Marshall: Nativity Center Stage in Town Square

Marshall, Michigan, has officially told the secularists where they can stick it with this one. The nativity is within the centerpiece of the town square, directly across the street from city hall.

Bannister v. Atheist on Hotline's Wednesday Edition

Tim Collins, WBCK's station manager, and I will be interviewing David Koepsell for an upcoming edition of Hotline. Koepsell is the Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism and the First Amendment Task Force. We will be discussing the role of religion (i.e. Christianity) in American politics, the first amendment, and the influence that Christian Reconstruction has had on the American conservative movement.

Chris Simmons, the host of Hotline, and his co-host, Tom Ford, are currently on vacation.

PS- I was hoping to get Eddie Tabash, the atheist constitutional lawyer who has debated Christian apologists such as William Lane Craig and Greg Bahnsen. Tabash works with Koepsell as a chairman on the First Amendment Task Force.

BANNISTER PROTESTS "GAY-RIGHTS" BILL IN LANSING

A group of Olivet students, headed up by none other than yours truly, decided to form a chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at Olivet College. Yesterday was our first day as an official clob/organization at the College. So what better way to kick things off than to join MSU's YAF in protesting a "gay-rights" bill in Lansing? There were about 20+ of us in all and everything went well. To top it all off, we made it on channel 10, the front page of the Lansing State Journal, as well as the front page of State News, the official MSU daily newspaper. Here are some links from the event.... and yes, I am the one holding the Christian flag.

WATCH TV CLIP: http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=5711678

READ STATE NEWS: http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=38845

Voters of MI v. Affirmative Action Activists

By, Jeremiah Bannister
Printed in The Olivet College Echo, 11-17-2006

On November 7, 2006, the citizens of Michigan let America know where they stood on the issue of affirmative action. With 2,131,310 “yes” votes, Michigan became the third state in the Union, behind only California and Washington, to restrict affirmative action to the private sector. The passage of proposal 2 effectively bars State and local governments, publicly funded schools, and other agencies receiving tax money from using affirmative action measures in their hiring and acceptance procedures.

Jennifer Gratz, director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) and one of the three white students who sued the University of Michigan in 1997 over the University’s use of racial preferences in evaluating and accepting college applicants, was very satisfied with the results. "This has been 10 years in the making," she said. "Today the people of Michigan have stood up. We stood up and we said equal treatment will be the law in Michigan."

As Detnews.com reported on November 9, Proposal 2, which won with 58% of the popular vote, saw its most significant opposition in college counties. In fact, the measure only failed in Wayne, Washtenaw, and Ingham counties. They reported that the results were also close in Isabella and Kalamazoo counties, both of which are home to universities. And with just over 44% of the eligible voters making it to the polls, the city of Olivet voted in favor of the proposal by a margin of only 41 votes.

After the election results were in, many Olivet College students felt an even greater need to continue the debate. Eddie Ward, senior, created a Facebook group called, “If you voted ‘YES’ on Proposal 2, then F*** you.” On the group page, he has a picture of an African American man glancing down at a park bench with the words “Whites only” written on it. In the thought-bubble above the man are the words, “Why didn’t more people vote ‘no’ on proposal 2?” The issue was also the topic of debate on WOCR, 89.7 FM, during last Friday night’s edition of Real Talk with Demetris Mayberry. Others have spurred on discussion by continuing to use “Vote ‘YES’ on Proposal 2” icons as their Facebook profile pictures.

Students are not the only ones refusing to allow the issue to rest. The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights has joined with Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary in filing a suit against the proposal on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. The University of Michigan is also considering a court challenge. The suit claims “in the absence of affirmative action, college admissions, state hiring and contracting will be conducted on a discriminatory basis.” The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a similar suit when California banned affirmative action in 1997. Proposal 2 is set to go into effect on December 22, 2006.

Bannister on 3rd Party Politics

This post is taken from Bannister's blog.

Personally, I have no interest in working with 3rd parties. I believe that Christians, conservatives, and libertarians ought to use the tools currently available which will enable them to make the greatest impact with the least amount of resistance. At this time in history it appears that this tool is the Republican party. The infrastructure is already in place. Christian conservatives and libertarians have a history with the party and, at least to some degree, still have some influence within the party. To top it off, we only have to convince people of our ideas. This is much easier than convincing people of our ideas and then following that up with having to convince them to join or vote for a 3rd party.

Convincing people of the need for reformation is a lot easier than convincing them of the need for - and advantage of -separatism.

