Neglect at the King Center

02.03.05 | Permalink | Comments Off

[Update: King’s sons paid twice the going rate while King Center crumbles.]

We were driving by the King Center this MLK weekend when I said to my wife how I had expected the King Center to be so much more than it is. It turns out that the King Center is even less than I thought.

The AJC reports that King Center needs some $11.6m in repairs. The total cost of building the twenty-four-year-old facility, in today’s dollars, would be $16m. If my high school algebra still holds water (unlike the tomb’s reflecting pool), the cost of repairs amounts to 72.5% of what it would take to start from scratch.

I’m trying to imagine what it would take for me to neglect my home to the extent that I’d need to shell out 72.5% of what it took to buy it in the first place, just to get it in decent working order again.

The King family has long insisted that they own the MLK legacy. MLK3 even sold his father’s image for a tv commercial a few year’s back.

It’s time for the King family to completely turn over the King Center to the National Park Service. The MLK legacy belongs to us all, and the King family has proven they aren’t up to snuff at preserving it.

Getting even

02.02.05 | Permalink | Comments Off

If you follow the news on religion and homosexuality, then you’ll remember Matt Bass from last year. He was kicked out of Baylor’s seminary for being gay. He made the talk show rounds before transferring to Emory’s seminary.

But now there’s a new twist. Of sorts. Click to continue reading “Getting even”

barna, bible_belt, divorce, evangelicals, hypocrisy, true_love_waits

Evangelicals: Put up or shut up

01.27.05 | Permalink | 6 Comments

Flagship evangelical magazine Christianity Today is running a remarkable article detailing exactly how unchristian most evangelicals really are, according to a series of Gallup and Barna polls. Among the many things learned:

Divorce rates are slightly higher among evangelicals than among non-evangelicals.
States dominated by evangelicals (the Bible Belt) have the highest divorce rates.
Evangelicals outgive mainline Protestants, but still don’t get to even half a tithe.
Only 6% of evangelicals tithe.
Even while evangelicals do it less, rates of unmarried cohabitation are rising most swiftly in Bible Belt states.
Only 12% of “True Love Waits” pledgers keep their pledge of premarital abstinence.
Almost half of evangelicals say premarital sex is okay.
White evangelicals report racist attitudes at least twice more often than other whites.**

What do we learn from this? Most obviously, we learn that white evangelicals are divorce-happy racists. But more importantly, we learn the true power of the “born again” experience, as author Ron Sider can’t keep himself from telling us: Click to continue reading “Evangelicals: Put up or shut up”

Nominated for UU blog awards!

01.24.05 | Permalink | Comments Off

Pass the pitcher! MyIrony has been nominated for several UU blog awards:

Best UU-Themed Blog
Best Links
Best Design or Visuals (last year’s design is here)
Best Anecdote or Narrative (nominated twice)
Best Religious Writing or Theological Commentary

So go on over and place your votes (by Feb 1). And check out all the other great blogs that have been nominated.

A special thanks to Chris Walton at Philocrites for all his work putting the awards together. Kudos!

When to move on

01.23.05 | Permalink | 1 Comment

When you can’t pretend you believe that anymore. When you know where your gifts would be better used. When you realize that what you’ve been pretending to believe has kept you from using those gifts. When staying there would mean keeping your light under a bushel, and secretly enduring the burn.