the history and decline of "Christianity Lite"

From Mary Eberstadt in First Things...

Eberstadt opens with a reference to "Benedict XVI’s landmark announcement in October 2009 offering members of the Anglican Communion a fast track into the Catholic Church". She notes that this "may not seem to amount to much"-- in terms of numbers, "mere drops in the Vatican’s bucket".

But in the longer run—say, over the coming decades—Rome’s move looks consequential in another way. It is the latest and most dramatic example of how orthodoxy, rather than dissent, seems once again to have taken the driver’s seat of Christianity.

...the progressives left behind [among the Anglicans] may well find the exodus of their adversaries a Pyrrhic victory. How will they possibly make peace with the real majority of Anglicans today—the churches in Africa, whose leaders have repeatedly denounced the Communion’s abandonment of traditional teachings?...

Even so, it is the still longer run of Christian history whose outlines may now be most interesting and unexpected of all....not only the beginning of the end of the Anglican Communion but indeed the end of something even larger: the phenomenon of Christianity Lite itself...

If it is Christianity Lite, rather than Christianity proper, that is fatally flawed and ultimately unable to sustain itself, then a rewriting of much of contemporary thought, religious and secular, appears in order....

What is at the height of this divorce?

Ask any contemporary Mainline Protestant what most distinguishes his or her version of Christianity from that of Roman Catholicism, and you will likely get some version of this response: Catholics are still hung up on sex, and we’re not. They prohibit things like divorce and birth control and abortion and homosexuality, and we don’t. Moreover, this rendition of the facts would be essentially correct....

How did sex, of all subjects, come to occupy such a prominent place in the division of Christendom? In a sense, the potential was always there. From the first believers on up, the stern stuff of the Christian moral code has been cause for commentary—to say nothing of complaint. “Not all men can receive this saying,” the disciples are told when Jesus puts divorce off limits....

Yet to say that the sexual revolution made Christianity Lite inevitable, as many people would, is to miss an important historical point. It was the Anglicans who first started picking apart the tapestry of Christian sexual morality—hundreds of years ago, long before the sexual revolution, and over one particular thread: divorce. In fact, in a fascinating development now visible in retrospect, the Anglican departure over divorce appears as the template for all subsequent exercises in Christianity Lite.

For about two centuries, and despite its having been midwifed into existence by the divorcing Henry VIII, the Church of England held fast to the same principle of the indissolubility of marriage on which the rest of Christian tradition insisted....Even so, this early dedication to principle would turn out not to hold...

This same pattern of dissent over sexuality, followed by decline in both numbers and practice, also appears clearly in the other churches dedicated to Christianity Lite, those of the Protestant mainline in addition to the Episcopal Church....

This leads to a third pattern arising from the experiment of Christianity Lite: the ongoing and inarguable institutional decline of the churches that have tried it....Across the board, funding is down, numbers are down, numbers of the young are especially down, and missionaries—one particularly good measure of the vibrancy of belief—are diminishing apace. Even the kind of social work for which Christian churches have been renowned is also down: Mainline volunteerism, according to the new Barna numbers, has dropped a shocking 21 percent since 1998...

Since Dean Kelley’s work in the 1970s, culminating in the book Why Strict Churches Are Strong, observers have tried to make sense of that phenomenon....[including] “simple demographics” [fewer babies]...People who cannot be expected to obey in difficult matters cannot be expected to obey in easier ones either. In the 1950s, almost half the population of the Church of England attended services on Sunday. By 2000, that figure was around 7 percent, and that includes Charismatic and Pentecostal affiliates....what might be called the hidden power of the Christian moral code: its by now undeniable resonance with at least some human beings....

C.S. Lewis quote-of-the-week

“If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such arguments when I began to be afraid it was true), you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, ‘So there’s your boasted new man! Give me the old kind.’ But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue.”

--Mere Christianity, book 4, ch. 10

the problems with the global warming debate

From William Anderson in First Things...

These days, in the matter of climate change, simple epistemology has become a matter of dispute. Competing visions prefer appeals to emotion. After a plausible beginning some three decades ago, testable hypotheses concerning climate have faded into the background—eclipsed by an ever-ramifying and near-impenetrable tangle of acrimonious accusations, ad hominem arguments, well-poisoning, and appeals to authority.

Some of the frequently heard assertions may now be fairly judged as false to a moral certainty:

“The science is in, settled, or enjoys overwhelming consensus.”

“Those who disagree cannot be trusted because they have a vested interest in the outcome.”...The statement does not discriminate between believers and skeptics and is an empty assertion.

“Even if the current findings are uncertain, the application of a ‘precautionary principle’ requires that we act to avert catastrophe, just in case.” Again, the assertion is logically untenable, since it assumes what it purports to prove....

These three propositions, still frequently proclaimed, serve only to distract and mislead. Reasonable debate should not involve their use.

As for those controversies that cannot be settled by the use of logic alone, they are of two types: questions of process and of content. The problems with the process of climate science begin with the corruption of the peer-review process....

Worse, these same investigators refused to disclose their original data and their methods of analysis, threatening to destroy data rather than comply with freedom-of-information demands, as required by law. This action constitutes scientific malfeasance of the gravest type. Alone it is sufficient to discredit their entire enterprise.

A second problem with the process is the corruption of the original data....

Noonan on Obama's SOTU speech

Peggy Noonan in the WSJ...

She opens with the "three-shot" of Biden and especially Pelosi behind Obama during the speech.

But the three-shot the other night was also the president's problem. It underscored that he gave the first year of his presidency to the Democrats of Congress, that they wrote the costly and unpopular health-care and spending bills.

James Baker, that shrewd and knowing man, never, as Ronald Reagan's chief of staff, allowed his president to muck about with congressmen, including those of his own party. A president has stature and must be held apart from Congress critters....

That's how you treat them. You don't let them blur your picture and make you more common. You don't let them call the big shots.

And then this, on what the speech did and did not do:

President Obama's speech was not a pivot, a lunge or a plunge. It was a little of this and a little of that, a groping toward a place where the president might successfully stand. It was well written and performed with élan. The president will get some bounce from it, and the bounce will go away. Speeches are not magic, and this one did not rescue him from his political predicament, but it did allow him to live to fight another day. In that narrow way it was a success. But divisions may already have hardened. In our current media and political environment, it is a terrible thing to make a bad impression in your first year.

