I’d Love to Change the World

God has called us to participate in his work in the world.

Conscience and Nursing

Should nurses who refuse to assist in lethal injections for reasons of conscience be protected?

Pro Conscience

Comment on freedom of conscience protections.

How Many White Men Does it Take . . . ?

OK, the answer is–whatever the punchline–
That’s not funny!
I was going to ask, “How many white men does it take to say a bland and boring prayer?” But it turns out that white guys are more sensitive than I realized.
Some of my brethren were offended and hurt by the Rev. Joseph Lowery’s rhyming conclusion to his [...]

A Post-Racist World

Two years ago Jürgen Moltmann was interviewed on his 80th birthday.  The interviewer asked him if young people need to be given more evidence for belief in God.  Looking back over the horrors of the earlier years of the twentieth century and then the amazing changes that came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, [...]

Is Compromise Possible?

I am stuck between two generations. Many people of my father’s generation cannot comprehend why anyone would approve of homosexual relationships–and many of my kids’ generation cannot fathom why anyone could possible be opposed to two people loving each other just because they happen to be of the same sex.
The Film “Trembling Before G-D” is [...]

Erich Honecker

Hmm–this is a post I started and never got around to finishing . . .  These are some things I collected just a couple months ago, when we were still gloating over the collapse of socialism.
Until 1990, East Germany was locked in the grip of communist rule. When [...]

Tragedy in Port Au Prince

While Americans were celebrating the selection of the first president of African descent last week, the tragic collapse of a school for poor children in Port Au Prince, Haiti, brought grief to that island.

“No one cares about the children, living or dead,”

one furious father of children in the collapsed school outside [...]

Name Change?

When I started this thing, I didn’t know much about the format, layout, etc–I just signed up for a WordPress account and I had to pick a name–right now–so I started with “Faith and Alternatives.”  I kind of liked that, but I thought maybe it was a little confusing.  So I switched to “Faith Matters.”  [...]

Income Redistribution (Voodoo Economics -3)

In spite of the claim by advocates of Reaganomics that “the rising tide raises all ships,” the poor and middle class have seen their incomes fall during the recent economic boom.  Several policies of the “Reagan Revolution” have led to this kind of income redistribution from the poor to the rich.
The War on Unions:  Corporations [...]

That’s Disrespectful

Maybe I’m naive, but I assume people’s good intentions until proven otherwise.  I assume senators McCain and Obama are both honorable, decent men with a genuine desire to serve their country.  But now that the race is coming down to the wire, the campaigns on both sides have started slinging a little mud.
Senator Obama commented [...]

Aw, Come on Al!

Al Gore didn’t help those who would like to overlook the abortion question, in his remarks tonight.  He reminded us that the next president could potentially appoint up to three supreme court justices, and they could potentially vote to overturn Roe V. Wade–if folks vote for McCain.
I was trying to tell myself that abortion is [...]

Faith of an Almost President

Mark Tooley reviews God and Hilary Clinton by Paul Kengo in Front Page Magazine.
Here is a brief excerpt from the review:

Freshly espousing that Social Gospel directly to the teen-age Hillary was the Rev. Don Jones, a new graduate from Drew Theological Seminary in New Jersey, whose first job was youth minister at First Methodist Church [...]

What’s a Pro-Life Voter to Do?

The archbishop of Denver criticized Nancy Pelosi for misrepresenting catholic teaching on abortion (here).  She claimed that the church was ambiguous on the question of when life begins.  Archbishop Chaput answered that the church has never been ambiguous about abortion–it has always condemned the practice.  Archbishop Chaput even quotes the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who [...]

Train of Remembrance

I hope I don’t get in trouble for plagiarizing myself!  I posted this note on my “Theological German” blog:
The Train of Remembrance is making its way through German cities, commemorating German children who were deported by the Nazis.  The German government seems to be dragging its feet in supporting the traveling exhibit.
Margaret, who keeps us [...]

Kiva Loan Repaid

From the reader who earlier recommended Kiva:
“exciting stuff! My christmas loan is being paid back already.”
Here is the letter from Kiva:
Dear [Kiva Sponser],
The business you have loaned to, trade of vegetables run by Hayom
Ayomov, has made a repayment of $91.00. The total amount repaid is now
$364.00. This repayment will be divided amongst all the lenders [...]

Passing the Torch

The Final Four interrupted my posts about Buckie, F.F. Bruce, Doric, and other related matters. If the Lord wills, as James his brother taught us to say, tomorrow I will get buck to such matters.
As I was following the American basketball tournament this week (watching online in the middle of the night), there was [...]

Idolatry 1

I want to begin a series of posts on the topic of idolatry. The fact that idolatry is considered a sin in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity–maybe in some forms of other religions too–raises several interesting questions.
First, I want to point out what monotheism and the rejection of idolatry does not mean, at least in [...]

What Some Others Are Saying

We are getting used to Spanish as the second language in our country.  In Great Britain Arabic has that role.  You may have heard about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent remarks about the future place of Sharia law in England (here).  N.T. Wright explains that many people have misrepresented what Archbishop Rowan has said about [...]

Night of Victories

After 39 years the Jayhawks finally won the Orange Bowl trophy. They didn’t have to use a 6-3-3 defence last night. Aqib Talib scored the first touch down by running back an intercepted pass. He displayed a little excessive exuberance “high-stepping” across the goal line, for which a penalty was added to [...]