Introduction Grace Community Church met for worship this past Sunday. Ordinarily that would not be news but we are not living in ordinary times. In order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the State of California has forbidden churches to meet indoors . . . Continue reading →
The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. It says nothing about the freedom to play craps or blackjack, to feed tokens into a slot machine, or to engage in any other game of chance. But the Governor of Nevada apparently has . . . Continue reading →
As always we had a good time on the old Presbycast Hayride, Jamboree, and Barn Dance. Chortles told us the story of the Huguenot Pirates—real pirates, not “piratical” pretenders hitting defense flower vases with baseball bats or setting harmless grass alight—and the . . . Continue reading →
White Fragility was published in 2018 but jumped to the top of the New York Times best-seller list amid the protests following the death of George Floyd and the ensuing national reckoning about racism. DiAngelo has convinced university administrators, corporate human-resources offices, . . . Continue reading →
Dear A.G., It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am resigning from The New York Times. I joined the paper with gratitude and optimism three years ago. I was hired with the goal of bringing in voices . . . Continue reading →
Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychology professor and bestselling author, who was one of the signatories of the letter to Harper’s protesting against a climate of intolerance, has claimed he is the target of an “Orwellian” attack on his reputation. … “It’s utterly . . . Continue reading →
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Steven Pinker is correct. It is Orwellian to demand jot and tittle conformity (in civil life—we live in a twofold kingdom).
It is also Orwellian to deny that “cancel culture” exists. Certainly it exists. It is gaslighting to contribute to it by denying that it exists. The evidence for its existence is right before us. About 15 signatories to the recent public letter defending free speech remained anonymous for fear of the consequences of being found to be politically incorrect.
Example: I am thinking of a simple declarative sentence that is undeniably true and reasonable but to say it risks the irrational wrath of the mob. I will not say it now because the potential cost outweighs the benefit.
That is cancel culture.
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Cancel culture has nothing to do with truth, justice, or the American way. It is the exercise of power under the guise of victimhood.
Today, of course, the contention that some ideas are better than others—let alone that some deserve to be called “the best”—is rejected as an elitist crime against “diversity.” The cult, the ideology of diversity—what we have baptized as “identity politics,” which represents . . . Continue reading →
Where Douglass may have raised a few eyebrows was in his conclusion where he challenged the common northern abolitionist belief that the U.S. Constitution itself was pro-slavery and should be discarded. When Douglass initially escaped slavery, he had accepted this view, but . . . Continue reading →
The legislation handed down by the Court will have far-reaching consequences, including the eventual destruction of all-women’s sports. As I tell my students, and constantly remind myself, “remember, when you sign on to a proposition you are signing on to all it . . . Continue reading →
…New Harvest Christian Fellowship has rented space along Main Street in Salinas for more than 25 years. Their growing congregation prompted leaders to recognize several years ago that the church needed a larger facility. … With property at a premium in Northern . . . Continue reading →
So, what’s the secret of creating enough woke conformity to get to such an anti-thought point? How does a well-organized band of power-craving elitists get people to surrender the right to speak their own minds? To open the door to giving collectivist . . . Continue reading →
There is only one word for what the Court has done today: legislation. The document that the Court releases is in the form of a judicial opinion interpreting a statute, but that is deceptive. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of . . . Continue reading →