Religion

Pope Francis Is a Fool

Featured image Pope Francis says that all nations have a moral duty to disarm: Pope Francis said Sunday that military disarmament is not optional but constitutes a “moral obligation” for all nations. *** “How many resources are wasted on military expenditure, which, because of the current situation, sadly continues to increase!” he told the estimated 20,000 tourists and pilgrims gathered in the square. Actually, I think it is a fact that a »

This Is CNN

Featured image As in Christian Nationalism Nonsense, and the always insightful Mark Tapson explains it for you: The label “Christian nationalism” is the new Progressive dog-whistle for “scary American patriots.” It signals to Progressives that Americans who love God and country – which used to be the norm before our descent into a post-Christian, post-patriotism culture – are a subversive danger to democracy. Christianity, after all, imposes a moral code that chafes »

Politics of Identity In the Fifth Century [Updated]

Featured image I am currently reading The New Roman Empire by Anthony Kaldellis. A history of the Eastern Empire, it runs to 1,000 pages, which isn’t long enough, given the length of time and the density of incident recorded. Among the many subjects covered are the theological and political controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries. The major theological debate in the fourth century was over the relationship between Jesus Christ and »

She Should Have Kept Her Mouth Shut

Featured image I wrote here about the fact that many “mainstream” organizations were silent in the face of the Gazans’ genocidal attack on Israel. I highlighted in particular the silence of the Evangelical Lutheran Church In America, the denomination to which I belonged for nearly all my life. That silence, unfortunately, didn’t last. Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton eventually produced a statement that is stunning in its moral perversity: As Lutherans, we are »

Bystanders to Attempted Genocide

Featured image There is no doubt that if they can, the Palestinians and their Iranian allies will kill every Jew in the State of Israel. That is their oft-stated goal. On Saturday night, Gaza’s military took a step in the direction of genocide by massacring 900 or more Israelis, most of them women and children. All normal people have been horrified by the video and photographic evidence of the horrors that were »

Those Pagan Democrats

Featured image It is generally known that Republicans are more likely to be religious than Democrats; in fact, this may be the most basic fault line in our contemporary politics. But the speed with which Democrats are abandoning religion is remarkable. This chart, from Gallup via Breitbart, shows it graphically. The percentage of Democrats describing themselves as religious has dropped from 60% in 1999 to only 37%–a rather small minority–today: Note that »

Bible? What Bible?

Featured image Time was when a politician like Patrick Henry (“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace–but there is no peace!”) or Abraham Lincoln (“A house divided against itself cannot stand”) could quote from the Bible and assume that pretty much everyone in his audience got the reference. Those days are gone, of course. But most Americans still have at least a nodding acquaintance with the Book. Not, however, those who write and edit »

Sir Roger on Easter

Featured image Happy Easter to our Christian readers. I happened to stumble across a meditation on Easter for the Daily Telegraph by the late Sir Roger Scruton, written shortly after he had been subject to a scurrilous and factually false attack in the media that cost him a government appointment and several other honors. (He was ultimately vindicated, and the false stories retracted by several media outlets, but the damage was done.) Here’s »

Judge Ho’s thought for the day

Featured image The Washington Free Beacon has published Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho’s remarks at the annual gathering of the Texas Review of Law & Politics this past Saturday. In his remarks Judge Ho announced that he is extending his hiring boycott to include graduates of Stanford Law School. Judge Ho’s remarks are worth reading from beginning to end. This is far from the most interesting point he makes, but it is »

The Central Bigotry of the Left

Featured image Whittaker Chambers—a Quaker—wrote to William F. Buckley in 1956 that “There is only one fully logical conservative position in the West—that of the Catholic Church.” This may explain why a central cause of the modern left is destroying the Catholic Church above all other nodes of opposition to secular leftism. I know I am not the first to suggest that anti-Catholic bigotry is one of the few kinds of bigotry »

Supreme Court Case Prompts Anti-Religious Bigotry [Updated]

Featured image On Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided Carson v. Makin on a 6-3 vote, with the liberal bloc dissenting. The case related to a program in Maine, whereby the state will pay for specified educational alternatives for parents who live in districts where there is no secondary school. Public and private schools are eligible as long as they are accredited and meet other requirements, except that only “nonsectarian” schools can participate. »

Whoopi comes for the archbishop

Featured image The former comedienne with the Whoopi handle hasn’t been funny in eons, but she made me laugh with her instruction to the archbishop of San Francisco: “The archbishop of San Francisco is calling for speaker Nancy Pelosi to be denied receiving Communion because of her pro-choice stance…this is not your job, dude. That is not up to you to make that decision.” Now that is funny. This might be a »

Only the Woke Need Apply [Updated]

Featured image From the Telegraph, a story that sums up much that is wrong with the West. Calvin Robinson has been studying at Oxford for the last two years to become an Anglican priest. Robinson was scheduled to begin a curacy at a parish in London, but the post was denied him and he was told the church did not have a role for him. Why? Mr Robinson submitted a subject access »

Is the Pope Catholic?

Featured image When my wife and I were in Rome several years ago, we arranged through our hotel for a guide to give us a tour of the Vatican. The guide was a young lady who I could tell was a practicing Catholic. We spent most of the day together, and after we had gotten acquainted she asked me what I thought of Pope Francis. I said it was probably none of »

Notes on Religion Today

Featured image It’s hardly news any more that mainline Protestant denominations (Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc) have been shrinking fast in proportion as they’ve become politicized adjuncts of leftism, transforming themselves into the Church of What’s Happening Now instead of ministering to the horizon of eternity. Meanwhile, evangelical denominations continue to thrive and grow rapidly, not just here in the U.S., but around the world. But what about the Catholic Church? Many parishes »

How will evangelicals react to Trump’s attack on Netanyahu?

Featured image The paper edition headline to this Washington Post article is “Trump’s outburst over Netanyahu shocks allies.” I wrote about that outburst here. Why is anyone shocked that Trump said what he said? The outburst is vintage Trump. Netanyahu is the umpteenth former ally Trump has thrown under the bus for “disloyalty.” Trump’s absurd claim that he prevented the destruction of Israel is fully consistent with his “I alone can fix »

Get Woke, Empty the Pews

Featured image It would be a full-time job to chronicle all of the irrational reactions by liberals to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, and scarcely worth the effort. But I do want to note one such response because it affects me directly: that of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA, of which my congregation is a member, sent out this “Pastoral Letter” authored by Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton. Here is the »