David Heim
The logic of revolt
It
used to be that the defense of Second Amendment rights was linked, at least
rhetorically, to the rights of hunters and outdoor enthusiasts, who worried
...
Not quite Screwtape
In mock
letters of advice from a convert to godlessness, Eberstadt tells the
...
There's the mystery
Whatever you think of essayist
Christopher Hitchens, you have to admire his willingness to have a debate about
God with just about anybody. Since he wrote God
...
CC recommends: History & current events
A special Christmas review of noteworthy books, movies and music.
CC recommends: Theology & spirituality
A special Christmas review of noteworthy books, movies and music.
Unnatural impiety
A few times I've come across Anthony Bourdain's food show No Reservations. Bourdain is the "bad
boy" of TV gourmets--he's profane and sarcastic, and apparently an erstwhile
...
Selective outrage
The usual Thanksgiving travel stories were
spiced this year with concern about enhanced security screening at airports. While
...
Back to the mainline
If you had asked the pastor of the mainline
church I grew up in how his congregation was addressing public issues like
...
If you meet the Buddha
Generalizing
about a religion is a dangerous thing. A generalization that had seemed safe
was that Buddhism is a peaceful religion. It's all about compassion, isn't
...
To the battle stations
Arthur
Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, has
...
Legal standing
A fascinating legal question has emerged in the aftermath of Judge
Vaughn Walker’s overturning of Proposition 8 in California: Who has
standing to appeal the decision?
Counting the cost
“War is not healthy for children and other living things.” That consciously obvious claim—a favored bumper sticker in the 1960s—came to mind while reading a report in USA Today saying that one in four soldiers at the nation’s largest army post have been in counseling during the past year.
Balthasar
The problem with liberal theology, Protestant or Catholic, says Rodney A. Howsare in Balthasar: A Guide for the Perplexed,
is that Christ comes too late into the picture.
Is this all Prop 8 defenders have got?
What was remarkable about the overturning of Proposition 8—California’s
ban on same-sex marriage—was the weakness of the case mounted by the
defense. At times during the proceedings, Judge Vaughn Walker had to
ask the legal team in charge of defending the proposition, in effect:
“Haven’t you got something better than this?”
Believing solo
It’s hardly news that someone counts herself in the “religious but not
part of an organized religion” camp. Or as novelist Anne Rice described herself:
she is a follower of Christ who has decided to quit Christianity.
Incoming
A writer in the Century some years ago recalled in passing the
era when mail was delivered twice a day. He noted, somewhat
...
What do you believe?
While out of town on a recent Sunday morning I found my way to a Lutheran church for worship....
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In 1892 Agnes and Margaret Smith, identical twin sisters from Scot land, took a nine-day camel ride t...