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The legal challenge to the Bush administration's Faith-Based Initiative has made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which should hear arguments this week.

Some information:

The AP story on the lawsuit. From FindLaw.

Website of the Freedom From Religion Foundation which has brought the action. "FFRF, Inc., is the nation's largest association of atheists and agnostics, working since 1978 to promote freethought and to keep state and church separate. "

FFRF information on the court case here.

The case is Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation, here is information and links from FindLaw.

Here is docket information from the U.S. Supreme Court site.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the beginning of the siege of the Alamo in 1836. (I was reminded of this when listening to a Texas AM radio station yesterday.) Alamo website here.

Losing a battle does not mean losing a war. Today's invincible host can become tomorrow's defeated army. Good lesson to remember in 2007.

If you've not seen it, I recommend the movie The Alamo (2004 with Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton). Good movie, basically accurate, and in a just world Billy Bob would have won an Oscar.
I'll try to have more to say this weekend, but for now this article from the San Diego Union Tribune.
Today is the anniversary of the birth of the Father of Our Country, George Washington. Some links:

Brief biography at the White House site.

Mt. Vernon website.

Washington papers at the University of Virginia.

Washington papers at the Library of Congress.

Rediscovering George Washington at PBS.

Washington Masonic Memorial.

Washington Monument National Park Service site.

Washington in paintings and etchings from The History Place.
Much has been written about Abraham Lincoln, including much about his religious faith. I will not attempt to survey all the scholarly literature here. Neither do I claim to be an expert in Lincoln. But, I do claim to be an expert in the religion of Abraham's father Thomas Lincoln. I base this claim on the fact that the elder Lincoln, a farmer-preacher, belonged to those Baptists who rejected the national Baptist denomination as it developed following the Convention in 1814. He rejected both the newly developing structure and the modernizing doctrinal changes as the Baptist mainstream evolved from a sect into an American denomination prior to the Civil War. Without bragging, I can say that I have been recognized as an expert on those Baptists who remained outside the new denominational structure. (For those interested, my book is The Formation of the Primitive Baptist Movement, based on my doctoral dissertation "Self-Definition in the Formation of the Primitive Baptist Movement as Expressed in their Three Major Periodicals, 1832-1848.")

With regard to the understanding of God, while Abraham rejected his father's politics and agrarian life, and rejected his father's religion, he still, by the end of his lifetime, came to think of God essentially in the same way his father did. (More below)

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Today is the anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. America has been blessed with great leadership when we have needed it. So much has been written about Lincoln that I have little to add myself. Later today I'll post on his conception of God. For now, some links.

Short biography from the White House site.

Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project from Northern Illinois University. Contains material from his Illinois period.

The Lincoln Home National Historic Site.

The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.

Second Inaugural Address from the Lincoln Papers in the Library of Congress.
A few days ago I linked to an article from Newsweek on Hillary Clinton's Christian faith. Here. After more mulling it over, I intend to revisit the issue in the future. But for now, a few thoughts about the article itself.

First, the overall tone of the article is friendly, with no criticism of either Hillary or her religious mentor or beliefs. Contrast this attitude to the usual MSM writing about Christianity and conservative politicians. I know, Farmer, you have told us to quit complaining abou the calls and just get on the floor and play, but I want to be the coach who yells at the officials and points to the replay screen in order to get a call later and to work up the crowd. Newsweek published a puff piece.

Second, notice this paragraph:

Precocious and confident, 13-year-old Hillary was an active member of her Methodist church in Park Ridge, Ill., when Jones arrived in 1961 to lead the youth group. Fresh from the seminary, he was anything but stuffy in his red Chevy Impala convertible. He carried the Bible, but also the collected poems of E. E. Cummings. Hillary, politically aware even then, was a budding Republican who took after her staunchly conservative father. In long discussions at the church, Jones introduced Hillary to the left. The young minister was determined to show his white, privileged parishioners the world beyond their suburban town. He took them to the South Side of Chicago to hear Martin Luther King Jr. speak. Jones introduced each of them to the civil-rights leader.

The writer makes a not-so-subtle contrast between Republicans and the Civil Rights Movement. Only by leaving her childhood Republicanism, this paragraph implies, could she become a compassionate supporter of civil rights. There is no historical context here reminding the reader that most of the opposition to the Civil Rights Movement came from Southern Democrats, and that LBJ depended on Congressional Republicans to help pass civil rights legislation. The writer indirectly slanders the Republican Party.

In a few days I hope to address the issue of Hillary's faith.
During the Early National period of American history, tariff policy (much more so than the question of slavery) plagued Congress as the most divisive issue of the day.

One of the great milestones in the debate over import duties was the 1828 Tariff of Abominations, which set an unprecedented standard for protectionism. Historians continue to debate the details of the congressional battle that yielded the legislation. Although this particular tale seems no longer credible to many students of the period, for a long time the standard story involved the opponents of the legislation working to make the bill so egregiously offensive that even the moderate proponents of protection would not dare to vote for the program.

But, alas, the moderates held their noses and voted for the flagrant protection bill--opting for a bad tariff bill over no tariff bill.

A few years ago, Republicans would have hooted at a Democratic Party led by Howard Dean, a Nancy Pelosi-controlled House and a ticket headed by Hillary Clinton. Smart Republicans gleefully rubbed their hands together anticipating the prospect of facing the crazy screamer, a "San Francisco liberal" and Mrs. Clinton in the ultimate battle for the hearts and minds of the American people.

Smart Republicans aren't laughing anymore.
John Miller listed the top 50 conservative Rock songs a while back. Worth a look. Later he added 50 more. Each song listed has a brief explanation defending its inclusion.