I came across this passage in Fr. Capon’s An Offering of Uncles (my copy is from the collection The Romance of the Word) and thought it was worth pondering: In the interest of making a hasty accomodation between a stale biblical chronology and a half-baked theory of universal evolution, all kinds of things were said…

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy,…

William Saletan draws an interesting parallel.

Looking at it again it seems to me that this post was somewhat unclear, or at least didn’t say quite what I wanted to say. The point I was trying to make was that just because we can’t point to a place in the Bible where Jesus pronounces explicitly on issue x, it doesn’t follow…

This is somewhat surprising: Puppies and kittens likely are not the first things that come to mind when many think of Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record) — the conservative No. 3 Senate Republican known for his tough stance against abortion and gay marriage. But Santorum, R-Pa., has won high praise from the Humane…

I seem to have noticed an increase in the frequency of folks on all sides of the political spectrum invoking the “argument from silence” with respect to Jesus’ stance on their pet political issues. On the left you might hear someone say “Jesus never said anything about homosexuality or abortion.” On the right someone might…

This is a fascinating article about how Tom Cruise’s recent public antics (jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch, scolding Matt Lauer, etc.) may be attributable to his having reached (or being about to reach) the upper echelons of the Scientology hierarchy. A current Scientologist who has reached the level OT-V, and who also spoke…

You’re probably familiar with Rick Steves the friendly low-key host of the PBS European travel show appropriately titled “Rick Steves’ Europe.” We now learn (via Lutheran Chik) that Mr. Steves is a Lutheran and has even developed a series of travel videos for the ELCA called “Faithful Travel”! As the wife pointed out, he seems…

I have no idea if a free concert designed to raise “awareness” rather than, you know, money is a particularly effective way to fight poverty. But I’ll tell you what I don’t like – the fact that they’re effectively shutting down half the city for the likes of Bon Jovi and Linkin Park. Me, I’m…

Daniel Nichols at Caelum et Terra on “desecrating” the flag and trivializing it. Alexander Cockburn on the “jackboot liberals” on the Supreme Court. Bill Cork at Ut Unum Sint rethinks his support for the Iraq war. Thomas at Endlessly Rocking has a wonderful reflection on the 475th anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession.