Today he starts off by laying into Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and goes on to tear the guys at the Weekly Standard a new one: The administration, justly criticized for its Iraq premises and their execution, is suddenly receiving some criticism so untethered from reality as to defy caricature. The national, ethnic and religious…

The debate about the justness of Israel’s response to recent attacks by Hezbollah highlights what is, to me, one of the most difficult to understand aspects of Just-War Theory, namely, the criterion of “proportionality.” Proportionality has taken on increased importance in the last centruy or so because of the nature of modern warfare, but that…

This essay by Randall Balmer, adapted from his new book Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical’s Lament (can we get a subtitle check here?) is sharply critical of the Religious Right, but can’t seem to make up its mind on whether it wants the Right to…

Though my dear wife is still convalescing, I managed to pop off yesterday morning for an early “said mass” at the Church of the Advent in Boston. The service followed, more or less, the order for Holy Communion from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, with which I’m not terribly familiar. I was struck, in…

In a story in yesterday’s Boston Globe on congressional moves to overturn President Bush’s embryonic stem-cell research policy Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is quoted as saying that ESCR is “unethical and ineffective”: “The results speak for themselves,” he said. “Embryonic stem-cell research has produced no successful treatment for human beings, whereas…

Abby came through her surgery like a champ and is doing well. Her mom and I are heading back to the hospital today to see her and if all goes well there’s a good chance she’ll be home tonight. Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes. Meanwhile, do read this post from Jim Henley…

Before I sign off – I really like this piece from Father Greg Jones, who styles himself as an “Anglican centrist.” I’ve been wondering recently if there’s a future for people who are traditionalist or orthodox on theological matters (Christology, Trinity, etc.) but lean “liberal” on some of the contested hot button issues currently dividing…

Blogging will be light for the rest of the week. My wife is having surgery tomorrow; it’s a fairly standard procedure and we don’t anticipate any problems, but she’ll be staying at the hospital for at least one night. Prayers and good vibes would be appreciated.

Conservatives used to have field days mocking political correctness – the urge to scrutinize every cultural product for anything that might conceivably offend the sensibilities of some aggrieved group. But more recently conservatives have adopted their own versions of p.c. This can take the form of bewailing alleged discrimination against conservatives in the media or…

Derek the Ænglican of Haligweorc writes on the “plain sense” of scripture, with more to come. “As with much else in modern life, hippies spoiled the fun for the rest of us”: Millinerd writes from Mount Athos in Greece! (here and here) Theo Hobson, whose work we’ve discussed here before, says that liberal Anglo-Catholicism is…