In early June (2017) Russell Vought appeared before a committee of the United States Senate as the president’s nominee to serve as the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). During the hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) questioned Vought . . . Continue reading →
Civil Liberties
Lesbian Atheist: Nature, Science, And Facts Matter
Although I describe myself as transgender (I was donning flamboyant male costumes from early childhood on), I am highly skeptical about the current transgender wave, which I think has been produced by far more complicated psychological and sociological factors than current gender . . . Continue reading →
More Evidence That Roe Should Be Overturned
The Roe decision by Justice Blackmun, as well as the dissents by then‐Justice Rehnquist and Justice White, with which Justice Scalia agreed, “are constitutionally unsound.” All permit “violation of the fetus’s constitutionally protected right to life without due process of law.” Returning . . . Continue reading →
Sasse Talking Sense In The Senate On The Constitution
“Intersectionality:” The New Secularist Religious Orthodoxy?
“Intersectionality” is the latest academic craze sweeping the American academy. On the surface, it’s a recent neo-Marxist theory that argues that social oppression does not simply apply to single categories of identity — such as race, gender, sexual orientation, class, etc. — . . . Continue reading →
The Definition Of Incoherence
Machen’s Senate Testimony Against The Proposed Department Of Education (1926)
The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 o’clock am, Senator Lawrence C. Phipps presiding. Name of those present: Senators Phipps (chairman), Ferris, Copeland, and Brookhart, of the Senate Committee, and Messrs. Reed of New York, Robison, Holaday Lowrey Black of New . . . Continue reading →
A Reminder Of Why We Should Not Long For A State Church
The United States of America, for all her greatness, is not the “my people” of 2 Chronicles 7:14. That people was God’s temporary, national people Israel. That national covenant expired at the cross. Since that time God has had no national people, though many have thought and apparently still think that they must be God’s special, national people. God made that promise to national Israel not the USA or to any other civil people. The USA has no more standing before God, as a national people, than pagan Rome or the “Holy Roman Empire,” neither of which exist any longer. Continue reading →
New Canadian Law Goes To War Against Nature
Laws such as Bill 28 put children and their biological parents on notice that they have no legal right to exist in a family without special permission from the state. This law lays the groundwork for legally separating all children from their . . . Continue reading →
A Index In The Culture Of Death
Much of the Congressional support for the 1993 NIH revitalization act was premised on the idea that the ban on buying or selling fetal tissue would be a safeguard against the development for a market for human fetuses. Tragically, the executive branch . . . Continue reading →
After The Wikileaks Emails There Is No Question
Somehow, large parts of our civil society have succumbed to that base but instinctive drive in people to lord it over others. That drive, as always, motivates those who tend to seek the reins of power. History is filled with unsavory characters . . . Continue reading →
It Is Not Bigoted To Talk Sense
The mere fact that professor Peet would like to be addressed by a particular pronoun does not mean that I am required to address him by that pronoun. That doesn’t mean that I deny his existence or the existence of people who . . . Continue reading →
Dr King On Drinking From The Cup Of Bitterness
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us . . . Continue reading →
In Islam There Is No Separation Of Mosque And State
The role of a caliph is to rule over the Muslim umma in a way that unites both the secular and religious spheres. After all, the caliphate is to be founded upon the prophetic methodology (ʿala minhāj al-nabūwa), and Muḥammad, according to . . . Continue reading →
The Attraction Of Denial
History is thick with the stench of decay rising from dead consciences. —Maureen Mullarkey
Of Conventions, Prayers, And Church
The Importance Of Distinguishing Sacred And Secular
Both the opening and closing of last night’s events are a good argument for doing away with public, shared prayers in such events. It’s not that delegates to political conventions should not pray. They should. It’s not that candidates should not pray. They should. It’s not that voters should not pray. They should. It is dubious, however, whether it is appropriate to open a common, secular, assembly with prayer. To whom are we praying? In whose name? What are we praying? As a Christian minister of the United Reformed Churches in North America I am not free to offer prayers to God that he has not authorized. I am not free to pray to any other deity than the Triune God of Scripture, to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not authorized to approach God in any other name than the name of Jesus. It is not a matter of bigotry. It is a matter of truth, eternal life, and salvation. Jesus was raised from the dead. He is the truth (John 14:6). There are not multiple ways to God. Religion is not multifaceted expression of a common religious experience. It is revealed by God to us. Continue reading →
Another Police Officer Was Murdered Today
When A Society Turns To Skepticism
No amount of force, or gun-control legislation, is going to fix a society where there is no longer a sense that we have law rooted in truth, which every citizen, in every station of life, respects and takes seriously. —Star Parker