As the TV cameras panned the chamber, I saw a friendly acquaintance of the president, a Republican who bears him no animus. Why, I asked him later, did the president not move decisively to the political center?

Because he is more "intellectually honest" than that, he said. "I don't think he can do a Bill Clinton pivot, because he's not a pragmatist, he's an ideologue. He's a community organizer. He mixes the discrimination he felt as a young man with the hardship so many feel in this country, and he wants to change it and the way to change that is government programs and not opportunity."

temporary good news for the economy

From Justin Lahart in the WSJ...

The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in six years in the last three months of 2009, expanding at a 5.7% yearly rate over the previous quarter, as businesses drew less from their stockrooms and stepped up purchases of equipment and software. Exports surged and consumers spent more.

But the pace of the recovery is unlikely to continue as strongly once the temporary jolt from the inventory drawdown passes and government stimulus fades, keeping unemployment high through the end of the year....

Of the 5.7% rise in gross domestic product, 3.4 percentage points came from businesses shrinking inventories more slowly than in the previous quarter. That's a plus for economic growth: When businesses pull fewer goods from warehouses, they have to produce more...

Jonathan Meador hates babies

Jonathan Meador in this week's LEO:

You have to give it to the Kentucky Senate. When it comes to putting women in their rightful, Victorian-era places, nobody does it better (or worse). Earlier this week, the state Senate made their hatred of all things vaginal complete when they passed S.B. 38, which would require any woman seeking an abortion to undergo a mandatory ultrasound. FYI: The bill was introduced by right-wing shill and possible human being, Sen. Elizabeth Tori, R-10, who home phone number is...

By the same "logic", Meador "hates" babies. He wants them in their rightful, Roe v. Wade place-- the trashcan.

It'd also be interesting to know whether he likes similar regulations on gun control-- or more broadly, regulations on economic exchange and campaign finance, applauds the government's education monopoly and income redistribution, etc.


UPDATE: For an equally interesting post from Jake Payne at PageOne, click here.

libertarian Hollywood?

From Carl Horowitz at TownHall.com...

Horowitz opens with a quote from Clint Eastwood, one of the more famous libertarians: “I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone.”

Culture War polemicists who imagine themselves to be carrying the torch of liberty frequently proclaim that today’s film producers and directors “mock” and “ridicule” our nation’s cherished values....Actually, the “agenda” of today’s American filmmakers, aside from making money, is storytelling....If the politics of certain longtime filmmakers (Mike Nichols and Spike Lee come to mind) veer leftward, that’s not propaganda. It’s called a point of view. And everyone has one.

Now for the main point: Hollywood does have a reigning political sensibility. It’s called libertarianism, or more accurately, individualist libertarianism. Now before your jaw drops further, I’m not saying that audiences regularly exit local multiplexes ready to storm the barricades for Ron Paul. That’s not the way film, even political film, works....But it is an underappreciated fact that the fight for liberty is a common theme in recent movies, and not just those directed by Clint Eastwood or starring (Cato Institute supporter) Kurt Russell....

If you want hard evidence, the best place to look would be the celluloid heirs to George Orwell’s 1984. Recent feature films such as Enemy of the State, Minority Report and Eagle Eye each revolve around a latter-day Winston Smith, forced on the run from a centralized force armed to the teeth with hyper-sophisticated surveillance technology...resistance to Big Brother-run technocratic dystopia animates Demolition Man, The Sixth Day, Blade Runner, Dark City, The Matrix trilogy, Escape from New York, and its sequel, Escape from L.A.

There is also a low-key variation on this theme of an individual rebelling against his controlled existence: naïve Everyman awakened. Outstanding examples include Groundhog Day, Stranger than Fiction, Pleasantville, Gattaca and The Truman Show. Each film is, at bottom, a libertarian critique of how modern video culture blurs actual and simulated reality to the detriment of the individual....

A conservative strain within the theme of libertarian resistance to the centralized perfection of mankind also finds expression in movies based on the science fiction of Michael Crichton....

Recent westerns, such as Unforgiven, Open Range and Appaloosa, contain a strong undercurrent of libertarian moral realism; in the Wild West, where even lawmen can be lawless, an honest man has to defend himself with whatever it takes....

Many full-length animated productions, especially Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles, palpably celebrate liberty....

In the face of all this, why, then, do self-styled culture warriors insist that Hollywood is a vast anti-American Leftist monolith? Aside from sheer intellectual laziness, the most plausible explanation lies with their need to rouse the rabble....

"Simpson's Paradox" and comparing this recession with the early 1980s

From Cari Tuna in the WSJ (hat tip: Linda Christiansen)...

Is the current economic slump worse than the recession of the early 1980s?

Measured by unemployment, the answer appears to be no, or at least not yet. The jobless rate was 10.2% in October, compared with a peak of 10.8% in November and December of 1982.

But viewed another way, the current recession looks worse, not better. The unemployment rate among college graduates is higher than during the 1980s recession. Ditto for workers with some college, high-school graduates and high-school dropouts....

So how can the overall unemployment rate be lower today but higher among each group? The anomaly is an example of Simpson's Paradox -- a common but misleading statistical phenomenon rooted in the differing sizes of subgroups. Put simply, Simpson's Paradox reveals that aggregated data can appear to reverse important trends in the numbers being combined.

The jobless rates for each educational subgroup are higher today, but the overall rate is lower because workers are more educated. There are more college graduates, who have the lowest unemployment rate. And there are fewer high-school dropouts, who have the highest unemployment rate....

the cost of government-- and just trying to get a question answered

Debbie Harbeson in the Jeff/NA News-Tribune...

It was a simple question. I only wanted to know the cost of two recent mailings I received from a couple of state government employees who claim to represent me....I did not get an answer to my question. Oh, I received responses; they just didn’t answer the question. Maybe that’s all I can expect from politicians.

The first?

...an oversized postcard from State Rep. Paul Robertson...I e-mailed him to inquire about the cost of mailing the postcard. He responded to me very quickly and told me it costs 44 cents to mail a postcard. I replied explaining more clearly that I wanted to know the entire cost which would include design and production, as well as the number of postcards mailed.

Time passed with no answer, so I sent another request and this time an assistant replied, who said he was waiting on an answer from the publications office. More time passed and I sent another request reminding them of my inquiry.

Later that day, I noticed someone from a state government computer did an Internet search and found my Web site, which led to my blog, which led to this person checking out the blog’s archives. This happened minutes after resending my request.

