During their recent convention, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted a full communion agreement with the United Methodist Church. According to the ELCA website , the church is also in full communion with the Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and the Presbyterian . . . . Continue Reading »
Joe asks whether I’m having the teenager read any of Richard Wilbur’s poetry as part of her American-literature course. Wilbur, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, is an elder statesman of American letters and may well represent, though I don’t know anything about his actual politics, one . . . . Continue Reading »
From conversations with friends and acquaintances in Hong Kong, the damage the Obama administration has done to American interests in the Far East may be far worse than meets the eye. The Bush administration, whatever its other failings, achieved something that no previous US administration had . . . . Continue Reading »
Forgot one item on the teenager’s reading list for this year: How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren. When I handed her the book, she took one look at the title, laughed, and said, “Don’t you think it’s a little late for that?” . . . . Continue Reading »
This year the federal government will: Spend: $30,958 per household Tax: $17,576 per household Borrow $13,392 per household The Heritage Foundation has more . . . Via: Justin Taylor who notes, “And none of these estimates include the cost of health-care reform!” . . . . Continue Reading »
Well it seems like Ivan can relax , Michael Peroski has just solved all of our problems : Proceeding from ideology-driven inquiry entails starting from an answer: Research on human embryonic stem cell should be forbidden because embryos are equivalent to human lives and working . . . . Continue Reading »
I have a particular fondness for strong opinions, Best/Worst lists, and theology. You don’t often find all three in the same place but Fred Sander’s hits that trifecta in his post ” Karl Bahrdt, Worst Theologian Ever .” (No, not Karl Barth , Karl Bahrdt .) A Lutheran . . . . Continue Reading »
A nostalgic reminiscence from the Clinton years: Social historians, the addlepated media, and other leftists have delighted in categorizing those of us who are post-war baby boomers, as self-indulged, morally challenged, half-wits who follow the remnant of the Grateful Dead around in . . . . Continue Reading »
At Light on Dark Water, conversation about a luminous novel: Pilgrim’s Inn, by the mid-20th-century English writer Elizabeth Goudge. . . . . Continue Reading »
President Obama’s problem in the health care debate is that he is losing the battle of the sound bite. What do I mean? In my experience, for a soundbite to, well, bite, it has to capture and symbolize a more complex and detailed cultural value or perceived truth in a . . . . Continue Reading »