It is pretty common to hear American academics labeling America as an “empire.” In June of 2006, for instance, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosted the annual meeting of The Historical Society, the topic of which was “Globalization, Empire, and Imperialism in Historical Perspective.” A theme that appeared in the essays presented at the conference was the comparison of the United States to the various imperial regimes of world history.
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Is America an Empire?
Last fall, Hugo Chavez stood before the United Nations and accused America of being an empire and charged President Bush with being the Devil incarnate (source). Many Americans wrote off Chavez’s rant as the raving of a crackpot dictator. What many people don’t know is that Chavez’s tirade against “American imperialism” reflects a mainstream view among many people both within and outside of the United States.
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Why do they hate us?
A must-read piece appears in Sunday’s Washington Post. It’s written by Muslin writer Mohsin Hamid. During a recent trip to Dallas, a man in a bookstore asked Hamid, “Why do they hate us?” The Dallas man was asking why the Islamic world hates the United States so much. The rest of the article is an answer to that question. The answer boils down to this:
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Why Al Qaeda Supports the Emergent Church
Believe it or not, Frank Pastore really argues that Al Qaeda supports the Emergent Church. His basic argument is this. If the American church were vibrant and healthy, then America as a nation would have the resolve required to defeat terrorists. Since the Emergent movement weakens the church, the nation’s resolve to defeat terrorists is weakened too. Therefore, Al Qaeda supports the Emergent church. Kind of a stretch, huh? While I’m no fan of Emergent, I do think Pastore’s piece is a bit heavy on the Constantinian triumphalism (of which I am not a fan either). The article has lots of other problems, but here’s the whole thing anyway: “Why…
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Surprised By Virtue
Newsweek‘s Susannah Meadows spoke with Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and a practicing evangelical himself, about how evangelicals have responded to news of Senator David Vitter’s moral problems. Cromartie responds: “What one has to understand is that classic Christianity believes that people are fallen and desperately need a redeemer. If they’re authentic Christians, they understand that but for the grace of God, they too could fall. Evangelicalism likes to pride itself on being magnanimous and forgiving. It ought to be the case that evangelicals, while not condoning such behavior, are not surprised by such sinful behavior. I’m not surprised by vice.…
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Is this the end of the Plame Game?
I’ve written too much on this story over the last two years not to mention this new (final?) development. From the Washington Post: “A federal judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit filed by former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband against Vice President Cheney and other top officials over the Bush administration’s disclosure of Plame’s name and covert status to the media.” But perhaps the most important line from the story: “No one was charged with the crime of intentionally disclosing Plame’s covert identity.” Whether or not this will be the end of the so-called “Plame Game” remains to be seen. But it needs to be.
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Giuliani: Abortion Not a Litmus Test for Judges
Rudy Giuliani says today that he won’t use Abortion as a litmus test in appointing judges to the federal bench. The Associated Press quotes Giuliani: “Abortion is not a litmus test. Roe v. Wade is not a litmus test. No particular case is a litmus test. That’s not the way to appoint Supreme Court justices or any judge.”
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President Nixon and Chuck Colson
The National Archives has released some new tape recordings of President Nixon’s telephone conversations. Some of the tapes record the President’s speaking to the yet to be born again Chuck Colson. Listening to these exchanges only magnifies the contrast between the old Chuck Colson and the new one. The Chuck Colson on these recordings has given way to the new creation that I heard preach in San Antonio last month. The Lord’s arm is not too short to save (Isaiah 59:1).
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The Gay Shibboleth
This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the Surgeon General and his stance that homosexuality is a sin. Christianity Today has an editorial out today titled “The Gay Shibboleth,” which takes basically the same position that I do, but states is much better: Affirmation of homosexual behavior seems to be shifting from an in-group shibboleth to an unwritten requirement for American leadership. Where does that leave biblical Christians? We may soon come to the point where supporting a sexual ethic based on an orthodox reading of Scripture becomes part of our cross to bear. . .
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Was the Iraq War a Mistake?
It appears that the conventional wisdom is that the Iraq War was a mistake. One of the striking things about Michael Moore’s much publicized joust with Wolf Blitzer is that Blitzer seems to just concede the point that now everybody agrees that the Iraq War was a mistake. The conventional wisdom even prevails at CNN. I for one don’t agree with that analysis, and neither does Peter Wallison over at the Wall Street Journal, who writes about what would have happened if Sadam Hussein had remained in power. He writes: