At the risk of sounding like John Kerry ("Do you KNOW who I am?"), let me say that I have a doctorate in theology from a very liberal theological school, and most of the professors with whom I am acquainted are currently experiencing the same time of angst as the MSM anchors and reporters.
That is: Just as the anchors and reporters lament (or RAGE over: Brokaw's "Jihad" remark!) the fact that unsophisticated bloggers and talk radio folks are energized and flourishing, so these luminaries of the divine sciences lament (or rage over - with a righteous anger, of course) the fact that a mere layman like George Bush can have such clear cut ideas about right and wrong or good and evil - and (THIS IS A KEY PROBLEM FOR THESE FOLKS) that Bush manages to balance conviction and compassion (e.g. his stand on stem cell research), when more "sophisticated" theological minds have reduced everything to a tentative "well, on one hand . . . but on the other." Witness: John Kerry, the devout Roman Catholic former altar boy - as he went out of his way to inform us, so much for not wearing your religion on your sleeve - opposing abortion and believing life begins at conception but wanting to provide federally funded abortions and wondering when "personhood" commences. Surely an ethical stance ambiguous enough to earn the admiration of the Fuller Theological Faculty!
It is interesting to remember that LAST TIME AROUND, the Democratic nominee, "President by the popular vote" Al Gore was revealed to have dropped out - or flunked out? - of Vanderbilt's Master of Divinity program. No small feat at a liberal seminary where there are no right or wrong answers.
Amazing, too, that a proudly Protestant seminary like Fuller should take to issuing Pompous Pontifical Prouncements imbued with all the aura of a Papal-like Infallibility they would surely reject if the real Pope were to offer an opinion with anything approaching George-Bush-like certitude!
Therefore, may I lead us all in a prayer of intercession on this Lord's Day:
"From the pompous ponderings of irrelevant theologians, Good Lord, deliever us!"
PS Notice how George Bush's long-ago verbal slip, using the word "Crusade" has NEVER been let go of by the left - but the Islamo-fascists' constant use of JIHAD is apparently respectfully given a pass as part of their "freedom of religious expression"?
It's all so predictable and tedious!
Well said.