how the Tea Party movement is not as evil racist and stupid as the left would have us think and is much more educated sophisticated and mainstream than some might realize.

Greg Mankiw has two recent posts which explain why that might not work.

There is a common perception in some circles that we can solve all our fiscal problems if only we were willing to tax the rich some more. Yet, in reality, there are not enough rich for this to work. By presenting such a skewed cross-section of incomes, Parade inadvertently feeds an all-too-common misperception.

Read the whole thing here.

Wait. Are you sure about that? I am sure there are enough rich people if we just tax them heavily enough. From the Washington Post:

What if we raised taxes only on families with couples making more than $250,000 a year and on individuals making more than $200,000? The top two income tax rates would have to more than double, with the top rate hitting almost 77 percent, to get the deficit down to 3 percent of GDP.

H/T Greg Mankiw’s Blog

But the more relevant question is why would we want to do this?

I have been aware of this for several months. But with April 15 approaching it is getting more air time.

We are reaching a tipping point. Nearly half the American population pays no federal income tax.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it’s simply somebody else’s problem.

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability.

The result is a tax system that exempts almost half the country from paying for programs that benefit everyone, including national defense, public safety, infrastructure and education. It is a system in which the top 10 percent of earners — households making an average of $366,400 in 2006 — paid about 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government.

Now why does that matter? Because it means half the American population has no direct stake in controlling the size and reach of government. Granted that is not quite precise. It means half the American population can theoretically vote for politicians who will take money from the highest income earners and transfer it to them in whatever form.

“I would like someone to pay my mortgage. Pay for my health care. Pay for my college education. So I will make those people over there do it. And since there are more people like me than there are people like them there is nothing they can do”.

No it is not quite that simple for a variety of reasons. Most people in the bottom half of income earners surely are not  thinking or saying this. Not everyone votes solely out of self-interest. Not everyone (a) pays no federal income tax or (b) receives more in refunds and benefits than they give because they are selfish. I was in the $10-20,000 income range for several years although never paid nothing in federal income taxes. Furthermore the top half of income earners are more often the ones who start businesses and buy goods and services that keep the bottom half employed and better able to move into the top half. Put it this way. Yeah sure the bottom half can just live of the top half. But would they want to?

Given a choice between living on $15,000 and not working or working and living on $30,000 which would you choose?

Still we are at a dangerous point. If the federal government raises taxes on the top half thereby strangling job creation and economic growth the bottom half might not notice or care until it is too late and even then might not understand why this economic recession is turning into a prolonged depression. When everybody pays something we are all better off because everyone has a direct stake in keeping the size and cost of government under control.

For the record I do not believe in progressive tax rates. But I do believe strongly in deductions. See my posts on energy policy. A $1 per gallon increase in the cost of gasoline is a nuisance for someone making over $100,000. But for the working poor it can be disastrous.

Oh and since my wife manages our finances am not entirely sure what our household income is or how much we pay in taxes. I think we are in the bottom of the upper half because we always pay something.

[National Review Online does not make it easy to peruse the archives. I could only find one out of four articles from yesterday evening.]

Richard Vedder challenges President Obama’s claims that revamping the student loan program will make college more affordable. He also wonders just what good it does to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. We will be over-educated and over-indebted. Ah but it supports a system that to a large extent fosters leftist statism in its charges yes?

Neal McCluskey argues that this is not really a federal takeover of the student loan program. That ship sailed a long time ago. I recall Charles Krauthammer saying something similar several months ago. But McCluskey also notes getting one thing right does not fix all the wrongs that still exist.

Daniel Foster exposes “the Left’s most brilliant rhetorical feat — magically transforming failed corporate-statist half-measures they once championed into examples of the sorry state of the status quo and arguments for yet more statism”. It is a vicious cycle. Statist solutions make real problems worse. So then we need more statism.

Jonah Goldberg (quickly becoming another of my favorite commentators) decisively rebuts efforts by the left to compare true liberal opposition to Obamism with Kristallnacht.

Let me wrap up by saying what President Obama is attempting to do with higher education is at least as problematic as what Congress has done with health care. Some true liberal aka “conservative” commentators argued that the push for health care reform exhausted the president and congressional leadership. That they would take a long breather before attempting any more major initiatives. Boy were we wrong. Higher education. Financial system. Labor relations. Immigration reform. It seems we are just getting started. Remake America. Neutralize the opposition. Import new voters who will support the leftist statist ideology.