Back before the Republican was a grand ole anything, the Whig Party ran the role of “honored opposition.” They formed mainly in opposition to what they saw as the autocratic rule of Andrew Jackson (who, no doubt, saw things differently). In general, they favored the legislature over the executive, seeing it as being closer to [...]
If you think you’ve seen bizarro behavior at townhall meetings this summer, wait until the debate turns in earnest to whether or not reproductive services will be covered. In response to a call for people of faith to be “abortion neutral,” Debra Haffner posted this. It’s worth a read…and a bit of thinking. First of [...]
A hundred and fifty years ago, it was common to refer to slavery as “that institution peculiar to the Southern States.” Blacks were considered by some religious “thinkers” to be “the sons of Ham, and therefore born into slavery. Southerners cried to the federal government, and then to the states, to defend this “Godly practice.” [...]
Matthew Avery Sutton writes about the inability of President Barack Obama to gain the goodwill of Evangelical Christians. His conclusion: So what can we do? Pray for the rapture. If evangelicals vanish, the rest of us might finally get better medical care, a healthier environment, a more just international community, and full civil rights for [...]
Yesterday, a facebook friend of mine fired off a message about Ayn Rand’s fictitious example of American Motors in Atlas Shrugged showing how communism defeats personal charity. Several responses flowed to his comment, all of which denounced socialism as being anti-thetical to Christian thought and/or existence. After a bit of thought, I find this to [...]
Wapo asks if Muslim holidays should be observed, we get one of the most asinine answers ever: The question of whether Muslim holidays should be added to public school calendars presupposes that Christian and Jewish holidays are now observed. If that were so, it would be appropriate to add Muslim holidays, and, as Mayor Bloomberg [...]
Kathy Kattenburg notes that the debate on torture is a pretty hollow one. I heave a heavy sigh that a debate is needed – and it angers me that a report on its use is even necessary. The truth is, as Kathy’s commenter points out: “You know what, I think fewer people than you realize [...]
An all-too-typical case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Under the guise of “setting the record straight,” we are offered this letter to the editor: Friday, June 26, 2009 It’s over, Republicans You are not the party of family values, the moral majority, the party of God or any other silly title [...]
Martin Marty does a decent job of glossing over the issue of same-sex marriage. He writes: Since the Protestant Reformation — blame Luther and company and the elaboration of marriage law in the United States — no American cleric, unless he or she is also a civic official, e.g., a county clerk, ever marries anyone [...]
Debra Haffner has it right: Let’s stop talking about reducing the number of abortions as a goal in itself. Such talk obscures what should be our principal objective—reducing unintended pregnancies—and leads to anti-women and anti-teen measures that would place restrictions on abortion access. Let’s keep talking about reducing unintended pregnancies. This is not only the [...]
