I never took Pat Robertson seriously before, and I’m not about to start now. A question on usage though: somewhere Robertson’s comments were characterized as a “death threat.” Now, it seems to me that it’s only a death threat if he was intending to carry out the killing himself, which is presumably not the case.…

The latest issue of The American Conservative has an article by Daniel McCarthy comparing the views of Pope Benedict XVI with Catholic “neoconservatives” like George Weigel and Michael Novak on the question of Just War theory. While there’s not much new information here, McCarthy poses the difference between the Pope, who, like his predecessor, opposed…

Sober dove Alan Bock isn’t sure whether we’re seeing the beginning of a grass-roots anti-war movement that “looks like America”: As a war opponent from the beginning, I have mixed feelings. Ms. Sheehan has not confined herself to doubting the war’s wisdom, but has unburdened herself of an array of remarks ranging from personal insults…

Heavy metal may be the Next Big Thing for kitsch-crazed hipsters according to this Slate article. Well, some of us never stopped loving metal! Though, I admit my tastes run more to 80’s thrash at its peak (early Metallica, Anthrax, etc.), punk-metal fusion (Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I.), and “classic” stuff like Iron Maiden, with an occasional…

When it is said that God is the ground of nature’s existence and order, God is not being used to fill a gap in a scientific explanation that concerns the connections between members of the universe. Rather to speak of God as the ground of nature’s existence and order is to address questions concerning the…

Is the designer of Intelligent Design the God of the Bible? John Garvey doesn’t think so: The problem with the God rejected by Darwinian atheists and the God of those who believe in intelligent design is that neither is particularly biblical. (By the way, I think it is fair of those who believe in intelligent…

Ramesh Ponnuru, proving that conservatism hasn’t totally lost its soul, has an article cautioning against loosening the restraints on the means by which we fight wars. Conservative pundits like Max Boot and Mark Steyn have been citing anguish over the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (as well as the bombings of Tokyo, Dresden, etc.) as…

Looks that way, anyway. From Beliefnet: The nation’s largest Lutheran church on Friday upheld a policy that frowns on blessing same-sex unions, but left the door open for pastors to provide “faithful pastoral care” to all parishioners as they see fit.Delegates from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted 670-323 to uphold a 1993 statement…

Despite the fact that increasing numbers of Americans (and disproportionate numbers of Democratic voters, one suspects) are disenchanted with the war in Iraq, the Democratic leadership remains steadfastly hawkish. The names most frequently mentioned as possiblities in ’08 (Clinton, Biden, etc.) are invariably national security hawks who continue to support the war. Why is this…

In his article on the Atonement Gerhard Forde makes some of the more common charges against Anselm’s theory of the Atonement (or at least certain “Anselmian”type theories). Whether Forde intends his criticisms to apply to Anselm himself or just some of the cruder later versions of his theory isn’t entirely clear. I’ve defended Anselm on…