Orthodox Editors

Lessons Unlearned

Investor’s Business Daily | Sep. 14, 2009

A year after Lehman Bros. went bankrupt, Washington plans sweeping new reforms of the financial markets. Based on what’s been revealed so far, our leaders have learned nothing from that crisis.

Today, once again, we’re hearing that unbridled greed and reckless pursuit of profit lie behind all our ills, that Wall Street is “choosing to ignore” the lessons from the meltdown and that new rules are needed to bring the miscreants to heel. But this is exactly backward. [Read more…]

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Feel Good Policy

Big Hollywood | Joseph C. Phillips | Sep. 15, 2009

The message began to pop-up all over my Facebook page: “No one should die because they cannot afford health care or insurance and no one should go broke or bankrupt because they get sick.” Let us set aside the fact that no one in need of emergency life-saving medical care is denied because they do not have insurance and that there are state and federal programs already in existence that provide medical coverage for those of lesser means. I agree with the sentiment. I dare say I know of no one that doesn’t agree. There is simply no questioning the potential calamity that awaits those without some form of medical coverage.

There is also no questioning that in life there are a great many things for which “no one should.” For instance it is equally tragic when people lose their homes due to unemployment, go hungry because they can’t pay for a meal or shiver at night because they lack adequate clothing. [Read more…]

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Remembering 9/11 and Thomas Gardner Firefighter FDNY


by Adam Leiter | Sep. 11, 2009

The best way for me to remember 9/11 is to remind everyone of my friend FDNY Firefighter Tommy Gardner, lost in the South Tower on 9/11/01.

He and I were in first grade class together at PS 107 in 1968, in Flushing, Queens, NY. We were in every grade and school together until we graduated high school in 1980. He joined FDNY in 1982. He was in several FDNY units, the last being Hazmat 1. [Read more…]

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When Bishops Disappoint


AFR | Fr. Thomas Hopko | Sep. 9, 2009

In this podcast Fr. Thomas Hopko addresses the key issue of “What do we do when those in leadership are not exercising their leadership properly?” Fr. Tom discusses corruption in the Orthodox Church and explains that these types of situations are nothing new. He references scriptures and explains that proper Christian leadership consists of servanthood (not overlordship) and exhorts the faithful to help the priests and bishops to “tend the flock of God that is in (their) charge.”

When Bishops Disappoint – 9/9/09 http://audio.ancientfaith.com/hopko/stt_2009-09-04.mp3|titles=When

[Read more…]

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American Socialism & Chinese Capitalism

American Thinker | Raymond Richman & Howard Richman | Sep. 7, 2009

Why is GM, a capitalist firm, so successful in Communist China and a failure in Capitalist USA? Apparently, the Chinese learned from the economic failures of socialism while the US Congress learned nothing and actively intervenes in the decision-making of American capitalist firms, imposing environmental restrictions few of which would pass the economic test that benefits should be equal to or greater than cost. It subsidizes energy-saving activities like insulating buildings, buying energy-saving autos and even light bulbs, none of which would survive the light of day as producers of net benefits. It orders banks to make bad loans, e.g., the Community Reinvestment Act. Through the EPA, it regulates factory emissions. It proposes a socialist solution to health care. It has declared its policy to replace fossil fuels with renewable alternative fuels. It pays a large portion of the costs of wind turbines and solar panels. The list goes on an on. [Read more…]

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ObamaCare and Catholic Social Teaching

American Thinker | Mark Wauk | Sep. 6, 2009

The 9/2/09 issue of the Wall Street Journal, in its Notable and Quotable feature, calls attention to an important article that Roman Catholic Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City, Iowa, published in his diocesan newspaper on the subject of health care and health care reform. The article is important for two reasons: first, because there has been and continues to be a certain amount of confusion regarding Catholic social teaching as it affects health care; second, because Bishop Nickless goes to great lengths to base his discussion on principles, and not merely on tactical considerations. [Read more…]

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The Bigger the Government, the Smaller the Citizen

Townhall | Dennis Prager | Sep. 1, 2009

Those of us who oppose a massive increase in the role the national government plays in health care (“ObamaCare”) do so because we fear the immense and unsustainable national debt it would incur and because we are certain that medical care in America would deteriorate. But there is a bigger reason most of us oppose it: We believe that the bigger the government becomes, the smaller the individual citizen becomes. [Read more…]

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Radical, Moderate God

BreakPoint | Stephen Reed | Aug. 25, 2009

So often in Christian teaching, we learn that God, oftentimes a radical in His dealings with human beings, is also essentially a “moderate” when it comes to figuring out His will. By that, I mean that His procedure is moderate, even while His approach may be radical. Few can doubt Jesus’ radical love, proven in His dealings with His disciples or perfect strangers in the gospel accounts.

But many times you will hear learned Christian teachers stress in their lessons on theology that the path of a Christian lies not in being a total libertine, nor as a complete ascetic. Instead, as Jesus said so eloquently, we are to be both “in the world, yet not of the world.” Or when it comes to our mindset here on earth, Jesus tells us to be “as innocent as doves but as wise as serpents.” [Read more…]

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