Here are some of the things I really hate in a worship song.1. Too simplistic, banal, lacking in depth, shallow, doctrineless: Consider that one that just talks about unity among brothers that only mentions God in passing at the very end.2. It’s so repetitive. I mean, come on, how . . . . Continue Reading »
It is very hard to swallow yet another Lutheran church body in America but that, following a two-day August 26-27 convocation in Columbus, Ohio, is what America has: the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). “North America” sounds rather expansive and that is only because some few . . . . Continue Reading »
Looking over the blogosphere as it relates to evangelicals has been an entertaining, yet frightening exercise. It is entertaining, so far as blogs go, to produce and weigh in upon controversy. It is frightening in that participating in the controversy has been an ugly affair. Take the dispute . . . . Continue Reading »
Outing overrated writers is a favorite pastime of critics everywhere, and this summer particularly so. First there was Gabriel Josipivici’s attack in The Guardian on Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes. They exhibit a “petty-bourgeois uptightness,” a . . . . Continue Reading »
Unfortunately, the United States government and the development agencies it funds seem determined to export our culture of contraception. As a story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports , American agencies have been intimately involved in the design of a big push to “normalize” . . . . Continue Reading »
When Beverly Willett’s husband filed for divorce she did what is considered absurd, if not unthinkable, in our culture: she refused to divorce him . One night when I was up reluctantly working on the divorce papers, my eldest daughter appeared by my side. “I don’t want you to get a . . . . Continue Reading »
I have discussed here and in my book, A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy, the ambition of animal rights activists to gain “standing” for animals to sue in their own names—which would, of course, actually be animal rights activists doing the litigating in pursuit of their own agendas. . . . . Continue Reading »
In BP’s Unbalanced, Uncharitable Funding , Rob Bluey argues that BP has made the wrong choice in giving money to state governments rather than to private charities. By embracing government bureaucracy over private efficiency, the company is forcing charities struggling to respond to the . . . . Continue Reading »
In a comment to my post yesterday criticizing the self-promotion of Glenn Beck as a leader for conservative Christians, a reader asks, “exactly where is the charismatic Christian leader who would be preferable in your eyes to Mr. Beck?” That’s a fair question. My personal . . . . Continue Reading »
“In fairness to [Glenn] Beck,” writes Elizabeth Scalia in her “On the Square” column today, The Old Times, the End Times, and Glenn Beck , he and Sarah Palin and the rest managed to craft something nearly unthinkable in 21st Century America: a political event so infused with . . . . Continue Reading »
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