Who Is: Star Parker

There are some people I agree with and then there are people I admire.

With all the national talk lately about Rush Limbaugh after his ascention to the head of the GOP in the minds of the administration, it's easy to miss out on other political conservatives who are holding the line. But Entertainer/commentators like Rush, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck don't do much outside of talk. So, while I like them and agree with them I reserve my admiration for the lesser-known people who are actively putting rubber on the road.

I just learned of one such person today. If you aren't already familiar with her, let me introduce you to Star Parker. Here's her bio:

The story of Star Parker is a stunning chronicle of how she left the seductive life of drugs, crime, abortions and welfare abuse through the power of the Gospel to become a leading advocate for the family. She is at the forefront of the Christian conservative movement to motivate and lead others away from the lies of the culture to a life full of grace and truth.

Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education, a 501c3 non-profit think tank that provides a national voice of reason on issues of race and poverty - in the media, inner city neighborhoods, and public policy.

In addition to heading CURE, and its network of inner city clergy nationwide, Star is a syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service, offering weekly op-eds to more than 400 newspapers worldwide.

As a social policy consultant, Star Parker gives regular testimony before the United States Congress, and is a national expert on major television and radio shows across the country. Currently, Star is a regular commentator on C-Span, MSNBC, and FOX News. She has debated Jesse Jackson on BET; fought for school choice on Larry King Live; and defended welfare reform on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Star Parker’s personal transformation from welfare fraud to conservative crusader has been chronicled by ABC’s 20/20; Rush Limbaugh; Readers Digest; Dr. James Dobson; The 700 Club; Dr. George Grant; the Washington Times; Christianity Today; Charisma, and World Magazine. Articles and quotes by Star have appeared in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. Recently she co-hosted an episode of The View with Barbara Walters, and her testimony went around the world on the television show of the Reverend Billy Graham.

Star has written three books, “Pimps, Whores, and Welfare Brats” (1996), "Uncle Sam’s Plantation” (2003), and “White Ghetto” (2006), works in Washington, DC, resides in Southern California and has a beautiful two year old grandson, Mr. James.

You can read her column at Townhall.com or the CURE website. But keep in mind that she's much more than a mere columnist, pundit or commentator.

Bearing One Another's Burdens and Civil Responsibility

I consider myself a conservative politically and theologically. This means that I believe that government cannot and should not usurp the responsibility of each citizen to contribute positively to society. The freedom we fought for as a nation during the Revolutionary War was the freedom to govern ourselves toward this end. Too much government is corrupt because we as people are corrupt and government is made up of people. Freedom is not the freedom to do what we want - it is the freedom to do what is right. That's why we have separation of powers and a system of checks and balances. Expecting the government to perform my civil duties for me is copping out of my responsibility as a citizen.

We often see the same thing in systems of church organization where the pastor, staff and other hired ministers are expected to to all the ministry or the traditions, rites and rituals of the church are substituted for earnest worship. In today's Saudi Prayer Calendar from the Saudi Advocacy Network, we learn of the feast of Eid Al-Fitr and are encouraged to pray that Saudis would realize that salvation is in Jesus Christ, not in rituals or festivals. This is a prayer that many Christians need as well, because many in the pews of Christian churches are equally as guilty. Too many rely on the pastor or ecclesiological trappings instead of on Christ. For this reason, too many of us stagnate spiritually and abrogate our responsibility to fulfill the Great Commission.

Just as political conservatism looks back at the intent of the writers of the constitution, so conservative Christians also hold a high view of the revelation of God and His intent in the words of the Bible.

Early in our founding days we had statesmen in our legislature. The first Pembertons in the United States were Quakers and statesmen in Philadelphia. A true statesman speaks, not to garner power for himself or the party, but to persuade and encourage people to fulfill their responsibilities. Politicians, on the other hand... Likewise, God has sent prophets, not to be served but to serve; to testify the revelation of God in order to persuade people to follow the true God and not false gods or their own lusts.

The bridge between political and theological conservatism in the United States is evident in the preambles to the constitutions not only of the United States, but also to each of the 50 states in the union. You can read them here. The bridge between fiscal and social conservatism is in the attitude of people to use the wealth they create to help others rather than relying on government. The bridge between law and grace in the life of a Christian is in the desire to serve God, and this by bearing each others' burdens sacrificially. We cannot separate our salvation from how we treat other people. We also cannot separate our civil liberty from how we treat other people. Yesterday I posted about Dr. Martin Luther King. His message was not for blacks only. I would say that his message was not for blacks primarily given the context. How do whites respond to his message? Do they respond with contempt, or with conviction that wrongs have been done and it has been the civil responsibility for the privileged to bear the burdens of the oppressed? That's not only the civil thing to do, but the Christian thing to do. And yet the idea is not to leave a people oppressed, but to raise them up to bear the burdens of others. This means that the oppressed, once released from oppression, have the same obligation to bear the burdens of others.

