Time magazine has announced its person of the year to be Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. What do you think about the selection?
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Chuck Colson on the App Flap
On Tuesday, I noted that Apple removed the Manhattan Declaration app from the iTunes Store after complaints from gay activists. Yesterday, Apple explained that they removed the app because it was “offensive to large groups of people.” Chuck Colson, Robert George and Timothy George have been trying to reach Steve Jobs to request him to reverse this decision, but so far haven’t been able to contact him. So they have started an online petition that you can sign if you would like to see the app restored.
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Apple Pulls Manhattan Declaration App
Well this is really annoying. Apple has removed the Manhattan Declaration app from iTunes App Store in response to claims that the app was anti-gay. I’m not kidding. Read about it here (HT: James Kushiner). Chuck Colson, Robert George and Timothy George have written a letter to Steve Jobs about the removal of the MD app from the iTunes store. They promise to write an update when they receive a response. Here’s the statement that they released to supporters of the Declaration.
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Yoga Redux
Last month, I posted a brief note about an article by Albert Mohler arguing that the practice of Yoga is incompatible with the Christian faith. The Associated Press covered Mohler’s article and subsequently set-off a tempest of controversy with Yoga practitioners across the country. Many Christian Yoga devotees objected to Mohler’s piece and contended that their practice of Yoga had no religious dimension to it at all. For them, Yoga offered no contradiction at all to their Christian convictions. Mohler’s response to that argument was simple. If there’s no religious dimension to your Yoga, then it’s not Yoga. It’s just stretching. According to today’s New York Times, a group of…
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Hallelujah!
Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus moves me like no other piece of music, so I love this video. The video above was taped on October 30, 2010. In it, you will see a 650 person choir infiltrate Macy’s in New York City. There is an organ in the store already playing holiday music when the choir breaks out and surprises everyone. It’s really great. (HT: Justin Taylor)
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Juan Williams and Objectivity
By now you’ve probably heard about the flap with Juan Williams, whom NPR fired last week for remarks he made about Muslims on Fox News. Voices from the left and the right have denounced the firing as unfair. Eugene Robinson has gone so far as to call NPR’s response a pretext. I think the dust-up is a good opportunity for all of us to be reminded about news reporting and the myth of objectivity. Mika Brzezinski had it exactly right in her remarks on “Morning Joe” Friday morning. You can watch above or read below. “I really think this sets a dangerous precedent, and I think we all need to…
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Open Minds?
Princeton University recently hosted a conference on abortion titled “Open Hearts, Open Minds and Fair Minded Words.” The conference title was inspired by President Obama’s 2009 Notre Dame address in which he called on different sides of the abortion debate not only to work together where we agree, but also to engage in “vigorous debate” with “open hearts, open minds, and fair minded words.” Peter Singer was one of the organizers of the event, and David Gushee was invited to represent the pro-life view. A full list of speakers and sponsors are available here.
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The Evangelical Divide on Gay Rights
In the video linked at right, Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches and Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute discuss changing public opinion on gay rights. Several things are interesting here. 1. Assumption – There is an underlying assumption that skews this conversation. Posner and Jones virtually equate “gay rights” with the right to “homosexual marriage.” The assumption seems to be that support for gay marriage indicates support for the basic human rights of homosexual persons and that opposition to gay marriage indicates opposition to the basic human rights of homosexual persons. I think, however, that this equation is a mistake.
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The Ethics of In Vitro
By now, you’ve probably already heard the news that the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to the scientist who developed in vitro fertilization (Robert G. Edwards of Great Britain). What you may not have heard is how many difficult ethical quandaries have been created since the implementation of this new technology. Debora Spar reports how this lawless industry is spawning Octomoms, birth defects, and maternal deaths. She also demonstrates how far behind the United States is in regulating In Vitro compared to Europe. She writes,
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WSJ on Adoption
The Wall Street Journal has a story on evangelicals and adoption that features Russell Moore. The article traces the growing emphasis on orphan care among evangelical Christians.