PS- If it ever became more advantageous for Christians, conservatives, and libertarians to work within the Democrat party then I would have no problem with encouraging such a shift. As I have said before, I do not believe that Christians, conservatives, or libertarians ought to chain themselves to any one party, rather, I believe that we ought to work within the party which enables us to make the greatest impact with the least amount of resistance.

Giving it 112%

Bob & I on the set of Bannister & Sutherby

I have to give it up to Athens, MI, for an extraordinary voter turnout! They give a whole new meaning to the phrase "giving it 110%." While the statewide turnout was just over 50%, Athens broke through with 112%!!! That's right, 112%! While there are only 837 registered voters in Athens, 940 are on record as having voted. Simply amazing...

BANNISTER ON ELECTION AFTERMATH

I am not too worried about the election results. Honestly, I think there are good reasons for this type of thing and, if responded to properly, events such as this can be advantageous for Christian political action. Here are a few of the reasons I am not shedding tears over this one:

1. I believe Republicans brought this one on themselves. The war, their insatiable taste for pork, a mind-boggling deficit, out of control borders, scandals, their wish-wash position on embryonic stem-cell research, their limp-wristed position on homosexuality, and their failure to stop abortion are but a few of the reasons people have "had enough."

2. Gridlock is underrated. Were it to be a complete sweep for the Dems, I would be more worried. But as it stands, I do not believe we will see a ferocious shift towards the left. In fact, I am betting my chips that Bush has already put his rubber stamp in the drawer and replaced it with his veto stick.

3. This kind of loss sends a message to Republicans. The old maxim "spare the rod, spoil the child" comes to mind here. It is my hope that Republicans will get the right message. Some have already indicated that they have no clue as to why they lost. Some said it was the vast amount of money given to Democratic candidates by liberal activists. Others have said that it was due to misinformation. On a national level, there are many blaming the religious right for this. Honestly, they may have a case, but only insofar as the religious right has allowed itself to be identified with Bush & Co.

As I mentioned before, the election results are bittersweet. This being said, religious libertarians and conservatives have a great opportunity. The question is, are we up to it?

PS- As a blogger and a radio/TV host, power shifts such as this are not so bad. We are notorious for being adversarial, grassroots oriented, and (unfortunately?) reactionary. These shifts also give us a TON of talking points and parodies.

Bittersweet Election Results

Chris Simmons & I at the CCR "Victory" Party

Last night was as interesting as it was depressing. I had been sick for the last few days, but was assigned a story dealing with the election "aftermath." So what better place to go than the Calhoun County Republican "Victory" party?

The results of yesterdays election are bittersweet. Most of the candidates I endorsed lost while most of the proposals I endorsed passed. The sad fact is that I predicted it almost perfectly. I was wrong on 1 proposal predictions and 1 county prediction. Other than that, my predictions were dead on. This is as sad as it is true.

On a positive note, affirmative action has been given the big boot, eminent domain has been strictly regulated, and mandatory public school funding increases were shot down. Also, Tim Walberg won. As hard as Schwarz may have wished otherwise, "I'm pro-life because I oppose the Iraq war" Renier did not have what it took to beat off the Reagan Conservative from Tipton. Thank God!!

PS- I had the privilege last night of finally meeting Chris Simmons. He is the host of AM 930 WBCK's Hotline program. We have spoken over the phone many times, and he has seen my show, but we have never actually met face-to-face. It was nice to finally meet him.

Mother Joy Wants the Power

"I am tired of sitting in the belly of the whale where there's not much light and it's dreary and damp. I'm tired of feeling like I have no power."

~Rev. Joy Rogers of Battle Creek's own "Naked Calendar Girls" church during a recent JONAH meeting

THE ENQUIRER IS SO PREDICTABLE

Immediately after the primaries I predicted that the Enquirer would endorse Sharon "I'm pro-life because I am against the Iraq war" Renier for US House of Representatives. Robert Warner (aka "Cranky Bob") thought I was a little quick on the draw in my prediction. Was I? Of course not... I was right on the money. They just "had to" endorse the Red Loon.

They also decided to endorse Gov. Jennifer "I led MI into a Single State Recession" Granholm! Her record sucks so bad and her positions on the issues are so bankrupt that the Editors must have relied upon the fact that she is kinda hot.

As if the Enquirer could not look worse, they also endorsed Senator Debbie "I'm Ronald McDonald's twin sister" Stabenow!

I wish I could say that my being 3 for 3 on the Enquirer's endorsements took some professional political forecasting... but it didn't. It was about as difficult as predicting the sunrise.