Oddly enough, I haven’t received any response since. I wonder why....

The second...

...a mailing from my state senator, Jim Lewis....As frustrating as my experience was with Robertson...my experience with Lewis was even worse.

I’m only trying to find out the cost of a product I’m paying for. If I received such a nonanswer when asking a private business a similar question, like the actual interest rate being paid on a loan, the Attorney General would be on their case faster than these people were out on the Internet checking me out.

I guess they don’t really have any incentive to answer this question though. It’s not like they are helping a constituent in a manner that’s going to help them gain the benefit they value most: A vote....

they really like pro-choice for certain minority groups

I've posted on this a few times previously...

Here's the latest on efforts in Houston (hat tip: Lisa Carlsen)...

On plans for the second largest abortion facility in the world (the largest is in China)...

This six-story, 78,000 square foot Planned Parenthood abortion “Super Center” is right in the middle of four minority neighborhoods. Three of these neighborhoods have an average 85% Hispanic population and the fourth is 80% Black American. The third floor is being specially built as a ambulatory surgical center for the purpose of performing late-term abortions....

In recent years, Planned Parenthood has aggressively shifted away from the small neighborhood-sized clinic approach in favor of consolidating into massive regional facilities....in Aurora, IL...Denver, CO...[and] Sarasota, FL.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, had a perverse dream for minorities. In her book Pivot of Civilization, Sanger referred to blacks, immigrants and indigents as “...human weeds,” “reckless breeders,” “spawning...human beings who never should have been born"...

Black women, who represent only 12% of the female population in America, suffer 36% of all abortions. Latina women represent 13% of the female population but suffer another 20% of all abortions. Together, they suffer 56% of all abortions yet they represent only 25% of our nation’s population....

It’s time for all of us to take our stand with the families of these minority communities. It’s time for the abortion issue to become a justice issue....John Piper, recently wrote on his Twitter a statement that is both profound and prophetic in its clarity concerning the ending of abortion: “Wave 1: Catholics say NO to abortion. Wave 2: Evangelicals flood the land with CPC's. Wave 3: Blacks & Latinos bring it down.”

homeschooling crimes

From Rebecca Green in the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette...

The two women believed they were adequately home-schooling their children...But according to the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office, Lila M. Ferguson, 38, and Molly M. Williams, 42, committed a crime – neglect of a dependent – by depriving the children of an education....the offense was largely characterized by a failure to provide records on the children’s educational progress...

And in spite of their court-appointed attorneys’ wishes, the two women pleaded guilty to a Class A misdemeanor version of the charge and were each sentenced Tuesday to a year on probation....Allen Superior Judge Fran Gull denied their motions to dismiss and with their guilty pleas and Gull’s sentencing order, the case is closed.

And as part of a condition of their probation, both Ferguson and Williams must have their children enrolled in traditional school and any absences must be excused and medically related absences reported to their probation officers.

The Journal-Gazette followed up with an editorial-- which engendered an op-ed reply from my friend, Debbie Harbeson...

The recent situation with the two mothers in New Haven...and a recent editorial...focused on increasing regulation of this private educational alternative. Unfortunately, this ignores the real concern, which is why did the public school system fail these children in the first place?

Proposing increased regulation on Indiana home-schoolers as a solution to the concern of irresponsible parents assumes that regulation is a factor in educating a child. We already know it’s not, because if it were, our highly regulated and tested public schools would be having no problems at all....

We say we value individuality, yet we refuse to acknowledge this in education....

It’s interesting that the editorial brought up the possibility of paying more in taxes to take care of adults who need public assistance because they were ineffectively home-schooled. Yet every year, schools send ineffectively educated children out into the world who cannot read, comprehend, think critically, write persuasively or manage finances. How many of them need our public aid, and why aren’t the regulations preventing this?...

We need to figure out how to deal with the over-regulation that is causing the public school system to fail rather than trying to put the same burden on home-schoolers who aren’t even spending our tax money.

Paulson tries to wildly justify the financial bailout

From Ronald Orol at WSJ.com (hat tip: Drudge)...

Facing criticism on Capitol Hill, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Wednesday defended his decision to complete a $182 billion bailout of American International Group Inc., arguing that the unemployment rate would have risen easily to 25% without the bailout. "If the system had collapsed millions more in savings would have been lost," said Paulson, who was Treasury Secretary at the time of the bailout, at a hearing. "Industrial companies of all size would not have been able to raise funding and they would not have been able to pay employees, this would have rippled through the economy."

Actually, Paulson asserts 25%-- not argues. He makes an argument-- albeit highly speculative-- that things would have been worse. He wants us to believe it would have taken more than two years to fix all of this without a bail-out. I'd love to hear him "argue" that!

CBS has another interesting choice to make

First, this...

Now, this (hat tip: Drudge)...

After days of deliberations on whether to run a controversial Super Bowl ad from gay dating site ManCrunch.com, CBS has not yet reached a decision.

The 30-second spot shows two men excitedly watching the game, before their hands brush as they both reach into a bowl of chips. Suddenly, the two begin making out, much to the shock of a guy sitting close by...

With the decision to show two guys making out, this has much more "advocacy" than the Tebow ad. This would be more akin to showing an abortion on TV-- something CBS would not do.

UPDATE: Thinking about this some more, my guess is that the website is just hoping for free publicity and actually does not want to spend the money to see the ad run.

ManCrunch officials said they believe CBS has no intention of airing a commercial for their gay dating service, "but do not want to officially ‘reject’ the spot out of fear there may be a backlash from gay advocacy groups.”...

“The ad is still under review, the process takes a little while,” a rep from CBS said. “We still have a lot of ads we have yet to review.”


UPDATE: CBS rejects the ad (hat tip: Page One)...a smart, capitalistic play by ManCrunch.

pro-choicers favor Tim Tebow pro-life commercial

Of course, right?

No? A number of "pro-choicers" are apparently bothered by the possibility of such an ad-- telling the positive story of one woman's choice to allow Tim Tebow to live outside the womb. There's nothing in the ad about restricting "choice".

Can you say "hypocrite"?

Then again, you can understand their position-- when they're trying to defend such a difficult social/political position.

Here's O'Reilly's interview with someone trying to defend the anti-choice/pro-choice view. Impressive mental gymanstics, I guess.

Hopefully, CBS will not knuckle under...

Obama's job program succcess

Growth sectors in the economy over the last two years-- and especially over the last 12 months!

Leave it to the people at ReasonTV...

