James Skillen of the Center for Public Justice reviews three recent books on Christian political responsibility (via Byzantine Calvinist). He helpfully distinguishes someone like Jim Wallis as a “civil-religionist of the left” from the more counter-cultural stance of someone like Stanley Hauerwas. Skillen criticizes Wallis for essentially cherry-picking quotes from the OT prophets as though…

But he could do more, says Nicholas Kristof (who, I would think, has pretty good human rights cred with his reporting on sex trafficking and the genocide in the Sudan).

Kyrie Eleison

John Nichols has an excerpt from John Quincy Adam’s semi-famous Independence Day speech given in 1821 when he was Secretary of State (via Dappled Things): And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets,…

How thoughtless of me to forget my own blog birthday! Hard to beleive I’ve been at this for a year.

As legions of do-gooders (or people looking for a free concert) descended on Philadelphia this weekend, the wife and I took the opportunity to beat it out of there for some R & R. We ended up in Jim Thorpe, PA, a town of about 5,000 souls in the foothills of the Poconos. The town,…

Interesting piece from the Washington Post trying to get the views of ordinary Africans on what they think would be helpful: Peter Kanans, a coffee farmer whose house has no running water and a leaking roof, said he had a message for the leaders of the world’s richest countries who will meet at the G-8…

Here’s a sharp column by newish NY Times-ter John Tierney. Some key bits: The natural impulse to dislike outsiders is so strong that it barely matters who the outsiders are. When experimental psychologists divide subjects into purely arbitrary groups – by the color of their eyes, their taste in art, the flip of a coin…

Justice O’Connor is retiring. You can read about some of her possible replacements here. Expect a lot of apocalyptic language from both sides telling us that the fate of our nation hinges on who’s appointed to replace her. I certainly have my opinions and preferences on these matters, but I also think it’s helpful to…

Here’s an article denouncing “communist chic” (“CCCP” t-shirts, a vodka bar chain called “the Soviet,” even a Stalin theme park in Lithuania!). We’re all familiar with the ubiquitous Che Guevera t-shirts. Yesterday I saw one that was new to me – a Ho Chi Minh t-shirt (I might be a little afraid of running into…