Would Jesus have supported universal healthcare? According to J. P. Moreland, Jesus would not have favored such a thing: “Two central features of Jesus’ ethical views imply that Jesus urged compassionate care for the poor but not by the state. In short, he would never have supported universal healthcare.” Moreland’s argument is based on a certain view of the separation of church and state. It’s a short little piece and worth your time to read the whole thing.
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Karl Rove, the “Architect,†To Resign
President Bush called Karl Rove the “architect” of his electoral victory in 2004. Rove has been much more than that. He has also been a top advisor to President Bush in both of his administrations, and now he is resigning. Reports say that his departure is unrelated to congressional investigations concerning the firings of U.S. attorneys. “The Mark of Rove” – by Paul A. Gigot (Wall Street Journal) “Karl Rove, Adviser to President Bush, to Resign” – by Peter Baker and Debbi Wilgoren (Washington Post)
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Chuck Colson on the Presidential Candidates
Chuck Colson will not endorse a candidate right now. But he has sized up the field of candidates running for President: “It is the most disappointing field of candidates, looking on both sides of the aisle, that I’ve seen in my lifetime. I don’t remember an election where less people have got me excited from either side.” I agree with that assessment. Well said.
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The Surge Is Working
The most encouraging analysis that I have read on the progress of the Iraq War is Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack’s Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a foreign policy think-tank that is widely regarded as leaning liberal.
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Are Empires Evil?
It is pretty common to hear American academics labeling America as an “empire.” In June of 2006, for instance, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosted the annual meeting of The Historical Society, the topic of which was “Globalization, Empire, and Imperialism in Historical Perspective.” A theme that appeared in the essays presented at the conference was the comparison of the United States to the various imperial regimes of world history.
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Is America an Empire?
Last fall, Hugo Chavez stood before the United Nations and accused America of being an empire and charged President Bush with being the Devil incarnate (source). Many Americans wrote off Chavez’s rant as the raving of a crackpot dictator. What many people don’t know is that Chavez’s tirade against “American imperialism” reflects a mainstream view among many people both within and outside of the United States.
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Why do they hate us?
A must-read piece appears in Sunday’s Washington Post. It’s written by Muslin writer Mohsin Hamid. During a recent trip to Dallas, a man in a bookstore asked Hamid, “Why do they hate us?” The Dallas man was asking why the Islamic world hates the United States so much. The rest of the article is an answer to that question. The answer boils down to this:
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Why Al Qaeda Supports the Emergent Church
Believe it or not, Frank Pastore really argues that Al Qaeda supports the Emergent Church. His basic argument is this. If the American church were vibrant and healthy, then America as a nation would have the resolve required to defeat terrorists. Since the Emergent movement weakens the church, the nation’s resolve to defeat terrorists is weakened too. Therefore, Al Qaeda supports the Emergent church. Kind of a stretch, huh? While I’m no fan of Emergent, I do think Pastore’s piece is a bit heavy on the Constantinian triumphalism (of which I am not a fan either). The article has lots of other problems, but here’s the whole thing anyway: “Why…
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Surprised By Virtue
Newsweek‘s Susannah Meadows spoke with Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and a practicing evangelical himself, about how evangelicals have responded to news of Senator David Vitter’s moral problems. Cromartie responds: “What one has to understand is that classic Christianity believes that people are fallen and desperately need a redeemer. If they’re authentic Christians, they understand that but for the grace of God, they too could fall. Evangelicalism likes to pride itself on being magnanimous and forgiving. It ought to be the case that evangelicals, while not condoning such behavior, are not surprised by such sinful behavior. I’m not surprised by vice.…
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Is this the end of the Plame Game?
I’ve written too much on this story over the last two years not to mention this new (final?) development. From the Washington Post: “A federal judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit filed by former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband against Vice President Cheney and other top officials over the Bush administration’s disclosure of Plame’s name and covert status to the media.” But perhaps the most important line from the story: “No one was charged with the crime of intentionally disclosing Plame’s covert identity.” Whether or not this will be the end of the so-called “Plame Game” remains to be seen. But it needs to be.