• "Christian America" – a Muslim perspective

    This is interesting (via A Conservative Blog for Peace) – Am I objecting to the notion of America being a “Christian nation,” especially because I am Muslim? No, not at all. Like I said before, I have absolutely no problem with this being a nation based upon Judeo-Christian values, because those values are my values.…

  • Sex and sanctification

    Marcus says that the churches don’t need to abandon the supernatural worldview of traditional Christianity in order to survive, but that they should re-think their sexual ethic, since the sexual revoution is a fait accompli. I think he may be on to something, though I might quibble about a few things. During much of the…

  • Christian Century defends Focus on the Family

    Well, sort of. A good editorial on fear-mongering about religion (via Jesus Politics): Exposés of right-wing Christian America are often hardly less apocalyptic than the pronouncements of the radio preachers citing Revelation. The sky is falling, the new brown shirts are taking over, our beloved republic is being conquered by fundamentalists who are as crazy…

  • Right to defend yourself? What a kook!

    People for the American Way has a selection of quotes from Janice Rogers Brown (who was just confirmed), apparently intended to demonstrate how nutty she is and what a threat her confirmation is to all that is good and decent. And indeed, some of it does seem a bit nutty; Brown appears to be a…

  • It’s kinda depressing when…

    you realize that you’re closer to the age Anne Bancroft was when she played sexy “older woman” Mrs. Robinson than you are to Dustin Hoffman’s recent college graduate. Sigh.

  • Lovers of wisdom

    The BBC is having a vote to determine the greatest (western) philosophers of all time. The voting is closed, – UPDATE: Thanks to Jack Perry I see now that the voting is not closed; it’s the nominations that are closed. My mistake. So, go vote if you want a say! – and the results will…

  • "Fundamentally unsound"

    I cursed his aunts and his uncles and him and all the rest of the family. ‘Do you know that Lady Florence has broken off her engagement with me?’ ‘Indeed, sir?’ Not a bit of sympathy! I might have been telling him it was a fine day. ‘You’re sacked!’ ‘Very good, sir.’ He coughed gently.…

  • Sir, I knew Martin Luther, and you’re no Martin Luther

    Pastor Frontz and Camassia have both been discussing Catholic-turned-Episcopalian priest and guru of “Creation Spirituality” Matthew Fox’s new “95 theses” which he recently posted to the cathedral door in Wittenberg (what is it with these revisionist Episcopalians and their self-important Luther impersonations?). Some of Fox’s theses are silly, some are eminently debatable, some are just…

  • Will the "extra" embryos be enough?

    Here’s another noteworthy piece from Steve Chapman, “Stem Cell Debate Myths”: Start with the claim that 400,000 frozen embryos otherwise would go to waste. The truth is that most of them are anything but “surplus.” According to a 2003 survey by researchers at the RAND Corp., a California think tank, 88 percent of them are…

  • Time to leave?

    Even among folks who opposed the Iraq war, the general consensus (apart from the far Left) has been that now that we’re there, we have to stay. Two op-eds worth noting say it ain’t necessarily so. First, George McGovern and Jim McGovern (no relation, apparently) say it’s time to start bringing the troops home: Our…