Sodrel "now fully on board" to de-fund Planned Parenthood

From Mike Sodrel's January 20th press release:

I am running to retake the Indiana Ninth Congressional District seat currently held by Baron Hill. Hill has not been a pro-life voice in Congress. He has only voted the pro-life position 41% of the time. When I represented the Ninth District, I voted with National Right to Life 100% of the time (11 for 11). If elected, I will gladly support de-funding of Planned Parenthood and I will support a Human Life Amendment.

It's good to know that Mike now avidly supports de-funding Planned Parenthood.

In this, he joins me, Travis Hankins, and probably Todd Young. (If Todd's campaign wants to clarify his position on this, I'll be glad to update as appropriate.) This is a good move politically as well-- since it will help Sodrel compete with Hankins and Young for pro-life voters.

UPDATE: Todd wrote me to say: "Eric, thanks for the opportunity to clarify my position...Though political campaigns typically involves drawing distinctions between candidates, I confess that I fully agree that we should de-fund Planned Parenthood."

Thanks Todd...that is good news!

It's too bad that Mike downplayed the issue and made excuses about it in our 2006 and 2008 campaigns. Even worse, the GOP didn't take care of this when they controlled the Congress and the Presidency under Bush. But it's certainly better late than never!

In both campaigns, I took a lot of guff from people who didn't want me to make this an issue. Something to do with pragmatism, if I recall....

But I'm glad to know that I might have helped to get the GOP interested in this issue. It was Indiana's own Mike Pence-- in the next district over-- who brought up the issue just after the 2006 campaign.

national (vs. local) takes on the 9th District race

Last week, Firedog Lake commissioned a poll from SurveyUSA and found Sodrel leading Hill 49-41%.

Not surprisingly, national coverage (e.g., from Michael Barone) focused on the potential for a Sodrel/Hill rematch-- given their knowledge of Sodrel and the relatively sexy story of a fifth campaign between the pair.

In many cases, national coverage has failed to even mention the Republican primary with its two other active, strong candidates-- Travis Hankins and Todd Young.

How would Young or Hankins do-- in November-- as the GOP nominee? Difficult to say. Sodrel has much more name recognition, but much more baggage-- including aspects of his voting record and an unknown number of voters who have grown tired of him. So, Young &/or Hankins might easily do better than Sodrel. (For my overview of the race, click here.)

At the local level, GOP primary voters will learn more and more about Hankins and Young. Any of the three would be a dramatic improvement over Hill. But as I've already revealed, I think Hankins is easily the best of the bunch.

In any case, it should be quite a primary!

The Road (sounds good!)

Have you seen it?

Here are some excerpts from Brett McCracken's review of The Road in CT...

On the first page of The Road—Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of father/son survival in a post-apocalyptic world—we are introduced to a world of darkness and gray, stinking robes and plastic tarpaulins, bleak lifelessness "like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world." But amidst this hell we see a father reaching out to touch his child.

John Hillcoat's film version also opens with this scene, perfectly capturing from the outset the spirit of "love among the ruins" that makes McCarthy's book a true 21st century classic....This film is of the finest order and an impressively restrained, quietly humane work of art for our fragile times—a triumph of beauty, tragedy, prophecy and redemption....

The father-son duo are survivors in a not-too-distant future in which nature is dying, fires rage, ash permeates the air, and those who aren't cannibals are relegated to scavenging for dead bugs. The Road follows this pair on their perilous journey to the coast, a place of perpetual hope...

...despite the apparent godlessness of the dying world, God is still there—even if only in remnants and shards....

It's absolutely fitting that The Road opens out on Thanksgiving weekend. It's an experience that will thrill you, unsettle you, but above all remind you that even in the darkest of times there is much to be thankful for....

parenting pressures

Excerpts from a long article by Leslie Leyland Fields in Christianity Today....

She is the author most recently of "Parenting Is Your Highest Calling"…And Eight Other Myths That Traps Us in Worry and Guilt, from which this article is adapted...

More than any other generation, today's parents are worried sick that they will mess up their children's lives....There is so much fretting that even the backlash has spawned a notable movement and subgenre of its own, the slacker mom...I find most Christian parents at the front of the line—the anxiety and success line, not the slacker line...Our most consuming concern is that our children "turn out"—that is, that our Christian faith and values are successfully transmitted, and that our children grow up to be churchgoing, God-honoring adults.

It appears that many of us are not succeeding. The exodus of young adults from evangelical churches in the U.S. is well reported, perhaps over-reported and hyper-hyped....

If this isn't enough to induce parental panic, another unsettling report came our way in a summer 2008 Newsweek article, "But I Did Everything Right!" Sharon Begley reported that, contrary to the opinions of decades of experts, genetics may have a more potent impact on child development than our own parenting practices....

These scientific findings are not only ultimately hopeful and helpful for parents; more importantly, they also support Scripture in an area that has been plagued with presumption, behaviorism, and wrong thinking for decades....

Many Christian writers and parents have absorbed these values and drifted into what could be called spiritual determinism. We have absorbed the cultural belief in psychological determinism but spiritualized it with Bible verses, and one verse in particular. The result is a Christianized version of the cultural myth. It reads something like this: "Christian parenting techniques produce godly children."

Proverbs 22:6 has been widely adopted as both psychological premise and theological promise, despite the widespread recognition that hermeneutically, the Proverbs are not promises from God, but general observations and maxims....

20 ways to become an adoption-friendly church

The subtitle of Paul Golden's article in World...

Adoption need not be expensive, legally risky, or involve long delays. Beyond that, the Church should step up even more in this arena.

While Christians commonly praise adoption, most American churches do not have a single family that adopted a child during the past year. Churches can and should play a crucial role in encouraging members to "look after orphans in their distress" (James 1:27). Here are some specific ideas on how to become an adoption-friendly church:

1. Pray that you and your church would become adoption-friendly.

2. Preach key passages on caring for orphans and spiritual adoption.

3. Invite guest speakers to raise awareness of adoption needs and opportunities.

4. Make adoption resources available to the church family.

5. Frequently list pro-adoption ministries and organizations.

6. Encourage couples facing infertility to connect with adoptive parents.

7. Regularly have adoptive parents and birth mothers share their testimony of God's goodness and grace.

8. Educate your church family regarding the costs involved in the adoption process.

9. Encourage the church family to give financially to adoptive couples.

10. Create a standing church fund for adoptions costs.

11. Challenge Sunday school classes and small groups to raise money for adoptive couples.

12. Establish an Adoptive Parents Small Group in your church.

13. Create email list-serves of adoptive parents for support and encouragement.

14. Connect with local social service agencies.

15. Use attorneys or case workers within the church family.

16. Sponsor a child.

17. Participate in mission trips to orphanages abroad.

18. Maximize special holidays to emphasize adoption.

19. Celebrate adoption as a church family.

20. Support adopted kids as they struggle with questions of identity, abandonment, or rejection.

ultrasound/science, abortion, and pro-life

From Alisa Harris in World...

