Well, I guess I’m still a Populist. At least I felt like one as my family and I spent our July 4th evening watching Jimmy Stewart stick it to the man in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. There’s nothing like a little Jimmy Stewart to get you fired up about July 4th. Take a listen to a snippet from this speech from Mr. Smith. It’s almost as good as when Jimmy Stewart told off Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life.Enjoy and happy 4th!
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Who do Wiccans worship?
There’s an interesting item in today’s Washington Post about a soldier killed in Afghanistan who was a Wiccan. The fact that a veteran’s cemetary is not letting his widow put a pentacle (a pagan symbol, pictured right) on his memorial is a controversy in itself.But what jumped off the page to me in the Post article was it’s description of Wicca: Wiccans still suffer, however, from the misconception that they are devil worshipers. Some Wiccans call themselves witches, pagans or neopagans. Most of their rituals revolve around the cycles of nature, such as equinoxes and phases of the moon. Wiccans often pick and choose among religious traditions, blending belief in…
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James Taranto on Media Bias
James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal compiles a summary of left-leaning media bias in reports on last week’s Hamdan decision. I think the summary deserves our attention: “The Supreme Court on Thursday repudiated the Bush administration’s plan to put Guantánamo detainees on trial before military commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions were unauthorized by federal statute and violated international law. . . . The decision was . . . a sweeping and categorical defeat for the administration.“–New York Times “The Supreme Court yesterday struck down the military commissions President Bush established to try suspected members of al-Qaeda, emphatically rejecting a signature Bush anti-terrorism measure and the broad assertion of…
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Where Atrocity Is Normal
Patrick Stone’s essay in Christianity Today is powerful and poignant. In “Where Atrocity Is Normal: Understanding Christian soldiers who have seen the horrors of war,” Stone recounts his own experience in Vietnam and reminds us of the atrocities of war and the impossible moral choices that face Christians who participate in them.Not only are the war stories tragic, but so also is his description of what his experience has been since coming home from Vietnam: Following my return from Vietnam I spent most Sunday mornings in a church pew wondering, “What does this have to do with what I saw and did in Vietnam?” . . . Since leaving Vietnam…
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Don’t Get in Peggy Noonan’s Doghouse!
Readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of Peggy Noonan’s weekly column in the Wall Street Journal (previous posts). I look forward to it every Thursday.Her piece this morning is a wry, free-wheeling commentary on sundry topics in the news and pop culture. One thing I take away from this article is that I never want to be in Noonan’s doghouse. She takes a whack at several personalities who she thinks are attempting to “spin” and manipulate Americans. Here’s a sampling: On Hillary Clinton: “Hillary . . . doesn’t have to prove she’s a man, she has to prove she’s a woman. No one in America…
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Review of The Last Word by N. T. Wright
N. T. Wright. The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. 160pp. $19.95. I appreciate Bishop N. T. Wright’s willingness to address the church through writing popular books. Wright is the consummate scholar and is perfectly capable of producing the kind of work that would only be accessible to specialists in the field of New Testament studies. Yet over the years he has included among his prolific output books addressed to the interested layman. His recent short work, The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture, is one such book.
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Al Mohler and the XXX ‘Church’ on ABC News
Just to follow-up on my previous post about the XXX ‘Church,’ I wanted to let you know that Dr. Albert Mohler was included in a segment on ABC News about the so-called XXX ‘Church.’ You can read the story here, or watch the video here.
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XXX ‘Church’ Is Back in the News
The XXX ‘Church’ is back in the News this week. I wrote a series of posts on the XXX ‘Church’ last summer and questioned the wisdom of attending porn conventions in order to do evangelism.On Wednesday, Dr. Albert Mohler raised the same question about the XXX ‘Church’s’ ministry methods at this summer’s erotica convention in Los Angeles. On the program, Dr. Mohler said, “I can tell you, I don’t think I could be at this convention without sin. Think I can pretty much promise you that” (source).
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Farewell to a Great Champion, Andre Agassi
You know you’re getting old when sports stars your age begin to slow down and retire. I was reminded of this last week during the NBA finals as the commentators noted that the “elder” Shaq doesn’t play like he used to.Today Andre Agassi announced that he would be retiring from professional Tennis. He said that his last tournament would be this year’s U. S. Open. I feel like I grew up watching Agassi play tennis (or maybe I should say, grew up with him). When I played on my high school tennis team back in the late ’80’s, Agassi was the man. He was the James Dean of tennis. He…
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WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOUND IN IRAQ
If you were wondering whether the Mainstream Media (MSM) are biased in their coverage of the Iraq War, wonder no more. The MSM have been largely silent on the biggest Iraq War story since the capture of Saddam Hussein.On Wednesday John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence, provided “an unclassified overview of chemical munitions recovered in Iraq since May 2004.” The following is direct quotation from the overview: –Since 2003 Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. –Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.…