Shortly after I first met my friend and mentor Ray Ortlund, he gave me a copy of his book A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans. The Afterword includes as prophetic and powerful an evangelical manifesto for gospel reform as I’ve ever read.An Earnest Call For . . . . Continue Reading »
Step 1 was our identity crisis. From the beginning through the Civil War we sought to clarify our system of government, leaving the Articles of Confederation and moving onto the more centralized Constitution. We ended our bout with slavery and secured rights. We secured the . . . . Continue Reading »
The Evangelicals & Catholics Together gang have worked their way through a number of key doctrinal areas in recent years: salvation, Scripture, pro-life issues, Mary, etc. Their thoughtful interactions have consistently shed light on the areas of agreement and disagreement between . . . . Continue Reading »
Patrick Kennedy, the congressman from Rhode Island, wrote, “The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” And Thomas J. Tobin, the bishop of Providence, replies : Well, in fact, Congressman, in a way it does. Although I wouldn’t . . . . Continue Reading »
President Obama’s brief speech at the memorial service for the victims of the Fort Hood massacre is by far the best speech that has ever been written for him. As a work of presidential rhetoric, it’s as solid as they come and should be used as a model for speechwriting. One section in . . . . Continue Reading »
Via AP:Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.I will not offer any comments, but you . . . . Continue Reading »
Which HIV prevention programs are truly saving lives in Africa? In 2003, President Bush asked Congress for $15 billion to establish the PEPFAR plan to fight AIDS in Africa. A contentious debate ensued. The Democrats were seeking condom-centered prevention, and Republicans were demanding . . . . Continue Reading »
The UK is the land of good newspapers, and salacious ones, but lets leave that part alone. And each of the majors has a vivid voice: The Telegraph, more conservative; the Guardian, definitely liberal; The Independent, very liberal, while the Times has imploded; whatever it once was, it . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ll be off in about two hours to debate assisted suicide at the Scottish Parliament. I am going to alter my usual approach—or better stated, to alter my usual emphasis—to more forcefully reflect the harmful message assisted suicide advocacy sends to potential . . . . Continue Reading »
From the letter of Methetes to Diognetus, c. 170 AD:For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind either in locality or in speech or in customs. For they dwell not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some different language, nor practice an extraordinary kind of . . . . Continue Reading »
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