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I listened carefully to the President's press conference last night. I believe Mr. Obama is sincere, mostly. He can't resist the allure of power - or a friendly press corps - and so he's going to try to wield as much of it as he can. But I think he'd…
For most of the spring and early summer, the Obama Administration fretted over the situation with North Korea, a "rogue nation" with a megalomaniacal dictator, and, oh yeah, nuclear weapons (almost). Pyongyang fired off rockets, tested a nuclear device (maybe), threatened South Korea, sentenced two American journalists to prison terms,…
I had a "Usual Suspects" moment last night, watching the evening news. I've thought a good deal about how Barack Obama managed to become President of the United States. Race was a factor, but not the deciding one, as were his good looks and charm, easy eloquence, and sudden folksiness.…
The scientific community would like to buy the world a Coke. Well, not exactly; they'd just like to bring us all together as one large and getting-along family of mankind. The way to do this, according to Matthew Stremlau, is through unbridled, unlimited gene research. Writing from the State Department…
Art today has ceased to be about beauty. Some time ago I ran a little experiment. I read all the articles in, oh, a half dozen magazines on the arts, looking only for appearances of the word, "beauty." In something like 30 articles the word appeared only once, and in…
Last night, just as The O'Reilly Factor was winding down, Fox News broke in suddenly with one of its "Fox Alert" banners to announce breaking news. North Korea is threatening nuclear war if anyone tries to prevent them from doing whatever they want; and an American destroyer was shadowing a…
I'm sad to report that I'm not making any headway with publishers on my proposed title to mark, in 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The working title I've chosen is What's Not to Celebrate, and the book is intended to keep starry-eyed Protestant feet on the ground…
The material economy outlined for ancient Israel in the Law of God would be highly impractical in the modern world. It did promote two compelling ideas, however, which, in principle, are in danger of being lost by our materialistic age. The first is the idea of debt control. In ancient…
Christianity in America is in the midst of one of those weird cycles where the "good guys" are downplaying the teaching of sound doctrine and all its terms so offensive to sensitive unbelieving ears for the sake of emphasizing Christianity as an experience and a way of life. We're being…
Judge Sonia Sotomayor would seem to be the perfect pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. That, at least, is the opinion of Jeffrey Rosen. Writing in The New Republic (July1, 2009), Mr. Rosen touts Judge Sotomayor as a nominee who is growing in her understanding of the…
This reminder from early twentieth-century American naturalist writer Henry Beston: "Poetry is as necessary to comprehension as science." He's preaching to the choir 'round these parts, but I thought I'd run a little test and see if I could
A new study Bible has come out which is touted as "The Green Bible" because its focus is on the environment. In fact, any Scripture that includes a reference to the creation is printed in green, whether or not it has anything to do with environmental issues. Do we really…
A report by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research raises questions about what megachurches are teaching their members regarding Christian commitment. It was not that long ago that megachurch pastor Bill Hybels announced that, after 22 years of megachurching, the staff and leaders at Willow Creek hadn't managed to produce…
Three high profile murders have reminded the nation again of just how much things have changed since the 60s. The murder of an abortion doctor, the assassination of an army recruiter, and now the murder of a security guard at the National Holocaust Museum - all within the space of…
Continuing our chronicle of the federal government's extension of power into the private sector, two new developments just yesterday. First, it seems the "pay czar" is soon to be a reality. Perhaps his authority to define the terms of executive remuneration will at first be limited to those companies which…