Culture war

An Independent Witness to Marriage

7/16/2010 – Stuart Koehl –

In the pending court case for overturning California’s Proposition 8, which banned “gay marriage,” two leading conservative legal scholars face off: Charles J. Cooper, taking the classical conservative line that organic social institutions such as marriage have an inherent value and cannot be redefined by legal fiat, and Theodore Olson, taking the more libertarian line that government should simply regulate contractual relationships between individuals and not become involved in private matters. [Read more…]

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Redefining the First Freedom

Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson

6/30/2010 – Chuck Colson –

For some time now, I’ve been warning you about the various threats to religious freedom. We’ve talked about the gay-rights movement, which insidiously insists that religious believers and organizations bow before the altar of sexual freedom. We’ve talked about the so-called health care reform bill, which does not protect the freedom of conscience of medical practitioners.

But now I’m seeing the threat to religious freedom in its most pernicious and dangerous form ever. I speak about this in my latest video commentary [see YouTube video below].

In a speech at Georgetown University, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a speech on human rights. Not only did she talk about the right “to love in the way you choose,” (an obvious attempt at making protecting gay rights a top priority for the U.S. government), she also talked about “freedom of worship.”

But she never mentioned freedom of religion. Only freedom of worship. This is a big change.[Read more…]

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New York Public School Teaches Children that ‘Religion is a Disease’

Public Schools Bias Atheism6/24/2010 – Andrea Peyser –
God is dead? At a top Brooklyn middle school, He is.

Just when you thought the separation of church and state was more than an option, like paper or plastic, the matter has been settled at MS 51 in Park Slope. And the lesson falls on the side of atheism.

“RELIGION,” a sheet from English class, handed out to eighth-graders, is provocatively titled. The typewritten paper presents some 20 quotes that can be described as anti-God, coming from philosophers from Kierkegaard to Schopenhauer. Even a “Yiddish proverb.”

“Religion is a disease, but a noble disease,” reads the first quote, attributed to Heraclitus.

“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they will think,” reads one by Schopenhauer. [Read more…]

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The Character Deficit

Character Counts Character Matters6/22/2010 – Steve McCann –
When the framers of the United States Constitution completed their work in 1787, they acknowledged that the success and future of the republic as established by that document was dependent on the honor and integrity of its leaders and citizens. As John Adams wrote: “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Today, the Obama administration, the majority of the members of Congress, much of the Judiciary, academia, and the media represent the culmination of the degradation of ethics and character, which has put the United States in the nearly inevitable position of joining the annals of the rise and fall of great nations.

The die was cast in the early part of the 20th century, when Congress and the president discovered that they could bribe the public with the public’s money. The focus of politics began to shift from public service and adherence to the Constitution to seeking, centralizing, and maintaining power, as well as amassing individual wealth. [Read more…]

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Crime and Character

Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson

6/16/2010 – Chuck Colson –

Two weeks ago, I told you that crime rates are falling—despite the fact we’ve been enduring tough economic times for three years.

Obviously, this flies in the face of the liberal belief that the cause of crime is poverty. And one liberal columnist, Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, dared to look at the facts and ask the question, “Did Liberals Get It Wrong on Crime?”

Cohen has this to say about falling crime rates: “Surprisingly, this has happened in the teeth of the Great Recession, meaning that those disposed to attribute criminality to poverty,” which was his view at one time, he says, “have some strenuous rethinking to do.” [Read more…]

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Peter Singer: ‘Why Not Sterilize the Human Race into Extinction?’

Peter Singer
Peter Singer

6/8/2010 – Peter J. Smith –
Princeton philosopher Peter Singer one of the world’s foremost contemporary utilitarian philosophers infamous for his advocacy of infanticide, would like individuals to consider this question: would sterilizing the human race to spare future generations the pain of existence be a good idea?

In a blog post for the New York Times entitled “Should this be the last generation?” Singer discusses in glowing terms the thought of South African philosopher David Benatar. Singer calls Benator the “author of a fine book with an arresting title: Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence.”

“To bring into existence someone who will suffer is, Benatar argues, to harm that person, but to bring into existence someone who will have a good life is not to benefit him or her,” explains Singer.[Read more…]

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Knight: We’re Smarter Than God

Smarter than God6/7/2010 – Robert Knight –
Sexual morality is over. That’s the conclusion of one of the smartest men in Washington, the estimable columnist George Will. On ABC’s “This Week” on May 30, Mr. Will agreed with colleague Matthew Dowd that apart from a few glitches, homosexuality will soon be a nonissue in the military. They are wrong, but let’s look at their argument.

The men cited young folks’ liberal attitudes and recent polls as evidence that morality is no longer a factor. Mr. Dowd: “It’s long been decided in the public’s mind. I think the Republicans are so far out of step on this…”

Mr. Will: “For people of Matt’s son’s generation, being gay is like being left-handed. … The Supreme Court has a famous phrase it used in some opinion, the evolving standards of decency that mark a maturing society. Clearly these are evolving, and the case is over, basically.” [Read more…]

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An Ungodly Immigration Policy?

6/1/2010 – Mark D. Tooley –
The 1.1 million-member United Church of Christ (UCC) is trying to raise $50,000 for a media campaign to blast Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law. Church prelates hope the ad will appear on May 29, when reputedly 500,000 will march in Phoenix against the law.

As America’s most left-wing Christian denomination, the fast declining UCC’s zeal for political activism perhaps compensates for its lack of evangelism. Having lost about half its members in recent decades, and several hundred congregations in recent years, the 1.1 million member denomination, at least as expressed by its elites, unapologetically plunges ahead with the latest causes du jour. [Read more…]

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PBS: More Christian Terrorists Than Muslim Terrorists

6/1/2010 – Robert Spencer –
PBS’s Tavis Smiley recently claimed that “every single day in this country” Christians commit terrorist acts. Interviewing the heroic ex-Muslim freedom fighter Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Smiley repeated common leftist dogmas about how Christian terrorists are more numerous and violent than Muslim terrorists, and have committed more terrorist acts inside the U.S. than Muslims have. Smiley’s views are silly, but they’re also ultimately misleading and dangerous, as they divert attention from the genuine threat from Islamic jihadists and, by sapping our civilizational self-confidence, weaken our ability and will to resist those jihadists.[Read more…]

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