I’ve made adjustments to bring this piece up to date, but I wrote most of it in January 2009 when President Obama was inaugurated for his first term. Friends told me at the time that I was overwrought, that Obama’s election was a fluke. Tuesday, I think, proved them wrong. Something died this week. It probably died four years ago, but Tuesday it was pronounced dead… . Continue Reading »
To my Pro-life Friends and Allies: The results of Tuesday’s presidential election were certainly disappointing. We knew the next president might get the opportunity to appoint as many as four new judges to the U.S. Supreme Court. We also knew that the 2012 election marked our best opportunity to repeal Obamacare. We were running against an incumbent president who very openly and aggressively supported legal abortion. We knew the stakes were high, and we responded admirably. In the end, our efforts came up a bit short… . Continue Reading »
With Mitt Romney’s campaign for president concluded, his co-religionists are left to reflect on what has been, for them as well as for him, a very revealing day in the sun. Mormons and non-Mormons alike have learned many interesting things about the place of Mormonism within the American religious landscape… . Continue Reading »
Having taught at a classical Christian school for five years and followed the classical Christian education movement for some years prior, I have come to believe that it is the best approach to K-12 education available today. Due to its understanding of education as the reshaping of a child’s soul (in contrast to “discovery” models of education, for example), the method tends to develop thinkers defined by who they are instead of workers defined by what they do… . Continue Reading »
At the end of September, California passed a law making it illegal for licensed therapists to counsel minors away from same-sex attraction. California Senator Ted W. Lieu, the lead author of the bill, designed it to prohibit therapies that seek to change the sexual orientation of the patient. He said in support of the bill … Continue Reading »
Biblical translation is an inexact science: a truth of which I was reminded on a recent visit to the American Bible Society’s Museum of Biblical Art in New York, where I enjoyed a brisk walk through a fine exhibit, “More Precious than Fine Gold: The English Bible in the Gilded Age.” The curator, Dr. Liana Lupas, pointed out that the Modern American Bible, a New Testament translation by Frank S. Ballentine, was published as the nineteenth century was drawing to a close… . Continue Reading »
Nearly twenty years ago, the judicious James Davison Hunter noted that journalistic reporting on abortion is “remarkable for its superficiality” since it rarely explores the “deeper issues and implications of the abortion controversy.” Maybe it is simply the partisan heat generated by a close presidential contest, but abortion coverage appears to be getting worse, not better… . Continue Reading »
I’m a political scientist, but I don’t study elections. At least not real elections. So I disappoint folks”particularly reporters”who think that, as a political scientist, I should have a keen interest in, and insights into, presidential races. But just because I’m more interested in the votes that took place at the constitutional convention in 1787 than I am in the most recent poll doesn’t mean that I’m entirely oblivious to the presidential election. So let me serve up a few thoughts prompted by the election… . Continue Reading »
We are told that the election cycle is fourteen months long, but we know better. The 2012 presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have been ongoing since the last ballot was counted in 2008. We are living in an era of the perpetual campaign, where each policy is declared, each speech is delivered, each press conference completed with one eye turned toward the next election campaign and, usually, the other eye turned toward its funding… . Continue Reading »
Tomorrow, Americans will be flocking to the polls to decide their President for the next four years. When the election concludes, there will be a great deal of discussion about the blessings of democracy, our grand political tradition, and the precious freedoms Americans have”all of which we should be thankful for. Hand in hand with those blessings come hazards, though they aren’t likely to be discussed much, since questioning any aspect of a democracy, while living in one, is itself considered undemocratic… . Continue Reading »
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