Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are a new front in the struggle for religious liberty. The requests, by which citizens can obtain copies of public documents, have already been invoked by the Diocese of Pittsburgh to request “information … about how federal officials decided what contraceptive procedures and medications should be covered under the mandate.” Groups such as Cause of Action and the National Organization for Marriage have also filed FOIA requests concerning IRS targeting… . Continue Reading»
A Utah state senator, Aaron Osmond (10th District, Jordan), has proposed eliminating compulsory public school education. He is a member of the senate’s education appropriations committee. Critics suggest”among other things”that he is out to reduce the billions of taxpayer dollars required for public education. (He is also a nephew of Marie and Donnie Osmond, but that is unrelated to his political life in service to furthering Utah education endeavors.) In any case, we should look at his idea. Sen. Osmond complains that compulsory education… Continue Reading»
In the early spring of 1953, a sickly Russian novelist, “covered with ice, out of the dark and the cold,” staggered forth from the Soviet Gulag, the constellation of Communist prison camps that stretched from Siberia to South Asia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ill with cancer, had once been a proponent of the system that condemned him to forced labor. Now he saw his nation’s “deep suffering,” like his own, as redemptive… . Continue Reading»
In his June 13 testimony before the National Security Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform, Dr. Thomas Farr of Georgetown’s Berkley Center described the failures of U.S. international religious freedom policy over the past decade and a half … Continue Reading»
While traveling to Rio de Janeiro to preside over his first World Youth Day, Pope Francis declined to do a formal interview with the press pool. “I don’t give interviews. I don’t know why… . It’s tiresome. But I enjoy your company.” On the return to Rome, the Holy Father… Continue Reading»
Abortion advocates and population planners eagerly promote the idea that preventing births saves money. To the contrary and as was already demonstrated in a recent First Things article, the birth of anyone, poor or not, will yield substantial economic benefit. Specifically, in Texas the $11,000 Medicaid-birth cost will on average return $430,000, or thirty-nine times the investment… Continue Reading»
In his 1934 book, The Kingdom of God in America, H. Richard Niebuhr depicted the creed of liberal Protestant theology, which was called “modernism” in those days, in these famous words: “A God without wrath brought man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” Niebuhr was no fundamentalist… Continue Reading»
The Catholic Church betrays Christ’s call to love; “Its leadership works though domination, control, and punishment.” So wrote Fr. Bert Thielen, S.J., in a long letter explaining his decision to renounce the priesthood and return to the lay state of life. His letter saddened me. It was Bert who received me into the Catholic Church… Continue Reading»
I try not to get caught up in the all-too-popular sport of Pat Robertson-bashing. For one thing, in the few times I have been with the Evangelical leader”one of those times for a leisurely luncheon meeting in his office at Regent Univeristy”I have found him to be an engaging and gracious conversationalist… . Continue Reading»
When I tell people I am a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, I often get a puzzled reaction. “Eastern Orthodoxy?” some will say. “What’s that?” Others will ask whether I actually mean the Greek or the Russian Orthodox Church, mistakenly believing that they are different denominations. In fact, whether Greek, Russian, or Serbian, all are part of the same Church… Continue Reading»
