Acton Institute | Samuel Gregg | July 15, 2009
The pope and the rabbi had a similar message, which amounts to the following. Some of our contemporary economic problems reflect a deeper moral crisis within Western civilization. Until we acknowledge this, shifts in economic policy and business practice will only provide limited solutions.
To be sure, it’s not a message everyone will appreciate. But that doesn’t diminish its accuracy.[Read more…]
Catholic Exchange | Kathleen Gilbert | July 10, 2009
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seems to have made a stunning admission in favor of cleansing America of unwanted populations by aborting them. In an interview with the New York Times, the judge said that Medicaid should cover abortions, and that she had originally expected that Roe v. Wade would facilitate such coverage in order to control the population of groups “that we don’t want to have too many of.”
The statement was made in the context of a discussion about the fact that abortions are not covered by Medicaid, and therefore are less available to poor women. “Reproductive choice has to be straightened out,” said Ginsburg, lamenting the fact that only women “of means” can easily access abortion. [Read more…]
Here we go down the slippery slope. PETA will be very happy that rats will be spared.
CNSNews | Monica Gabriel | July 9, 2009
GE Healthcare, the medical research subsidiary of General Electric, has formed a partnership with a leading U.S. biotech company to develop products based on human embryonic stem cells that can be used to develop new drugs.
On June 30, GE Healthcare and Geron Corporation announced a multi-year alliance where Geron will provide GE scientists with an undisclosed amount of human embryonic stem cells. [Read more…]
AOCA | Fr. Kevin Scherer | Summer 2009
“Keeping Our College Students Connected to the Church” is a tagline for Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF). You’ll find it throughout our literature and even on our stationery. It says concisely what we believe to be our primary mission. I’ve spent hours thinking about it, talking about it, and wrestling with it. To be honest, I think it needs some unpacking, some clarification.
When I see the word “keeping,” I wonder whether some people unconsciously expect OCF to handcuff students to the church pew—because we know what’s best for them! The word “keeping” conveys the idea of preservation. The question is: What are we preserving? It’s helpful, I think, to reflect on the why, what, how, and who of keeping students connected to the Church. [Read more…]
BreakPoint | Stephen Reed | May 29, 2009
Chuck Colson is fond of saying that the church shines brightest in tough times. History appears to support BreakPoint’s founder on this, as Christians have served extraordinarily well in a variety of ways during economic difficulties and social unrest. John Wesley, William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa—none of them had ideal circumstances in which to operate. That is why their respective ministries were so needed.
So what happened to America? Here we are, known far and wide as the most religious country in the West, and yet people constantly turn to the government more than the church in times of crisis. President Obama’s approach of having the federal government bail out banks, the automotive industry, and now perhaps even credit card users makes him the man of the moment. Obviously, even if the nation’s churches banded together and gave sacrificially to bail out all these entities, we probably couldn’t pull it off. [Read more…]
OrthodoxyToday.org | John Kapsalis | May 2009
If any of us ever found ourselves in a situation where we witnessed a car accident, I’d like to think that we would all stop and help, no matter how inconvenient. Or if we had to intervene to save someone from being assaulted, surely we would get involved no matter what the cost to us. It would be the right thing to do. After all, if we didn’t we would be wracked not only by guilt but also by shame. Who could live with themselves as a coward in such circumstances?
Yet everyday most of us act like cowards. Not because we don’t stop to help someone in need, but rather because we stand idly by while millions of people die moment by moment without knowing that God loves them. We are cowards because there is family and friends who have no relationship with Jesus Christ and we casually spend endless hours and years talking about everything under the sun, except telling them about the treasures of knowing Christ. [Read more…]
Breitbart | Steven Crowder | May 12, 2009
Is there anything more abnormal than being a mid-teen virgin in the year 2009? Not if you’d hear Hollywood tell it. After watching a slew of teen-movies this weekend, I feel quite pathetic. It seems that all this time, I’ve been trying to follow my convictions and make a difference in this world, when I really should have been spending my time scoring with chicks. Has anybody else out there come to this realization as of late? [Read more…]
American Thinker | Bruce Walker | May 12, 2009
Sherman was right: War is Hell. The current war against the Judeo-Christian world waged by al-Qaida and other radical Moslems is no different. War is Hell and Hell is full of torments. Our role, as children of a Loving God, is to make that Hell and those torments as quick, as slight, and as limited as possible. But it is not our power to end pain, to make peace, or to stop torture.
We cannot stop a Holocaust without inflicting pain. We cannot end the Gulag without hurting people. We cannot free slaves without the horror of civil war. We can be silent, passive, and helpless in the face of evil, and, perhaps, survive. But we cannot stop evil without fighting evil, and that battle cannot be conducted without hurting people. [Read more…]
AmericanThinker | Kyle-Anne Shiver | Apr. 14, 2009
The Rasmussen folks last week revealed a poll wherein American young people are just about evenly divided on whether they prefer capitalism to socialism. Among our under-30 crowd, 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided.
Sucking at the teat of the state has never looked so good, apparently. Well, this certainly helps explain Obamamania. [Read more…]
Townhall | Dennis Prager | Mar. 31, 2009
It is rare to see a play on Broadway that is preoccupied with goodness. It is even more rare to see Broadway play extol the goodness of a religious person. When was the last Broadway show about a Christian hero? In this upside-down age that is hypersensitive to any criticism, no matter how fair, of any aspect of Islam but which regularly depicts many American Christians as buffoons and quasi-fascists, one can only hope that this play has a long run. Likewise, in an age when art increasingly celebrates the ugly and the bad, one can only hope that a million young people see a play that celebrates the goodness that God-based morality can produce. [Read more…]