Controversy

In the words of Prince...

I just can't believe all the things people say -- Controversy
Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay? -- Controversy
Do I believe in God? Do I believe in me? -- Controversy
Controversy Controversy
I can't understand human curiosity -- Controversy
Was it good for you? Was I what you wanted me to be? -- Controversy
Do you get high? Does your daddy cry? -- Controversy
Controversy Controversy

My morning blogrounds found controversy wherever I looked.

First of all, a constitutional ban on gay marriage, which Josh Marshall had a good take on this morning. It seems to me that enshrining discrimination in the constitution is something our country should have grown beyond somewhere around the time of the abolition of slavery.

AC Douglas gives his perspective in an archived post concerning The Passion of the Christ. I differ with him on his basic premise, "It seems further clear to me that in the absence of any reliable historical evidence to the contrary, one ought to provisionally accept the reports of these writers as being essentially (as opposed to in every small detail) true no matter how inconvenient such acceptance may be." Oddly enough in his own footnote to the piece he undercuts this premise, writing "The Gospels were also in some measure addressed to the Roman powers that were, but on political grounds; ergo, the largely sympathetic to the Romans treatment of the story involving the cruel and ruthless Pilate, and his historically thoroughly implausible reluctance to find Jesus, a Jew, guilty of any crime." History does tell us certain things about the number of Jews crucified by Pilate, about the politics of the time, and about, as Mr. Douglas states himself, the need for the Gospel writers to curry favor with the Roman authorities. These items in themselves cast a certain amount of doubt on the historical accuracy of the Gospels. Add to that the license that Gibson takes in using scenes concocted centuries later in a 19th century book of visions, "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ," by Anne Catherine Emmerich, a German nun and mystic. SFGate.com has a very nice piece today outlining the historical accuracy of the film and the Gospels, here.

And finally, a blogging controversy continues to rage at About Last Night. Terry Teachout defends himself against Bookslut on the issue of link poaching and link crediting. I've read both of their pieces and I certainly come down on Terry's side of the argument. As a still relatively new blogger links are my bread and butter. Sharing them and hopefully getting a few back. If I didn't care if people read my blog, I'd keep a personal diary, but I blog to share my thoughts with a wider group of people, and links are how that happens. No blog (except maybe Instapundit) sprung to life fully grown like Athena from Zeus' head. Terry's call for community is a far cry from, "Mr. Teachout declaring himself the police of blogging etiquette," as Bookslut states.

Why can't we all just get along.