In 2009, Pew Research Center found that more Americans (41 percent) now favor making it more difficult to obtain an abortion, up from 35 percent in 2007. From 2005 to 2009 the percentage of Americans who want to reduce the number of abortions rose from 59 percent to 65 percent.

In a political climate that, at least rhetorically, favors working together to reduce abortions, that stat doesn't mean these people call themselves pro-life. But a Gallup poll last May found that for the first time in the 14 years Gallup has been asking the question, a majority of Americans—51 percent—identify themselves as pro-life. A year before, only 44 percent of Americans labeled themselves pro-life....

Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 are "the most pro-life to come along since the generation born during the Great Depression." Crisis pregnancy centers outnumber abortion providers, she notes—and two-thirds of abortionists are over the age of 50

She and pro-lifers agree that advances in technology—especially ultrasound technology—are aiding the pro-life side, and so are the painful stories of women who have undergone abortions themselves. The generation that never knew a time before Roe is no longer wholly convinced that abortion is a solution...

Clark Co. (airport) lets itself get bit by federal "stimulus" funds

Uhhh, there were plenty of warnings about this. But free money is difficult to pass up.

About the only thing this will stimulate is anger...

Here's Ben Zion Hershberg in the C-J...

The Clark County Airport may need up to three times its usual funding from the county this year because of obligations generated by federal grant money.

But with the county now looking for ways to save $3 million from its 2010 budget — on top of a 30 percent budget cut just weeks ago — it may not be able to meet the airport's needs, said County Council President Jack Coffman.

The council holds most of county government's purse strings.

“The airport is not our priority right at this moment,” Coffman said, given that departments are facing the possibility of more budget cuts after an estimated 21 county positions, some of which were vacant, were eliminated at the end of December....

If county government can't provide the money, Conner said, with the expansion planning and land acquisition well under way, the county could end up being liable for millions of federal dollars already spent....

the last three Presidents as Santa Claus

Someone asked me today if I was going to watch the State of the Union address tomorrow night. No way! I'm cynical enough about politics already...

In the mid-90s under President Clinton, the Address became a laundry list of ways in which he proposed to give away our money to various special interest groups. President Bush extended the new tradition. President Obama will do more of the same-- so say the early news reports.

A billion here; a billion there; after awhile it's real money.

But it's more than that. It approaches the height of cynicism to buy our votes with our money-- and for us to acquiesce to that process.

From the AP's Ben Feller in the C-J...

Declaring America's middle class is “under assault,” President Barack Obama unveiled plans Monday to help hurting families pay their bills, save for retirement and care for their kids and aging parents...

Obama's proposals won't create jobs, but he said they could “re-establish some of the security that's slipped away.”

I don't know what that last phrase means, but I appreciate his integrity/knowledge-- this time-- that his efforts will not create net jobs or grow the economy.

The economic elements of that speech will also cover Obama's plans to boost job creation and reduce swelling budget deficits — areas of concern to the public.

Good luck with either or both of those!

Less clear was how much the programs would cost or where the money would come from.

I appreciate Ben raising that question!

on the religion of Evolution (and its bells & whistles)

From Fred Reed at LewRockwell.com...

People seem to need an overarching explanation of things – of origins, meaning, purpose, and destiny. Christianity provided these things for a long time but, at the close of the Enlightenment, was losing its luster among the educated...The sciences were more compelling, and a better fit for the changing mood of the times.

When the Origin of Species appeared in 1859, it offered a plausible and rational alternative to God Did It....That this might have occurred by natural selection made sense....The notion of abiogenesis – that life began by accident in remote primal seas – was tacked on to Darwin....exceedingly thin evidence, but it pointed in the desired direction, and was accepted. Finally, in 1964, the 3K background radiation pervading the universe was discovered, and described as the result of a postulated Big Bang....

To people thinking logically, as scientists not infrequently do, the three elements of this narrative were separable....In the minds of many, however, all three merged into a seamless creation story, and then acquired the emotional importance accruing to ideological dogma or religious faith....

Scientific inquiry is separated from ideological rigidity by a willingness to entertain questions and admit doubt. The giveaway of ideology is emotional hostility to skeptics. Evolutionists today have it in spades....

An example: In a column I once wrote regarding the alleged accidental formation of life, asked: “(1) Do we actually know, as distinct from hope, suspect, speculate, or pray, of what the primeval seas consisted? (2) Do we actually know what sort of sea or seas would be necessary to engender life in the time believed available? (3) Has the accidental creation of life been repeated in the laboratory? (4) Can it mathematically be shown possible without making highly questionable assumptions? And (5) If the answers to the foregoing are “no,” would it not be reasonable to regard the idea of chance abiogenesis as pure speculation?”

The response was violent. I found myself accused of “trying to tear down science”...The evolutionarily correct take apostasy seriously....reaction was less that of a scientist to questions than of an archbishop to heresy. Why the savagery? He or any other of my circling assailants could simply have answered my questions....

Richard Feynman said that "science is the culture of doubt."

Not (nearly) always...

Genesis 1:26-28 (part 1)

In Genesis 1:26-28 (DAY 6b), we get the creation of human beings.

First, what’s omitted here? There is no reference in 1:28c to “it was good”. One could argue that 1:31’s “very good” covers that—or that 1:26’s “in God’s image” implies that it’s a given! Another angle—and the one I find most compelling—is that it’s more complicated than that (in Gen 3 and even Gen 2).

Leon Kass: “A moment’s reflection shows that man as he comes into the world is not yet good [in any sense]. Precisely because he is the free being, he is also the incomplete or indeterminate being; what he becomes depends always (in part) on what he freely will choose to be. Let me put it more pointedly: precisely in the sense that man is in the image of God, man is not good—not determinate, finished, complete, or perfect. It remains to be seen whether man will become good, whether he will be able to complete himself (or be completed).”

