{"id":126,"date":"2006-12-19T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-19T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jwalking\/2006\/12\/happy-feet-frank-rich-and-abominable.html"},"modified":"2006-12-19T09:45:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-19T09:45:00","slug":"happy-feet-frank-rich-and-abominable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jwalking\/2006\/12\/happy-feet-frank-rich-and-abominable.html","title":{"rendered":"“Happy Feet”, Frank Rich, and abominable snowmen smacking penguins with a baseball bat"},"content":{"rendered":"

My daughters (9 & 11) are leading me astray:<\/p>\n

1. Click on the link below.
2. Click once on the snowman to activate the penguin
3. Click again on the snowman to hit the penguin as he descends from the cliff.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for: Smack the Penguin<\/a><\/p>\n

I do not think that this relates to something Frank Rich wrote about in Sunday’s New York Times<\/span>, that penguins are being used to further a gay agenda:<\/p>\n

Yes, penguins. These fine birds have now joined the Teletubbies and SpongeBob SquarePants in the pantheon of cuddly secret agents for \u201cthe gay agenda.\u201d Schools are being forced to defend And Tango Makes Three<\/span><\/a>, an acclaimed children\u2019s picture book based on the true story of two Central Park Zoo male penguins who adopted a chick from a fertilized egg. The hit penguin movie Happy Feet<\/span> has been outed<\/a> for an \u201canti-religious bias\u201d and its \u201cendorsement of gay identity\u201d by Michael Medved, the commentator who sets the tone for the religious right\u2019s strictly enforced code of cultural political correctness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The full article is available here<\/a> (subscription required). In it you will also find him making reference to me:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only centrist American voters of both parties who reject divisive demagoguery but also conservative evangelicals themselves. Some of them are at last standing up to the extremists in their own camp.<\/p>\n

No one more dramatically so, perhaps, than Rick Warren, the Orange County, Calif., megachurch leader and best-selling author of \u201cThe Purpose Driven Life.\u201d He has adopted AIDS in Africa as a signature crusade, and invited Barack Obama to join the usual suspects, including Senator Brownback, to address his World AIDS Day conference on the issue. This prompted predictable outrage from the right because of Mr. Obama\u2019s liberal politics, especially on abortion. One radio host, Kevin McCullough, demonized the Democrat for pursuing \u201cinhumane, sick and sinister evil\u201d as a legislator. An open letter sponsored by 18 \u201cpro-life\u201d groups protested the invitation, also citing Mr. Obama\u2019s \u201cevil.\u201d But Mr. Warren didn\u2019t blink.<\/p>\n

Among those defending the invitation was David Kuo, the former deputy director of the Bush White House\u2019s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. In a book, \u201cTempting Faith,\u201d as well as in interviews and on his blog, the heretical Mr. Kuo has become a tough conservative critic of the corruption of religion by politicians and religious-right leaders who are guilty of \u201ctaking Jesus and reducing him to some precinct captain, to some get-out-the-vote guy.\u201d Of those \u201cfamily\u201d groups who criticized Mr. Obama\u2019s appearance at the AIDS conference, Mr. Kuo wrote, \u201cAre they so blind and possessed with such a narrow definition of life that they can think of life only in utero?\u201d The answer, of course, is yes. The Christian Coalition parted ways with its new president-elect, a Florida megachurch pastor, Joel Hunter, after he announced that he would take on bigger issues like poverty and global warming.<\/p>\n

But it is leaders like Mr. Hunter and Mr. Warren who are in ascendance. Even the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs at Mr. Haggard\u2019s former perch, the National Association of Evangelicals, has joined a number of his peers in taking up the cause of the environment, putting him at odds with the Bush administration. Such religious leaders may not have given up their opposition to abortion or gay marriage, but they have more pressing priorities. They seem to have figured out, as Mr. Kuo has said, that \u201cpoliticians use Christian voters for their money and for their votes\u201d and give them little in return except a reputation for bigotry and heartless opposition to the lifesaving potential of stem-cell research.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, getting back to the game – Rachel, my 9-year-old has achieved a distance of 323 feet. Top that. And a final word – I in no way endorse the abuse of penguins by abominable snowmen wielding baseball bats.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>
<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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