Peter Leithart has a must-read over at the First Things blog. In short, he argues that President Obama is convinced that liberals have won the culture war. As a result, the President is trying to force a split in the Republican Party in order to smoke out the “bad” Republicans—those who hold to traditional marriage and who are prolife. Leithart writes: My advice to Bad Republicans is: Let it come. If the price of regaining power is to abandon any semblance of Christian sexual morality, the price is too high. If the Republican party can’t bring itself to endorse a traditional understanding of marriage, let it split. If the Republican…
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A Christian baker refuses to make cake for same-sex wedding and now faces charges
The Oregon Department of Justice is investigating a complaint against a Christian baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. Here’s what happened in a nutshell. A woman and her daughter came into Aaron Klein’s store requesting a wedding cake. When they told Klein that the cake was for a wedding with two brides, he informed them that he does not serve same-sex weddings.
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I’m not defending Taylor Swift, but…
After watching the news piece above, I confess that I came away scratching my head. Is this really where we’ve come to as a culture? You can hardly call anything “wrong” or “immoral” in the public space without being jeered as a prude or perhaps even as a bigot. Yet it’s apparently completely within bounds to snipe at a 23-year old woman who likes to drink Diet Coke. This just seems silly to me. I don’t know much about Taylor Swift. I saw enough in the video above to be concerned about the image she is projecting to young girls. But drinking Diet Coke? How can they be serious? American…
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Wise words about avoiding student loan debt
What would happen if students gave up the quest for elite college degrees and the high price tags that come with them? They might end up like Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute and a former tenured professor at Syracuse University. Brooks earned his college degree through correspondence courses that only cost him about $10,000. He spent about $5,000 on his Master’s before finishing a Ph.D. with a fellowship. He finished the whole process with no debt at the end. His career has shown that it really is possible to rub two sticks together to make fire, and that is exactly what he has done.
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The abortion mandate still stands
The Obama administration announced “updates” this morning to Obamacare’s abortion mandate. The original mandate was a shell-game, and this latest “change” is only more of the same. The original rule required religious employers to pay money to an insurance company that would then provide abortion-inducing drugs for employees that wanted them. That is still true today despite the overhyped announcement. There’s no substantive difference. The changes are cosmetic at best. The underlying religious objection has not been addressed, and employers would still be morally implicated in paying for abortion-inducing drugs for their employees.
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The abortion mandate is losing in court
Hobby Lobby is not the only for-profit company to have filed suit against Obamacare’s abortion mandate. Hobby Lobby is just the one that you’ve heard about because they failed to get relief and have become subject to crippling fines. Michael Foust reports that there have been 44 separate lawsuits filed against the mandate. Fourteen rulings involve for-profit companies, and 10 out of 14 have been able to get relief from the courts. In short, for-profit companies are winning the majority of these cases, which means that eventually this is going to come before the Supreme Court. The Alliance Defending Freedom has represented for-profit companies seeking relief. Michael Foust reports on…
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Dan Cathy befriends leading gay activist opponent
Shane Windmeyer is the founder and executive director of Campus Pride, a gay activist group that has spearheaded a national campaign against Chick-fil-A for the millions of dollars it donated to pro-family organizations. Windmeyer’s work is deeply personal for him as he himself is a homosexual and “married” to another man. Last year, the owner of Chick-fil-a Dan Cathy reached out to Windmeyer. Nothing public. Just private conversations over the phone that led to several meetings and culminated in Cathy inviting Windmeyer to be his guest on the sideline at the recent Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
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The reality that awaits women in combat
Ryan Smith writes in The Wall Street Journal about the reality that awaits women in combat. Smith illustrates the problem by describing his own experience as a Marine during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Readers should be warned that what you are about to read is not for the faint of heart. But I think it is important for people to consider the reality of what will be required of female infantrymen.
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Feminist says baby is “a life worth sacrificing”
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision—a monstrosity that has presided over the legal killing of over 55 million human beings since 1973. And yet in the wake of this horror, the pro-abortionists are feeling the wind at their backs. They’ve just reelected the most pro-abortion president in U. S. history. They received news this week that Roe v. Wade is more popular than ever with the American people. They’re doing touchdown dances in the endzone with creepy video tributes to abortion rights. And they’re convincing their political opposition to stand down.
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It made a difference to me that John Piper went to jail
When I graduated from college, I was too spiritual to worry about abortion. I was pro-life—no question about that. But I could see no reason to get all bothered about it. I had bigger fish to fry. After all, the abortion issue was for people who like to mix Christianity with politics. It was not for people like myself who were into theology and the gospel. I would leave the pro-life cause to those who didn’t know the difference between Christianity and the Republican Party. I had all but washed my hands of it. How short-sighted and foolish I was.