The Face of Socialism

Communism is brutal. Obama’s proposals are not socialism.

A Difficult Topic

Some sad but thoughtful links on abortion.

Another Church Shooting

The murder of George Tiller is a setback for the pro-life cause.

Have You Had that Talk with Your Son?

The father in Proverbs warned his son about violence.

Conscience and Nursing

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

Four Thumbs Up

Well, I spent my annual cinema budget last night.  My wife and I invited our pastor (the Vagabond Professor) and his wife to see “The Boy in Striped Pajamas” with us.  The movie was very well done and very moving.  I don’t know if you can say a movie about a concentration camp and the [...]

The Boy in Striped Pajamas

Loren, from the German Stammtish, where I go to practice my smiling and nodding skills, recommends the film “The Boy in Striped Pajamas.”
It is about an 8-year-old boy Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer who befriends a Jewish boy he meets across the fence that keeps Shmu’el inside a concentration camp.  It has been [...]

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 [...]

Beautiful Prague

I am traveling again.  I am in Prague with my daughter Tabitha.  We are going to present a paper at the International Bonhoeffer Congress, which is meeting here this week.  We arrived early to do a bit of sight seeing.  I am learning to speak without vowels and type on a european keyboard.  Well, thez [...]

Religious Wars

The Reformation Era by Robert D. Linder
Westport, CN and London: Greenwood, 2008

I have just finished reading Robert Linder’s new book on the reformation and plan to write a formal review. Dr. Linder is distinguished professor of history at Kansas State University.
A couple years ago he graciously agreed to speak to a small conference [...]

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 [...]

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 is Fundamentalism?

I recently had a discussion with another blogger on the definition of fundamentalism, and it got me wondering, what really is fundamentalism?
Early in the twentieth century there was a movement to re-interpret all the traditional doctrines of the Christian faith to bring them in line with the modern world. This movement was called “modernism.” [...]

The Clinton Hate Meme

(Warning: Some of what follows makes for unpleasant and disturbing reading. If you are faint-hearted, scroll down to the “One Book” post.]
Richard Dawkins created the meme–or at least the word and the concept. Dawkins is a geneticist by trade. His first bestseller is called The Selfish Gene. He believed that this [...]

Walk for Women

In some countries they punish the victim. A woman who was brutally raped by seven men in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 90 lashes because the crime occurred while she was in the company of a man not related to her. When the woman appealed her sentence, it was increased to 200 lashes [...]

Border Wars

Rivalry between Missouri and Kansas goes back a little over 150 years. The Missouri compromise of 1820 brought two new states into the union–Maine a free state and Missouri a slave state–preserving the balance of slave vs. free states. The Missouri compromise also stated that slavery would not [...]