As such, I take issue with many of my fellow conservatives who argue for others to be responsible for themselves and do not consider their responsibility to help them be responsible. Many people raised in oppression have no idea how to break the cycle of oppressed thinking. It's not present in our public education system and it's getting worse. Once was the day when the classroom was a place of discipline conducive to proper instruction. Students who require special attention were set aside so that the rest could progress more effectively. Speak to any teacher and hear the effect of all the parents today who won't allow teachers to discipline their children. It has had a detrimental affect on the policies of education departments and local schools as well as impinged on the general level of education of the population of the United States. Why is it that the average reading level is the tenth grade even including college graduates?

Consider this, and I've made this point before, that the same people, most often conservatives, who complain about immigrants today not being able to speak English don't know English very well themselves. What level of competency can we expect of immigrants when we don't hold ourselves to a very high standard? As such, I'll leave my soapbox today and close on a lighter note by offering these humorous sites that poke fun of our general lack of English literacy. (By the way, if you don't find these humorous - case in point.)


Apostrophe Abuse
The Abuse Of Apostrophes In Everyday Life
Apostrophism
The Apostrophe Protection Society
Literally, A Web Log
The "Blog" of "Unnecessry" Quotation Marks
Grammar Cop
Grammar Vulture
lowercase L
Eek, A Typo!
Grammar/Syntax Errors
Why a Tittle?
Banned for Life
The Gallery Of "Misused" Quotation Marks
Silly Signs
The Grammar Vandal


A few humorous blogs not specifically about grammar issues:

Crummy Church Signs
License to Rant (Bad License Plates)
Say What?! (Curious Signs)

What is a Conservative?

This quiz not comprehensive, but it's not bad in terms of the choices for comparison. It offers overlapping viewpoints by listing common clarifications of talking points rather than less specific "on a scale of 1 to 5..." questions. Can you tell I'm as politically conservative as I am theologically conservative?

	Fred Thompson Score: 49	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Immigration Energy
	Duncan Hunter Score: 49	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Immigration Energy
-- Take the Quiz! --

So what is a conservative, anyway? The word is intended to convey the notion that historical ideological norms ought to be conserved.

Politically speaking, this means that conservatives in Saudi Arabia would be ideologically very different than conservatives in France for each set of conservatives would seek to preserve their own historical ideologies. Conservatives in the United States seek to conserve the ideology of the founding of our nation with the understanding that we have learned some lessons and the world has changed considerably since then. However, the principles of the ideology haven't changed, only the application.

Christian theological conservatism is a different thing. One could say that it is merely a throwback to conserving the traditions of a mere generation ago. There are those who follow this. However, true theological conservatism is where it is recognized that an absolute meaning was intended in the message of God to His people. The theological conservative therefore tries to discover and propagate this message.

As an American, I am a political conservative in that I am in agreement with the principles on which this country was founded. As a Christian, I am a conservative in that I believe that God has intentions that I cannot control and commands that I cannot controvert. It is my duty as one of faith to learn what those intentions and commands are as they are clearly communicated by God and teach others what I learn.

And what of non-conservatives? American political non-conservatives do not agree with the founding principles of this nation. Christian theological non-conservatives do not believe that God has intentions that they cannot control and commands that they cannot controvert.

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Note - By posting the results of the above quiz I do not intend to indicate my endorsement of either of these candidates. This merely represents the results of the referenced quiz. However, I think both of these are very capable candidates and worthy of our consideration.

Why I'm Not a Libertarian

I was just listening to Glenn Beck. He's entertaining, but I don't always agree with him. This is one of those cases. He just made the statement that the founding fathers were libertarians - not by name, but that the current political view that most closely reflects that of the founding fathers is libertarianism.

Let me tell you why I disagree. The founding fathers created a representative republic. Our federal legislative representatives are chosen through a democratic process and they legislate through a similar democratic process. our other governmental leaders are chosen by various democratic means or are appointed. The reason we need representation is so that our collective interest is voiced and protected in an orderly manner.

Protected? Yes.

From whom? Each other. Our collective interests conflict.

Why? Because we live in a fallen world.

The libertarian position is one that seeks to elevate the individual to autonomy. The liberal/socialist lie is similarly one that promises to elevate the individual to autonomy. The purpose of the libertarian is the autonomy. The ostensible purpose of liberalism is equity. The real reason for liberalism is so that politicians can take the money of people who are successful and buy the votes of people who feel disenfranchised. The result is virtual socialism. (There are enough socialists who realize this and who deign to take advantage of it that is problematic.) Both of these views ignore the fact that we live in a fallen world and need to be held accountable.

For this reason the founding fathers created a system of checks and balances so that no individual might assume unchecked power over his fellow human beings. It's a brilliant system, but it is neither liberal nor libertarian.

I am conservative because the purpose of conservatism is to hold people accountable to their fellow human beings, not for the purpose of enslaving them, but for the purpose of engendering a society perpetuated by personal responsibility. This method recognizes the fact that all is not well with the world and we are all inherently evil, but that this evil can be overcome and we can thrive. The Christians who founded this nation realized that we can influence sociological behavior with proper controls, but that the only true way to overcome evil is through Jesus Christ, but they realized that Christian liberty doesn't coerce or force people to be Christian.

Therefore, you can worship in these United States as you please. Not because you have personal liberty, which you do. But because it was recognized that people are evil and want to force you to worship according to their theology. Likewise, if your worship involves forcing others to worship according to your theology, you must be restrained. When we in the United States collectively fail to recognize evil, we will be conquered.