Mikhail Gorbachev ... Christian?

We've heard much from atheists about why they don't believe. Here's an interesting item about the spiritual journey of one of the world's best known disbelievers--Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev's visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy this month has rekindled those questions about Gorbachev's faith. Was he denouncing atheism and affirming his faith in God? Was he a closet believer even during Soviet times?

Several European media outlets were quick to size up Gorbachev's half hour of silence at St. Francis' tomb as proof that the 77-year-old former leader of an atheistic superpower was, in fact, a Christian.

The Italian newspaper La Stampa called his visit a "spiritual perestroika." A story in the London Daily Telegraph's March 19 edition concluded Gorbachev "has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time."

The paper quoted the former Soviet leader as saying that the saint's "story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life." But Gorbachev subsequently told the Russian news agency Interfax, "Let me say that I have been and remain an atheist."

Wherever the truth lies, the discussion reminds me of a passage in Paul Kengor's book, God and Ronald Reagan, describing the beginning of Reagan's May-June 1988 mission to Moscow:

[Reagan] finished his remarks by pausing, looking up, and delivering this direct, closing salutation to the general secretary and his comrades: "Thank you and God bless you." As the words left his lips and were translated into Russian, the hardened Kremlin atheists visibly blanched. Gorbachev's translator said that Reagan's words rang like blasphemy to the Soviet officials present, and they reacted with wry expressions. "The heretofore impregnable edifice of Communist atheism was being assaulted before their very eyes by [Reagan]." the translator recorded in his notes.

Much has happened in the two decades that separate us from that simple, yet defiant statement asking for God's blessing on the Soviet leaders. Mr. Gorbachev was friendlier than his predecessors to the role of religion in society. Perhaps that's all this flap over his visit to the tomb of Saint Francis signifies. I'm an optimist, however, and will be looking for more.

God, bless Mikhail Gorbachev.

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Spitzer's Logic

Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced governor of New York, resigned this week after a federal investigation revealed he repeatedly used a high-priced prostitution ring. Many people are asking how the former New York attorney general could be so stupid to brazenly flout the law. I confess I don't know. Perhaps sex addiction may have something to do with it. I suspect we will learn more details about this sordid case than anyone really needs.

Ironically, I see a sad link between Spitzer's public positions on issues of concern to pro-lifers and his acts with prostitutes. The link involves his evident contempt for women: his wife and daughters, certainly, but also his contempt for women caught in the sex trade, and his contempt for women generally as mothers.

Of course, Spitzer pleased many advocates for women by pushing for passage of a tough state law against sex trafficking. Studies show that 89 percent of prostitutes strongly want to leave this work, while two-thirds experience a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Yet here is Spitzer happily and repeatedly abusing young women's bodies and souls for his own sordid pleasure. Hypocrisy concerning sexual matters is nothing new for a politician. Just ask David Vitter.

But while conservative politicians such as Vitter have been rightly lambasted in the press for hypocrisy, Spitzer's private actions are sadly the logical result of his public leadership.

Spitzer's contempt for women is also evident in his radical pro-abortion positions. Spitzer as attorney general founded a "reproductive rights" unit within his office and aggressively tried to shut down pregnancy support centers across the state.

His own private sexual misdeeds clearly divorce the sexual act from reproduction, and his public stances do the same. Gone is the dignity of women who nurture children in favor of women as the mere playthings of the rich and powerful-like Spitzer. If something so unfortunate as a pregnancy might ensue, not to worry: just get an abortion. Spitzer the AG and governor saw terminating a pregnancy as a fundamental right for New Yorkers.

Of course, many, if not most, who support abortion rights don't cheat on their families and cavort with high-priced call girls. But they are virtuous in spite of their public positions. Abortion is infidelity on so many levels: to women, to children, to self, and to God. We shouldn't be surprised that Spitzer's public life spilled over to his private life.

Reproductive Outsourcing

You've heard about international adoption, no doubt. But what about international surrogacy? Here's the news from The New York Times:

An enterprise known as reproductive outsourcing is a new but rapidly expanding business in India. Clinics that provide surrogate mothers for foreigners say they have recently been inundated with requests from the United States and Europe, as word spreads of India’s mix of skilled medical professionals, relatively liberal laws and low prices.

Commercial surrogacy, which is banned in some states and some European countries, was legalized in India in 2002. The cost comes to about $25,000, roughly a third of the typical price in the United States. That includes the medical procedures; payment to the surrogate mother, which is often, but not always, done through the clinic; plus air tickets and hotels for two trips to India (one for the fertilization and a second to collect the baby).

Is Barack Obama a Red Letter Christian?

Many evangelicals seem taken with Barack Obama. Tired of the Religious Right and seeking a new tone in Washington, they see in this untested, enigmatic senator a chance for real change. And indeed he is congenial and a breath of fresh air when compared with the grasping Clinton dynasty. Many Bible-believers seem ready to look the other way with Obama, despite his extremely liberal voting record (including unfettered backing of abortion), because he appears to be a genuine person they can work with.

I wonder how his latest, religiously based comments might change this. The other day Obama reiterated his support for civil unions for homosexuals. No surprise there. Some Christians (but not me) do indeed allow for the conferring of some legal rights, short of marital status, on gays as a simple matter of fairness. But I suspect his rationale raised some hackles.

If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.

Since when did Romans 1 become obscure? I thought pitting the words of Jesus against those of Paul was a tactic of Red Letter Christians, not something a serious candidate for the Oval Office would engage in.

But be that as it may, it's a good thing that Obama is not running for theologian in chief. There is no refererence to gay civil unions in the Sermon on the Mount (unless you stretch the Golden Rule beyond all recognition). Perhaps Obama mixed up his Bible references, like Howard Dean calling Job his favorite New Testament book?

When Jesus spoke of marriage, of course, he assumed it is a heterosexual institution. There may be a legal case to be made for marriage-like civil unions. But, please, let's not drag Jesus into it.