From Tenth Presbyterian Church here in Philadelphia: As a church, our primary calling is to declare the Word of God, which is the only basis for our authority. As we teach the Bible, we may sometimes explore its political implications, but we may not bind anyone’s conscience beyond the teaching of Scripture. And since most…

Jennifer at Scandal of Particularity and Camassia have good posts on the question of Providence. This is an issue I feel woefully underequipped to address. I think the direction in which one has to look, though, is at the examples of Christ and the Martyrs who followed God’s will even when it involved doing what…

This article by ethicist Glen Stassen has been making the rounds, purporting to show that the abortion rate declined under Clinton due to economic conditions. National Right to Life takes issue with Dr. Stassen’s statistics here.

The discussion on religion & politics continues! Bill Keezer weighs in with a response to Kevin‘s remarks (here and here) which were partially a response to some comments made by the Smallholder at Naked Villainy. (Some of my earlier posts on these issues are here, here and here.) One of the issues that keeps coming…

Reason magazine has asked various contributors to disclose who they’re voting for and why, as well as who they voted for last time around, what their most embarrassing vote was, and who their all-time favorite president is. Samples: James Bovard 2004 vote: I will probably vote for Badnarik, the Libertarian Party candidate. Both of the…

An interesting op-ed from the LA Times.

From Christianity Today: God allowed Adam and Eve to eat plants and herbs, a privilege he granted also to the animals (Gen. 1:29-30). And humans and animals enjoyed a peaceful and friendly relationship in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:19-20). It was only after the Flood that permission was granted to eat animal flesh, and…

From the Washington Post: The Vatican is becoming increasingly alarmed at what it regards as official anti-Roman Catholic sentiment and secular trends in Europe, as government after government approves measures on abortion, family law and scientific study that run counter to Catholic teaching. … …”It looks like a new Inquisition. It is a lay Inquisition,…

From Jeff Taylor at Counterpunch: 1. Do you live in a swing state? Which one? Yes. Minnesota. 2. Are you still planning to vote Nader? Why? Yes. Because Nader is by far the best candidate running for President in 2004. He’s an honest, humane, informed, and intelligent man. He shares my ideology (populism). I agree…

It’s a veggie two-fer today! From the American Spectator: Bashing the animal-rights movement has become a genre of conservative article. The latest I saw is one by Daniel Flynn, and he makes clear that there’s a lot to “bash.” Animal-rights fanatics in Britain have been threatening not only biomedical researchers, but their children. Flynn traces…