Second, man is created last as the climax of God's creative activity. Perhaps He wanted to make sure there'd be no confusion about a role for man in creation. Although that may sound funny, people question the way God runs the universe all the time—e.g., with respect to suffering. In Job 38:4, God asks "Where were you when I laid the foundation?" Maybe "man was created last so God wouldn't have to listen to any advice". In any case, this is also an honor; man is last, but not least. Matthew Henry observes that man was "not put in the palace while still under construction".

Now, let’s tear into these three huge verses!

26a's "let us MAKE man in our image, in our likeness

First, note the plural of us and our (3:22, 11:7). At the least, this is a reference to the Trinity’s role in Creation (Jn 1:1-3, Col 1:16; Gen 1:2, Job 33:4).

Second, it is "let us make" rather than the usual "let there be..." God did not speak man into existence; instead, he is shown as the product of God's direct intervention. Anthropomorphically, this implies more thought and effort from God—as well our specialness. Matthew Henry: "It should seem as if this were the work which He had longed to be at; as if he had said 'Having at last settled the preliminaries, let us now apply ourselves to the business' of making man."

Third, “image” and “likeness” are synonyms. We are made in the image of God—as a shadow or a sign of the greater reality. The word is related to the Hebrew term tselem which means to “cut off, chisel”—as a statue. A statue is an image, both like and unlike its original—and it is dependent on that which it images. Likewise, we are god-like but limited/flawed; we are god-like but we appear just after the animals. As Kass notes, “Man is the ambiguous being, in between, more than an animal, less than a god.”

Fourth, we are to "rule over..." (Ps 8:1,3-9). We are made in God's image—and thus, we receive (delegated) sovereignty. One of the key purposes of God for us is government—in the sense of self-governance, governing those in our circles, and executing human government. Of course, we often fail at all three.

Gen 1:27 has the Bible’s first clear instance of poetry. This is an under-rated literary style, given our Western/modern biases, but it amounts to 40% of the OT, as well as man’s first words (Gen 2:23).

For the third time, we find the Hebrew bara—to create. It showed up in Gen 1:1 for the creation of everything, in Gen 1:21 for the creation of living creatures; and in Gen 1:27 for the creation of human beings. Interestingly, these happen to be three of the biggest gaps for Evolution as a comprehensive explanation for the development of life. In each case, we have the assertion that God did it—or Evolution (or other natural processes) did it.

Finally, Gen 1:28's has a blessing with commands to be fruitful, increase in number/fill/pro-create, and subdue/rule. Note that fruitful is separate from multiply; there is a role for both kingdom work and family (Gal 5:22-23, Jn 15:1-5, Gen 2:2, 2:15).

Here's Part 2 of Genesis 1:26-28...

Genesis 1:6-25

Day 2 (Genesis 1:6-8) divides cosmic space. In ancient cosmologies, the atmosphere was perceived to be a solid expanse—not a scientific fact corrected by God. The emphasis is function not form, establishing the cosmic order vs. the threat of waters.

Day 3A (Gen 1:9-10) divides earthly space (Job 38:8-11, Ps 95:5, II Pet 3:5). In a word, Days 2-3A creates the space in which people would live while controlling weather and precipitation.

Day 3B (Gen 1:11-13) establishes certain types of vegetation. As Matthew Henry notes, God had built their house as was now “spreading their table"—setting the table for the appearance of animals and eventually man.

Specifically, God creates grain and fruit trees here. Why? To keep you regular, of course. Beyond that, it’s interesting that these are the foundations of bread and wine—when combined with human activity. It’s significant that these occur on the 3rd day (an important number biblically) and are set apart as the first living things.

Days 1-3 have laid out time, weather, and food—the foundations of life. (Interestingly, Gen 8:22 has the same list reversed, post-ark.)

Comparing days 1-3 to days 4-6, we move from preparation to population, from stationary objects to moving objects (at least from earth’s perspective)—and with progressively increasing freedom (heavenly bodies’ fixed orbits, animal instincts, human free will).

With Day 4 (Gen 1:14-19, we have the appearance of the specific lights in the sky. Their purposes: to 14b’s “mark seasons”; 17’s “give light” (1:3-4); 18a’s govern day/night; and 18b’s separate light from darkness (1:4).

The “literary framework” view of Genesis 1 observes the parallels in this creation account—between days 1-3 and 4-6—and argues that God intends something beyond the (purely) historical. This passage may be more poetic than prose; it certainly reads like a hymn with its “rhythmic sense of forming and filling”.

Whatever else we say here, it is obvious that God is trying to obviate the (natural) worship of those as false deities. Leon Kass: These are “not living gods but lifeless creatures…not even named by God…[and not called ‘good’]...presented as merely useful for the earth…rule extends only over day and night not over the earth and man…[days 1-3’s] light, time and even vegetation are presented as not requiring the sun…not heaven but [day 6’s] man has the closest relation to God; heaven is not said to be good…the stunning star-studded sphere…to which ancient peoples looked with awe and fear…[is/was] not deserving of such respect.

In Days 5-6A (Gen 1:20-25), we have the creation of the aquatic, air and land creatures. Again, not that day 4 builds on day 1; day 5 on day 2 (water/sky with fish/birds); day 6 on day 3 (ground with animals/man).

Next up: the creation of man later on day 6…

Dave with the usual, great sermon on money at Southeast

Click here to hear...

The primary text was Matthew 6:19-24 with three questions:
-Where is my storehouse? (6:19-21)
-What is my focus? (6:22-23)
-Who is my master? (6:24)

Another key passage: the most commonly misquoted verse (I Tim 6:10) and a huge verse on wealth and giving (I Tim 6:17-19).

If you're going to listen to an excerpt, pick up minutes 16-19 where Dave is rough but compelling on the absolute need to give if you are a member of any given church-- as biblically commanded and logically required. (His conclusion on "Black Friday" is interesting too-- starting at 33:30.)

Punchlines:

-If you share in the benefits of the church; share in its responsibilities.

-It's not about your relation to the church, but your relation to God.

-If you don't trust an organization, don't get involved and don't give money. But "have the integrity to leave this church...rather than continuing to come and withhold your gifts. How hypocritical to call this 'your church' but not to freely and cheerfully give to this church." Wow!

rap video on Keynes vs. Hayek

Good stuff-- and not just for an economics professor-- from Dr. Russell Roberts!

look what I did last weekend!

