Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
I’m about to wade into theology here, so feel free to beat me around the head (politely, of course), if I’ve committed some egregious doctrinal sin. Before you do, though, please follow my argument to its conclusion, to see whether I’m on the right track. I got to thinking about
Continue readingAs part of a larger rumination about religion, Barney Quick looked at the Christian notion of a woman’s submission within her marriage, since the media is going after Michele Bachmann on that point: The recent dust-up over Michelle Bachmann’s statements on record that she feels Biblically commanded to be submissive
Continue reading“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” — Deuteronomy, 24:16. One of the things that always struck me as bizarre about old-fashioned Christian antisemitism
Continue readingPaying work places its demands on me, but I thought you’d like to see and think about (and perhaps comment upon) an article that tries to imagine what it would be like if the newly discovered gospels reveal that Jesus was an openly gay man. I find it a bit
Continue readingRodney King got his 15 minutes of fame for (a) getting beaten up while resisting arrest; (b) having his name attached to some horrific riots; and (c) plaintively asking “Can we get along?” The last is a great thought. I’d like to get along with people better myself. “Getting along,”
Continue readingI keep getting called away by real life, so let me quickly apprise you of two posts I think you’d enjoy. The first is at Wolf Howling. WH is inaugurating a series examining 15 battles that were turning points in history. His first post is about the Battle of Chipyong-ni,
Continue readingThe Archbishopric of Canterbury used to be a pretty important job. The guy who held that position, going back to the earliest Middle Ages, was the premier leader of the English church, whether that church gave allegiance to Rome or the British Monarch. The current Archbishop, Rowan Williams is, as
Continue reading‘Tis the season for the usual politically correct attacks on Christmas. Ecumenical signs, disingenuously trimmed with Christmas holly and ornaments, urge a generic “Happy Holidays.” Bank inspectors, perhaps seeking an easier task than examining a bank’s books, remove crosses. Every December, Scrooge takes his steroids and is out in full
Continue readingI struggled for a few minutes to find a clever title for this post that would convey the volume of information I’m about to download from my brain, but realized I couldn’t. A laundry list description will just have to do. You see, last night, I had the pleasure of
Continue readingLiam Neeson, who does the voice of Aslan the Lion in the Narnia movies, has upset people by claiming that Aslan could as easily be Allah or Buddha as he could be Christ: Ahead of the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader next Thursday, Neeson said: ‘Aslan symbolises
Continue readingI was very surprised to see an AP wire story reporting that Islamic militants (as opposed to mere “militants” or “insurgents”) were holding “Christians” (as opposed to mere “people”) hostage. Even more surprising, the AP reported that the Islamic militants were probably affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq, an entity
Continue readingAll our weapons — free speech, reason, forbearance — are for dealing with people who are sort of like us. The existential crisis comes when we find ourselves dealing with people who are in no way like us. Do we oppose them by being even more like ourself than before
Continue readingI know this will come as a surprise to all of you, but I was not born wise or well informed. I blush to think of some of the behaviors in which I indulged, and the ideas that I held, when I was younger. When I was a very little
Continue readingMy book club group met the other night to discuss William Manchester’s book A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age. The title is something of a misnomer. It’s only a “portrait of an age” if you want to read a thousand
Continue readingWell, I finally got around to seeing The Blind Side. For those unfamiliar with the movie, it retells the true story of Michael Oher, a profoundly disadvantaged black boy who ended up as a scholarship student at a Christian academy in Memphis. Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, parents at the
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