• News

    Albert Mohler gives a realist portrait of Mandela’s legacy

    Albert Mohler encourages Christian readers to take a realistic view of Nelson Mandela’s legacy. While Mohler recognizes the achievements that led to Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize, he also includes a provocative question about Mandela’s early career: When you think of Nelson Mandela and reflect on his life, and now on his death, there are many worldview issues that are immediately implicated. One of them has to do with the fact that Nelson Mandela was, by any honest analysis, a terrorist. That immediately raises a deep moral issue. How can someone be so honored who had at any point resorted to terrorism in order to achieve a political objective? Mohler follows…

  • News

    Lara Logan deserves a mulligan

    There’s a proverb that says “Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own” (Proverbs 26:17). So I may regret wading into the recent controversy about CBS News’ Lara Logan. Nevertheless, ever since I read that CBS News has put her on a leave of absence, I haven’t been able to get one aspect of this story off my mind. Last month on “60 Minutes,” Lara Logan reported a story about the 2012 Benghazi attacks that left four Americans dead. Relying heavily on a single source, her report indicated that the U.S. government was derelict in its response during…

  • Christianity,  News

    Ted Turner says he does not want to go to hell

    CNN has a fascinating and wide-ranging feature on Ted Turner today. Among other things, it says that Turner has grown more reflective about his mortality in his later years. Turner even confesses that he doesn’t want to go to hell. It’s a provocative piece in many ways. Here’s an excerpt: Even though he is a son of the Bible Belt, Ted Turner and God haven’t been on the best of terms. Despite his strong stance against religion in the past, he’s not an atheist. He’s an agnostic, trying to make sense of it all — his way. He revised the Ten Commandments, which he considered outdated, coming up instead with…

  • News

    One last toast for the Doolittle Raiders

    The story of the Doolittle Raiders is one for the ages. After Japan succeeded in a vicious attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor, the United States hatched a plan for an immediate retaliation. The plan called for pilots to fly a secret mission over Tokyo to drop bombs on strategic targets. The only problem was that in those days bombers could take off from the carrier but they could not land. It would be a one way mission in which pilots would have to drop their payload in Tokyo and then try to land in China and escape to safety. It was high stakes and very dangerous. The mission…

  • News

    A Eulogy for Blockbuster Video

    As you no doubt have heard, Blockbuster video is calling it quits. There is no business model to support bricks-and-mortar stores that supply movie rentals. The delivery systems for media consumption have changed so radically over the last decade, and Blockbuster has failed to keep up. The reasons for its demise are obvious. But still, it’s remarkable that it’s gone. Blockbuster was once so ubiquitous in America. It was the 800 pound gorilla gobbling up all the mom and pop rental stores around the country. It was unstoppable. Until it got stopped. And now it is no more. There has to be some kind of a life-lesson here—certainly a sermon…

  • News,  Politics

    “60 Minutes” covers the Benghazi attacks

    “It’s now well established that the Americans were attacked by Al Qaeda in a well planned assault.”     -Lara Logan, “60 Minutes” (October 27, 2013) It is incredible that it has taken over a year for “60 Minutes” to do a hard-hitting report on the Benghazi attacks. I say better late than never. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you already know what I think about it. The question is whether Americans care anymore. I hope they do. Don’t miss this one. Watch above. —————— UPDATE, 11/8/13: CBS News has now had to issue an embarassing correction, saying that their main source in this…

  • News

    What is the main ingredient in a chicken nugget?

    Have you ever had the experience of finding a Chicken Nugget on the floor board of your car that had been sitting there for weeks (or maybe months)? If you have kids, this has probably happened to you at some point. The striking thing about finding an old Nugget is that it looks just the same as it did when it was dropped onto the floor. The other striking thing is that it never emitted an odor like a real piece of chicken would after it begins to rot. I have had this experience, and it doesn’t take a scientific study to conclude that something is amiss with fast-food Chicken…

  • Christianity,  News

    Pope offers “blessing” to gay Catholic group?

    The magazine America reports that Pope Francis has continued his informal outreach to gay and lesbians within the Roman Catholic Church. In June, Pope Francis wrote to one such group called Kairos of Florence. According to one member of the group, “Pope Francis…assured the group of his blessing.” Here's an excerpt from the report: In their letter, a group of gay and lesbian Catholics… asked for openness and dialogue, noting that closure to discussion “always feeds homophobia.” The members were shocked to receive a personal response to their appeal from Pope Francis. One leader of the group told La Repubblica “no one had ever even given a nod of response”…

  • Culture,  News

    A juxtaposition: Miley Cyrus and Elizabeth Smart

    Did anyone happen to notice that The Today Show hosted two interviews with young women this morning? One was with Miley Cyrus and another with Elizabeth Smart. I don’t know that these two videos require much commentary. I simply found them to be a fascinating juxtaposition. In fact, I would say that the wisdom of Solomon is in this juxtaposition (Prov. 11:3; 12:15; 21:2; 26:12; 28:11). Sometimes on accident popular culture offers us something worth pondering, and I think this may be such an instance. You can watch both interviews below.