I take it as a given that Christians are called to be a force for good and for decency in the world, and that this good and this decency are best exhibited face-to-face with people you know and live with. The debates that arise when I write about what I am going to write about …
Here’s An Idea
Refugees are now pouring out of Zimbabwe, former Rhodesia, and I have a modest proposal. Let’s have a moratorium on all new proposals about international affairs, proposals designed to improve the lot of others and end injustice forever, until all the people who insisted on the course we followed with Rhodesia (for foundational moral reasons) …
Velcro Candidate
This is about the time in the campaign season that I start wishing that I could bring myself to vote for McCain, if for no other reason than to irritate the handwringers and Europeans. But alas, I am a man of principle. McCain would only irritate them for about 20 percent of the right reasons. …
Lickspittles in the Entourage
Terrorism is back in the news, at least in a way that requires us to revisit our definition of it. Jimmy Carter is apparently comfortable with meeting with the head of Hamas, and Obama is now tagged with his friendship with William Ayers, one who has admitted his role in various bombings of public buildings …
Why Patriots Don’t Like the Patriot Act
First, nothing I am about to say is in any way a defense of Eliot Spitzer. Second, I would encourage you to read this article, and ask yourself the following questions: Is the Patriot Act devised in a such a way as to be directed at terrorists, and nothing but terrorists? No. Can the Patriot …
Why Jeremiah Wright is No Jeremiah
In the dust-up following the release of video clips of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s rants, there has been a lot media attention, and the chattering classes have been . . . well, chattering. As I have reflected on this, it occurred to me that I wanted to comment on several reasons why the general indignation …
A Chilling Effect
Well, today Obama denounced remarks made by his incendiary preacher, and I must say I view this with a measure of alarm. Speaking for incendiary preachers everywhere, what kind of message does this send? What sort of chilling effect might it create? If a member of my congregation ever ran for president . . . …
Fox News Indignation
A lot of attention in this last news cycle is being rendered to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Obama. Apparently there have been cameras running when he unleashed some of his loonier sentiments, to wit, that the United States government has been actively trying to kill black people by inventing the AIDS virus. This …
Yahweh for Sunshine and Baal for Rain
There are really two basic questions when it comes to questions of theocracy. The first is erroneously thought to be a genuine question — whether or not we should have a theocracy, whether there will be a god who rules over any given culture. The fact that this is even believed to be a coherent …
Supreme Virtue Cheating
Hillary Clinton has come out in opposition to “do-overs” in Michigan and Florida. At the same time, she now wants the first-time voting in those states to count. This, even though she and the other candidates had agreed not to compete in those states (because they had violated DNC rules by moving their primaries to …