It is worth asking ourselves what this tableau [i.e. the scene of Jesus’ meeting with Pilate], viewed from the vantage of pagan antiquity, would have meant. A man of noble birth, representing the power of Rome, endowed with authority over life and death, confronted by a barbarous colonial of no name or estate, a slave…

I am genuinely puzzled by the Social Security “crisis.” Not that I doubt that, if present trends continue, there won’t be enough money to fund benefits at current levels for all retirees in the not-too-distant future. That seems plain enough. What I do doubt is that this “crisis” requires anything as drastic as Social Security…

From Frederica Mathewes-Green (via Mere Comments – permalinks aren’t working; scroll down to “Young & Pro-Life: Get Used To It” ): The other night a couple of dozen young professionals and college students, mostly Eastern Orthodox Christians, crowded into my house for dinner. We played a current events party game. We divided the group in…

In comments to this post asking to what extent pacifist Christians should participate in the functions of the state, Camassia directed me to Telford Work’s blog where he addresses this and other related issues. From the looks of things, Prof. Work was doing yeoman’s work (no pun intended) back in the summer of 2002 defending…

Ben Stein on the difference between celebrity and heroism (via the Pertinacious Papist) American Christians’ Persecution Complex (via Morning Retort) Marcus responds to my Pascal post. Thomas Hibbs reviews Sideways (such a great film!) (also see Noah Millman on Sideways here)

The Confessing Evangelical on evangelical “anti-Incarnationism” and the importance of Christmas.

One story making the rounds today is that philosopher Antony Flew has gone from being a renowned defender of atheism to embracing some kind of theism or deism. While interesting, this shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a victory for Christianity. Even if we could “prove” the existence of some kind of limited deistic god, that’s…

Max Sawicky responds to Peter Beinart’s “get tough” article: Whether a closer Democratic adherence to a “muscular” foreign policy would win elections is an uninteresting question. More important is whether such a policy is commendable in its own right. Beinart envisions a reconstruction along the lines of the late 1940s Truman/ADA crusade against communism, with…

David Sirota argues that Democrats can, and are, winning in “red-state” areas with an progressive economic message. A strong case against the conventional wisdom that Dems need to either become more hawkish or embrace conservative cultural issues. I have no particular stake in seeing the Dems win more elections per se, except insofar as I…

In a comment to this post Marcus wondered if John Paul meant to be promulgating a new understanding of the Atonement to replace the “traditional” satisfaction theory. Though I don’t believe the Roman Catholic Church has ever definitively pronounced one Atonement theory to be the correct one (certainly nothing comparable to the dogmatic definitions of…