Category: US

By micoots
02/02/2017 0

The Superbowl and vocation

The Superbowl is this weekend, time for the obligatory polls about whether or not God gets involved in the outcome of sporting events. One-quarter of Americans believe that he does. About a half believe that God rewards faithful athletes with health and success.
Certainly, the easy answer is that of course God doesn’t care about a sporting event because He has much more important things to do. But if God attends to the fall of a sparrow, why wouldn’t He attend to the fall of a pigskin?
The real ..

By micoots
02/02/2017 0

The anti-Trump “resistance”

French Resistance fighters, 1944
Democrats have gone into full resistance mode, with Democratic Senators boycotting confirmation hearings to prevent a vote on President Trump’s candidates. (Republicans suspended the rules and approved Treasury Secretary candidate Steven Mnuchin and HHS Secretary candidate Tom Price anyway. See this.)
Meanwhile, a self-described “alternative left” has emerged that is pressuring Democratic elected officials not to co-operate with the Republicans. Notice how the us..

By micoots
01/02/2017 0

Trump’s Supreme Court nominee

President Donald Trump has nominated Colorado appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Antonin Scalia. Reportedly, Judge Gorsuch is from that same mold: eloquent, learned, articulate, and an “originalist” when it comes to interpreting the Constitution.
He is the author of a book against euthanasia and supported Hobby Lobby in its suit against the Obamacare birth control mandate. An Anglican, he would be the only Protestant on the bench, joining the 5 Ca..

By micoots
01/02/2017 0

“Pregnant people”

The British Medical Association has issued guidelines saying that to avoid offending the transgendered, health workers should not refer to “pregnant women.” Rather, say, “pregnant people.”
After all, a biological female–no, that wording is forbidden too; we must say “assigned female”–who identifies as a man can have a baby. And since we must go by self-identification, that means that men can be pregnant.
The Transgender movement has at least destroyed feminism. Now that men can claim the identit..

By micoots
31/01/2017 0

C. S. Lewis, atheist

C. S. Lewis, one of the foremost Christian apologists, had been for 15 years a convinced and rather militant atheist. My friend and former colleague Joel Heck has written a splendid study of Lewis’s atheism, published by Concordia Publishing House: From Atheism to Christianity: The Story of C. S. Lewis
There are many kinds of atheism, just like there are many kinds of Christianity, and Joel unpacks the influences, books, and ideas that defined Lewis’s particular variety of unbelief. In tracing L..

By micoots
31/01/2017 0

The three causes of war

The great Athenian historian Thucydides said that there are three causes of war: (1) honor (2) fear (3) national interest.
Jonah Goldberg discusses those factors and cites modern historian Donald Kagan, who says that honor comes first as the reason why a nation goes to war. That motive is far more common, he says, than national interest.
World War I was surely caused by many nations’ sense of honor. World War II was caused by Germany and Japan’s radical sense of national pride and the honor (and..

By micoots
31/01/2017 0

Immigration chaos

President Trump’s executive order blocking entry into the United States of citizens of seven nations has created chaos at airports around the world, as Iraqis with green cards, visas, and airplane tickets were suddenly not allowed to get on flights or to go through passport controls, leading to people being trapped in airports and demonstrations breaking out worldwide.
The chaos also broke out within our government: The acting attorney general said the Justice Department will not defend the pres..

By micoots
30/01/2017 0

LCMS president on immigration issues

Cuban immigrants head to Ysleta Lutheran Mission in El Paso
When it comes to immigration issues, there is the obligation of the State to enforce the law. But, for the Church, there is also the obligation to minister to those in need. Now that President Trump is cracking down on immigration–rightly so, many of us would say–our Lutheran Hispanic congregations and our various Hispanic ministries are dealing with a sense of panic and insecurity among many of those to whom they are ministering. LCMS ..

By micoots
27/01/2017 0

The new culture war

The old culture war was about morality and was informed by religion. The new culture war, signaled by the election of Donald Trump, is about nationalism vs. multiculturalism and “the people” vs. the elites. Trump has little interest in the old culture wars, with the important exception of being pro-life. But the new culture war is just as emotional, with pretty much the same people on either side. So says Rich Lowry in a piece excerpted and linked after the jump.
So where does that leave Christi..

By micoots
27/01/2017 0

Marching for Life is getting somewhere

Today is the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., where thousands of pro-lifers will commemorate the Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973, by demonstrating against abortion and for the sanctity of life.
We’ll see if this mass demonstration gets as much media coverage as the recent Women’s March, which specifically excluded pro-life women. I suspect not.
But the pro-life cause is making progress. Abortion rates have dropped below the level they were before Roe v. Wade. (That ruling lega..