“We feel hopeless, helpless and lost. This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn’t know this person. We have always been a close, peaceful and loving family. My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence. He has made the world weep. We are living a nightmare.” –Sun Kyung Cho, “We Are So Deeply Sorry,” Washington Post (April 21, 2007)
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Krauthammer on the Massacre
“What can be said about the Virginia Tech massacre? . . . With an event such as this, consisting of nothing but suffering and tragedy, the only important questions are those of theodicy, of divine justice.” –Charles Krauthammer, “A Moment of Silence,” Washington Post (April 21, 2007)
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Thinking about Our Culture with Peggy Noonan
Beyond the loss of human life, the thing that grieves me most about the Virginia Tech massacre is what it has revealed about our culture. Peggy Noonan’s description of how people are responding sadly sums up my own reaction:
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Supreme Court Upholds Partial Birth Abortion Ban
This news is heartening. The Washington Post reports: The Supreme Court today narrowly upheld a nationwide ban on a controversial late-term abortion procedure, voting for the first time to restrict abortion rights and handing a major victory to President Bush and his social conservative allies.
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Therapy or Theology? Responding to the Massacre.
As I type this blog, Dr. Phil is holding forth on “Larry King Live.” He’s saying that there was no way that anyone could have predicted that the troubled Cho Seung-Hui would have perpetrated the awful massacre at Virginia Tech on Monday. Dr. Phil makes his case as controversy has already erupted over the University’s failure to prevent this tragedy by failing to respond to early signs that Seung-Hui was a troubled, depressed person. Dr. Phil advises, “There is no answer to ‘why,’ so the question becomes ‘what.'” What ought survivors to do now to cope with this meaningless catastrophe?
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Injured Virginia Tech Student Describes the Attack
VIDEO: Interview with Injured Student – MSNBC.com VIDEO: Interview with Eyewitness – MSNBC.com
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Lesbian Conception
This chilling report comes from the U.K. Independent: Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today. Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman’s bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue. I wish that we could agree that not everything that can be done should be done. Not all scientific advances are moral. But that doesn’t seem to bother these researchers or even the broader culture. Is there any question that we are living…
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Does a right to privacy equal a right to incest?
When the Supreme Court handed down its infamous Lawrence v. Texas decision (which banned anti-Sodomy laws) in 2003, opponents of the decision argued that this precedent would lead to attempts to legalize all manner of aberrant sexual practices. It looks like these critics turned out to be right. Time magazine reports:
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Dallas Tent Revival
The Dallas Morning News reports that layman Kyle Martin has organized an old fashioned tent revival for Dallas, Texas. Sam Hodges describes the line-up of preachers who are slated to speak:
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Evangelicals and Divorce in America
David Instone-Brewer contributes an interesting piece in the opinion section of today’s Wall Street Journal. The article uses Rudy Guiliani’s multiple marriages as a springboard for discussing American evangelicalism’s attitudes about divorce. He writes,