Forum: What About Sen. John McCain Speaking at Discovery Event?

By Rick Pearcey

On February 13, The Pearcey Report published the alarming news (to some) that GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain is scheduled to speak February 23 at an event co-hosted by the Discovery Institute. (See The Pearcey Report main page headline "Darwinists Upset McCain Speaking at Discovery Event.")

William F. Buckley now comments on this news in a column titled "So Help Us Darwin": "The news is that McCain has agreed to speak at a luncheon hosted by the Discovery Institute in Seattle. What offends my friend is that the think tank in question supports the concept of Intelligent Design. And the question raised -- believe it or not -- is whether such a latitudinarian thinker should be thought qualified to be president of the United States." Here's the entire column.

We have decided to set up a forum: What about Sen. John McCain's speaking at this event co-hosted by the Discovery Institute? Is McCain being foolish, political, genuine, all of the above, none? What are your thoughts on McCain, Buckley, ID, Darwin, the bloggers, and so on?

Here are more responses to McCain's scheduled appearance in Seattle:

* Kansas City Star: "There are lots of places McCain could have taken his show, but he picked the Discovery Institute. It doesn’t matter what his speech is about, this is his attempt to pander to the creationist fringe."

* The Nation: McCain's conservative-friendly "makeover continues on February 23, when he is scheduled to speak before the Discovery Institute, the right-wing think tank that has attempted to introduce into public school biology classes the teaching of Intelligent Design."

From Think Progress, as quoted (unedited) in the original Pearcey Report coverage:

* McCain Doomed: "Flipper McCain’s affiliation with this group is sure to doom his campaign!"

* Flip-Flopping Madman: "That pasty-faced, flip-flopping madman McCain is not intelligent, but he has designs on the white house."

* Groan: "I thought we were done with all the 'Intelligent Design' hokum. The longest two weeks of my life was when our church started presenting it in Sunday School as an ‘alternative’ to evolution . . . and I had to spend my Sunday afternoons deprogramming my wife and her family. People should be able to sue proponents of Intelligent Design for permanent harm done to their ability to think critically."

What do you think of the news that Sen. John McCain is scheduled to speak at an event co-hosted by the Discovery Institute? Post your comments below.

Update: On Saturday, February 17, the Discovery Institute Responded to Darwinian Outburst Against McCain Speaking at Luncheon -- Pearcey Report Exclusive

Related
* Christianity Is a Science-Starter, Not a Science-Stopper, by Nancy Pearcey
* Why Intelligent Design Will Win: 5 Reasons to Keep an Open, Educated Mind, by Nancy Pearcey
* Darwin Meltdown Reaches England, by Rick Pearcey
* Secularism Takes Hit at British Airways, by Rick Pearcey

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report.

Forum: The Sundance/Bestiality Debate -- Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Horses?

By Rick Pearcey

Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival has premiered Zoo, a film about bestiality.

"Zoo is a documentary about what director Robinson Devor accurately characterizes as 'the last taboo, on the boundary of something comprehensible,'" writes Kenneth Turran. "But remarkably, an elegant, eerily lyrical film has resulted." Turran's article is here.

In contrast, attorney Seth Cooper writes in American Thinker: "Sooner or later the Living Constitution will meet bestiality. The sex-with-animals crowd as alternative lifestyle is on display in a film which just premiered at the Sundance Festival. The 'internet-based zoophile community' portrayed in the film is not sensationalized or condemned according to the account Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times.

"I have not seen the movie, but I have seen modern jurisprudence, which is beginning to show preliminary signs of extending its embrace of relativism to interspecies sex." Read Cooper's article here.

Question: What you think of Zoo and the issues it raises? Do we have before us "an elegant, eerily lyrical film," or the extension of relativist thinking to "interspecies sex"? Share your thoughts.


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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report.

WND/Rick Warren Forum: Should WND Criticize Pastor Rick Warren?

By Rick Pearcey

WorldNetDaily has recently published several articles (see below) highly critical of Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church. Some within evangelical circles might challenge the appropriateness of such criticism.

The Pearcey Report and Pro-Existence would like to open a WND/Rick Warren Forum on the following questions:

Should WND publish articles critical of Rick Warren? More generally, what role do the news media, including Christian-based media, have in holding well-known or lesser-known Christian figures accountable for what they say and do? Why? Why not?

Rick Warren responds to the criticism here. For additional background information on this question, you may want to read one or more of the following WND articles:

* Rick Warren: Is He or Isn't He?
* Rick Warren Says He's Sorry
* The Purpose-Driven Lie
* Calling Rick Warren!
* Rick Warren on Syria: "A Moderate Country"
* Megapastor Rick Warren's Damascus Road Experience
* Megapastor Rick Warren Blasts Iraq War, Praises Syria
* Rick Warren Shows Syria Video in Church
* Megapastor Warren Denies Praising Syria

What are your thoughts and comments on issues raised by WND's reporting and commentary on Rick Warren, occasioned by Warren's recent trip to Syria?


Related article
Rick Warren Debate Forum on Fire

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report.