Brain Fertilizer

Lot of religion floating around the blogoshere today. Must be a slow news day. Anyway, what is your take on Kristof's piece in the NYT today? My blog is painfully shy of religious content, inspiring or otherwise. I would like to print your thoughts as a guest blog (yeah, just like Instapundit, envy, envy). Whattayasay? Wait, that implies an endorsement, doesn't it. OK, I will reprint it in full and without comment, how's that?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/24/opinion/24kristof.html?oref=login

You are always welcome to quote and link anything I write here.
You are certainly allowed to comment, as well.

If you misquote, fisk, or otherwise get derisive, even that is within the realm of acceptability for me, but expect me to respond with vehemence and indignation! [grin]

I haven't yet read that article....I might not get to it until this evening, but I'll let you know my thoughts.

If you ever want to just wax philosophical off-blog and use the brainfertilizer addy, keep in mind that I can't access it during work hours.

Finally, I think the emphasis on religion and its role in our society is because "morals" and "values" seemed to figure so heavily in this past election. The left is trying understand what this concept of "morals" is and how they can get some without having to embrace religion, and the right is trying to defend its acceptance of religion while trying to insist that it's not really advocating a thecracy.

The battle really was joined when liberals critized President Bush for bringing up God and saying "God put me in this position as President at this time", totally misunderstanding that it was a statement of humility, not aggrandizement. The same liberals never peeped when President Clinton spoke with ordained ministers on how to handle the political ramifications of his philandering, and also never peeped when John Kerry spent a good deal of time campaigning from the pulpit on a good number of Sundays.
The battle only intensified with the "Jesusland" condescension.
So I think we are in for 4 years of battles over "Evolution vs Creationism" (when that's actually a false juxtaposition...), the religious aspects of homosexual marriage (instead of the societal aspects), the role of the 10 Commandments in our legal system and the role of Christian influence in history. It's going to be a messy 4 years, with lots of arguments and hurt feelings. I hope that I can maintain a safe harbor for both sides to meet and talk here. And you, notherbob2, can keep me honest on that if you want to take the responsibility...