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…

Could God have justified Himself before human history, so full of suffering, without placing Christ’s Cross at the center of that history? Obviously, one response could be that God does not need to justify Himself to man. It is enough that He is omnipotent. From this perspective everything He does or allows must be accepted.…

That’s Marcus’ response to Peter Beinart’s attempt to revivify “muscular” liberalism for the 21st century.

Camassia has a meaty post on John Howard Yoder and biblical inerrancy. Basically Yoder’s message is: the Jerry Falwells of the world aren’t taking the Bible seriously enough! Not sure if “inerrancy” is the right word though. Maybe “reliability” (as Camassia’s post title indicates) or “trustworthiness.” This piece by Richard Hays deals with some of…