Religion
April 11, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Tucker Carlson must be one of the most popular conservative commentators in the country. His show on X attracts clicks by the hundreds of thousands. This week he sought falsely to blacken Israel’s reputation by promoting the views of a Bethlehem pastor that Israel mistreats Christiand. In so doing, he obviously seeks to drive wedge between Israel and Christian supporters of Israel. While Israel is engaged in a fight for
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March 30, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Our supposedly devout “Catholic” president at work on this Easter holiday weekend: Can picking Easter Sunday for this proclamation be a mere coincidence? Meanwhile, for Monday’s traditional Easter egg hunt on the White House lawn, we have this: Pretty sure I know the thinking behind this, too, though to be sure around our household we refer to the preposterous Easter Bunny as the “Resurrection Rodent.”
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March 29, 2024 — Steven Hayward
I was looking through an old hard drive for an academic paper of mine from more than 20 years ago, and I happened to stumble across a long book review I wrote for the Acton Institute in 2000 on “Christian ‘leadership’ books,” and I thought it might be suitable on this Good Friday for a Holy Weekend reverie. I can’t believe I actually read all these books. Anyway: The church
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March 4, 2024 — John Hinderaker
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
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March 1, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
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
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February 17, 2024 — John Hinderaker
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
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October 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
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
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October 10, 2023 — John Hinderaker
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
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September 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
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
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May 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
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
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April 9, 2023 — Steven Hayward
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
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April 4, 2023 — Scott Johnson
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
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August 16, 2022 — Steven Hayward
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
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June 23, 2022 — John Hinderaker
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.
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May 24, 2022 — Scott Johnson
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
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May 22, 2022 — John Hinderaker
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
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April 9, 2022 — John Hinderaker
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
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