Cool video! (hat tip: Johnny Johnson)

And of course, don't try this at home!

Baldwin goes all prophetic on the GOP and abortion

Excerpts from Chuck Baldwin on the GOP's political failures on the abortion issue...

Think of it: the GOP has dominated US Supreme Court appointments for the 37 years since the Roe decision. In fact, the 1973 court that released the Roe decision was a Republican-appointed court by a 6-3 margin. The same GOP-dominated court also rendered the Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court decision reaffirming Roe.

Consider still: the "pro-life" Republican Party controlled the entire federal government from the election of 2000 to the election of 2006: six long years of GOP domination of both houses of Congress, the White House, and the US Supreme Court....

And, yet, each year, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) would introduce the Sanctity of Life bill. And each year, the bill would sit in the document room of the Capitol Building and gather dust. What would Rep. Paul's bill do? Two things: (1) It would define unborn babies as persons under the law. (2) Under the authority of Article. III. Section. 2. of the US Constitution, it would remove abortion from the jurisdiction of the court. Had the "pro-life" Republican congress passed Dr. Paul's bill, and the "pro-life" President, G. W. Bush, signed it into law, Roe v. Wade would have been effectively overturned.

So, why didn't President Bush trumpet the bill? Where was the Republican leader in the Senate? Where was the Republican Speaker of the House? Where was Orrin Hatch...John McCain...Rush Limbaugh...Newt Gingrich...Sean Hannity...the National Right to Life Committee? Where were the tens of thousands of "pro-life" pastors and Christians?

And, yet, these same "pro-life" pastors, church members, and "conservatives" refused to support Congressman Paul for President in 2008, because he was not "conservative" enough. Actually, they opposed him because he opposed the war in Iraq, which means they would rather support a politician who promotes taking America into unconstitutional wars-- but who will do nothing to overturn Roe and save the lives of unborn babies...

our cash for credit clunkers

From USAToday (hat tip: Linda Christiansen)...

Higher credit risk buyers who used the government's cash-for-clunkers program last year to buy a new car had higher repossession and late payment rates than those who didn't use the program, a research firm [CNW Research] finds. Those motorists also had higher levels of buyers' remorse...

A mid-January analysis of those who purchased a new vehicle under the cash-for-clunkers program found the most dramatic differences among those in the lowest credit category: Among subprime credit borrowers, those who used the clunkers program had a 4.8% repo rate, more than double the 2.2% who bought similar vehicles but didn't use the government incentives....

As for buyers' remorse, almost 1 in 5 clunkers program participants who took part in a survey this month said they regret buying a new vehicle under the program. Among those who didn't use the program, the regret rate was slightly more than 1 in 20....

Obamanomics: crony capitalism and extending Bushanomics

Nick Gillespie's interview with author Timothy Carney at ReasonTV...

Carney's book is Obamanomics: How Barack Obama is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses.

the bad news of health care reform's demise

Now he's going to "focus" on the economy.

Even if you're not an economist, that can't seem to be good news.

Obama has caused all sorts of harm to the economy. Indirectly, he has injected uncertainty into economic decisions, making it less likely that firms will hire and businesses will invest-- most notably, with health care "reform" and cap & trade.

Beyond that, like Bush but even worse, everything Obama has done "for the economy" so far has been govt job creation, borrowing, spending and redistribution. This cannot be effective.

Unfortunately, it looks like we can look forward to even more of the same. And the GOP is at least somewhat likely to go along for this nasty ride.


From the AP's Steven Hurst (hat tip: C-J)...

A politically shaken White House promised Sunday a sharper focus on jobs and the economy...

"The president has always gotten the message," top Obama adviser David Axelrod said. "The message is, we need to grow this economy in a way that allows hardworking people who are meeting their responsibilities to get ahead instead of falling behind."

Axelrod said Americans would learn more about White House plans for the economy on Wednesday when the president delivers his first state of the union address. The adviser offered no specifics; there has been talk of a second economic stimulus package, one totalling around $175 billion....

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Obama needs to move to the political centre. "I think he'll find a lot more Republican support than he's had in the first year," the senator said.

That doesn't sound good...

The bad news: Obama focuses on the economy.
The good/bad news: This won't work, harming Americans-- but resulting in a sound beating in November.
The good/bad news: The GOP may be an improvement. But if they have learned little or nothing since the Bush years, then we vacillate between garbage and mush. It could be a long few years...

three things that auto-matically put you in the bottom half of auto driver quality

aside from the obvious things like accidents, not paying attention, etc....

-driving slow in the fast lane

-driving without lights at dusk, in the rain, or in the fog

-failing to use turn signals (at least with others around when it impacts their driving)

--> other candidates for the bottom half?

U.S. drops from the top tier of the Economic Freedom Index

Terry Miller in the WSJ summarizes the latest results, quantifying the economic policy disasters of Bush and especially Obama...

The United States is losing ground to its major competitors in the global marketplace, according to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released today by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. This year, of the world's 20 largest economies, the U.S. suffered the largest drop in overall economic freedom. Its score declined to 78 from 80.7 on the 0 to 100 Index scale.

The U.S. lost ground on many fronts. Scores declined in seven of the 10 categories of economic freedom. Losses were particularly significant in the areas of financial and monetary freedom and property rights. Driving it all were the federal government's interventionist responses to the financial and economic crises of the last two years...

In the world-wide rankings of economic freedom, the U.S. fell to eighth from sixth place. Canada now ranks higher and boasts North America's freest economy. More worrisome, for the first time in the Index's 16-year history, the U.S. has fallen out of the elite group of countries identified as "economically free" by the objective measures of the Index....

Hoosier grandma arrested for buying two boxes of antihistamines

From Jacob Sullum in Reason...

Early on the morning of July 30, Sally Harpold and her husband were awakened by police banging on the door of their home in Parke County, Indiana. The officers hauled Harpold away in handcuffs, charging the grandmother with a Class C misdemeanor. Her mug shot appeared on the front page of the local paper, under the headline “17 Arrested in Drug Sweep.” Her crime: buying a box of Zyrtec-D allergy medicine for her husband, then buying a box of Mucinex-D decongestant for her daughter at another pharmacy less than a week later.

That second transaction put Harpold six-tenths of a gram over Indiana’s three-gram-per-week limit for purchases of pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that happens to be a methamphetamine precursor....

