Mary Frances, I was actually just looking at that article by Wesley Pruden (entitled “The Straight Talk No One Hears”). The following paragraph contains an interesting point, but it’s not quite what I am getting at, as I’ll explain later.

All presidents, Republican or Democrat, have to say things sometimes they don’t really mean, sometimes delivered with a wink and a nudge, sometimes not. When George W. talks about “the religion of peace” as if the Islamists are just a little confused, like a congregation of wayward Episcopalians, we have to think he doesn’t really mean it. Presidents, like governors and even mayors, have to keep in mind that in a country as big as ours there’s always the criminal element to consider. We don’t want our crazies to get any ideas, like Shi’ite imams in pursuit of Sunni holy men.

I think that’s it’s fairly reasonable for the President to talk like that. It might even be necessary, and I don’t object much, if at all, to it. My strenuous objections are to statements like the following:

Eid is a time of joy, after a season of fasting and prayer and reflection. Each year, the end of Ramadan means celebration and thanksgiving for millions of Americans. And your joy during this season enriches the life of our great country. This year, Eid is celebrated at the same time as Hanukkah and Advent. So it’s a good time for people of these great faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, to remember how much we have in common: devotion to family, a commitment to care for those in need, a belief in God and His justice, and the hope for peace on earth. [Emphasis mine]

In any century but this, the entire church would be up in arms over this statement, and I certainly don’t believe that the “progress” the church has made in this century is something to be lauded. That’s not to say that I want to drive Muslims out of the country or any such nonsense. But I do believe that a Christian man in the position of power that Mr. Bush has must not spread falsehoods like that, even if he doesn’t mean them. If no man can come to the Father but through Christ, then you cannot separate the Triune God into a common “God” for Jews, Muslims, and Xians, and then the other two. My wife called it what it is.

By Douglas Wilson

Christian artist chains legs during meditation and loses key in abandoned mine shaft. Hobbles five miles through desert into town.

At least he went back to finish his meditation when the fire department cut him loose.

I’m befuddled. Why doesn’t my church have an altar made of televisions playing an endless loop? Why doesn’t my church duct tape my mouth shut to teach me about Jesus’ silent(sic) suffering? And why, why, why doesn’t my church turn itself into an undersea paradise complete with pearls of wisdom? Don’t they want me to grow???

While I didn’t pick up on this, amylovesbooks says The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’s most recent incarnation had no soul.