There is little evidence that the pseudoephedrine crackdown has reduced meth use...Pseudoephedrine limits have helped shift meth production from local mom-and-pop labs to the large-scale Mexican traffickers...and they have driven explosive innovation in manufacturing techniques....

how to turn one dollar into four...LOL!

From Nancy Rodriguez in the C-J...

The University of Louisville is a major economic driver for Louisville and the state and provides a solid return for the state funding it receives, according to a study released to the university’s executive committee on Thursday...

No conflict of interest there!

The study was done by Manoj Shanker, a Kentucky economist, and focused on fiscal years 2003 to 2009...found that every dollar U of L received in state funds resulted in an additional $4.12 going into Kentucky’s economy.

Really. That's amazing! If it's true, then Kentucky taxpayers are having far too little money taken from them to give to U of L.

But of course, that's garbage....

Shanker found that U of L successfully leveraged state money to attract private money and federal grants, even as the state’s portion of the university’s budget dropped from 26 percent to 13 percent.

Did Shanker give credit to the private and federal monies-- or did the state monies receive credit for all of the rate-of-return? If not, that's double-dipping. You can imagine the feds claiming the same amazing rate-of-return, arguing that its monies leveraged the other two sources.

make it difficult to file taxes and then restrict the supply of tax preparers...nice!

I've often used the prospects of hypothetical labor market regulations-- to squelch competition-- in the market for tax preparers. It looks like it's coming true!

From the editorialists of the WSJ...

We're guessing that when Americans think of outlaw industries, tax preparers aren't the first rogues that come to mind. But lo, the nation's green eyeshades are now destined to come under the regulatory rule of the Internal Revenue Service as part of the Obama Administration's latest revenue grab.

Under the plan, which would begin with the 2011 tax season, anyone who takes money to help people with their taxes will have to register with the IRS, and eventually pass competency tests and sign up for continuing education. So having made tax filing so complicated that most Americans need help with their forms, Washington now wants to raise the price of such counsel by regulating advisers in a way that may reduce their supply...

Cheering the new regulations are big tax preparers like H&R Block, who are only too happy to see the feds swoop in to put their mom-and-pop seasonal competitors out of business....With fewer tax preparers in the market, H&R Block will find it easier to raise prices....

an "economic stimulus" job for Michael Mann

From the editorialists of the WSJ...

As for stimulus jobs...More than $2.4 million is stimulating the career of none other than Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann.

Mr. Mann is the creator of the famous hockey stick graph...a short-term sensation when seized upon by Al Gore, was later discredited. Mr. Mann made the climate spotlight again last year as a central player in the emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, which showed climatologists massaging data, squelching opposing views, and hiding their work from the public.

Mr. Mann came by his grants via the National Science Foundation, which received $3 billion in stimulus money....

So your tax dollars will continue to fund a climate scientist whose main contribution to the field has been to discredit climate science.

religious ignorance = terrorist threat

From Quay, Rose and Halladay with the C-J...

A teenager bound for Louisville to visit his grandmother caused a scare on a US Airways flight on Thursday when a flight attendant became suspicious over a Jewish prayer he was conducting, causing the flight from New York to divert to Philadelphia.

A crew member on Flight 3079 from LaGuardia Airport to Louisville International Airport noticed Caleb Leibowitz, 17, of White Plains, N.Y., using a tefillin, a set of small black boxes that contains biblical passages attached to leather straps, said Lt. Frank Vanore with the Philadelphia Police Department. The straps wrap around the arm and the head, and are common among Orthodox Jewish men, according to rabbis.

“It caused some alarm to the flight attendant,” said Vanore, who added that from a distance the leather straps could be mistaken for wires.

Caleb explained the ritual after being questioned by crew members of the flight, which had left LaGuardia around 7:30 a.m. for Louisville, authorities said.

But officials with Chautauqua Airlines, which operated the flight, said crew members “did not receive a clear response” when they talked with the teen, prompting their decision to land in Philadelphia, according to a statement issued by Republic Airways, which owns Chautauqua.

Once the plane landed, Philadelphia police, members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and airport security officials entered the plane with guns drawn, according to a Louisville resident who was on the plane....

Using tefillin symbolizes giving God your thoughts, your actions and your heart, Litvin said....

Caleb eventually was taken off the plane after authorities questioned him, placed him in handcuffs and took him away in an SUV...Caleb was not arrested or charged. Vanore said the teen was questioned by police and the FBI....

county budget woes continue...will this eventually lead to school vouchers?

Vouchers would be a lot less expensive, while promoting choice and competition. If things continue to go south, under Obama and state/local governments which have spent too much in more prosperous times-- then this may look increasingly attractive...

From Ben Zion Hershberg in the C-J...

Weeks after eliminating nearly $5 million from its planned 2010 budget, the Clark County Council has learned it will have to trim about $3 million more as tax revenues — battered by a weak economy and some lower assessments — have failed to meet expectations.

The county's financial struggle “continues to escalate,” county Auditor Keith Groth said this week after the council learned of the situation Monday during a briefing by a state tax official.

The latest problem is partly the result of “encumbrances” from expenses carried over from previous years that were expected to be paid with revenue in this year's budget, Groth said....Also, the struggling economy means more people can't pay their taxes, he said.

The predicament isn't limited to counties. It's also affecting Clark County towns and school districts....

it takes a special kind of thief to steal from the needy and vulnerable

From Jessie Halladay in the C-J...

Suspended McMahan Fire Chief Paul Barth has retired from the department, but his offer to repay about $12,000 to settle allegations of unauthorized personal expenses and salary overpayments has been rejected by the fire district board....The fire district decided to accept Barth’s retirement — but not his money, saying the amount Barth owes will be determined federal investigators....

Since his suspension, more allegations have arisen, including charges that he used a fire district credit card to pay for personal expenses, than made payments on the card from a McMahan Crusade for Children bank account.

Last week, The Courier-Journal reported that bank statements for McMahan’s Crusade account, which Barth controlled, show that payments of $9,500 and $9,123.35 were made in May toward the department credit card.

Those allegations prompted Crusade for Children board to vote unanimously this week to remove Barth as chairman.

Additional bank statements obtained Friday by The Courier-Journal under Kentucky’s open-records laws show that a payment for $7,160 was made in April on the district credit card from the McMahan Crusade account. That raised the total paid from the Crusade account toward the district credit card to more than $25,000.

An additional $16,000 was taken from the Crusade account and put into the general McMahan fire account. It was not clear Friday what that money was used for, and McMahan officials wouldn’t comment....