The cross atop Mt Soledad, in LaJolla has been in place since 1954 but it has been the subject of controversy and continuous and tortuous legal wrangling since at least 1989, when two atheists and the “Society of Separationists” sued in federal court . . . Continue reading →
Civil Life
Money Could Be Other Than It Is
Available research does not support the view that the Federal Reserve System has lived up to its original promise. Early in its career, it presided over both the most severe inflation and the most severe (demand-induced) deflations in post-Civil War U.S. history. . . . Continue reading →
It’s Here Before They Announce It
It was not until the outbreak of war, on September 1, 1939, that the Nazi regime became openly totalitarian and openly criminal. —Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin Books, repr. 1992), 68.
What The Nuns Once Did
This is so grotesque that they have probably concluded it is exceptional. On the contrary, thousands of British children are being snatched from their natural parents in secret each year, after totally unfair hearings against which it is almost impossible to appeal . . . Continue reading →
Trust, Community, And Life (UPDATED)
For a long time I’ve sensed that something important has changed in our culture. It’s been hard to know, however, what to make of these perceptions and intuitions. When I was a boy, when someone came to the door, we invited them . . . Continue reading →
Scalia On The Lemon Test As Late-Night Ghoul
Like some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried, Lemon stalks our Establishment Clause jurisprudence once again, frightening the little children and school attorneys of Center Moriches . . . Continue reading →
Black Friday, Subjectivism, And Christian Liberty
On 24 November, the Roman Bishop, Francis, issued a document, Evangelium Gaudii which the Vatican classifies as an “Apostolic Exhortation.” It’s a book, a really long (217 pages) sermon. Rome is a complicated creature with seemingly endless categories offices, canons, decrees, laws, and . . . Continue reading →
Political Pluralism And Public Prayer
When we allow evangelicals to pray as evangelicals, Catholics to pray as Catholics, Muslims to pray as Muslims, Jews to pray as Jews, we are not undermining political pluralism in our democracy, we’re upholding it. That’s why these prayers are not an . . . Continue reading →
The Irony Of The Coming Dark Age (Updated Again)
The old schoolbook story of the middle ages describes the entire period as the “dark ages.” Of course that’s rubbish. There was a period of chaos in the early medieval period but there were also periods of remarkable learning and the renewal . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Law And The Bible
There’s no question whether Christ is Lord over every square inch. There are, however, many important and difficult questions to be discussed over how Christ exercises his Lordship over all things. Office Hours talks with David VanDrunen about his new book, The Law and the Bible, which . . . Continue reading →
Liberal Education, Religious Freedom, And Weak Arguments (Updated Again)
Originally Published October 8, 2013. Updates below. The University of South Florida is at the center of another debate about religious freedom (HT: David Murray). This time it involves a planned event at which Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, a former Lesbian, is to . . . Continue reading →
Rutherford On The Mediatorial Kingship Of Christ
Christ is the head and only head of the Church, for by what title Christ is before all things, he in whom all things consist, and is the beginning, the first borne from the dead, and hath the preeminence in all things; . . . Continue reading →
Remember
Eco-Friendly Tanks And Drones Playing The Lumineers
Caution: This video uses a word that starts with kick and ends with an s. If you don’t want to hear this word then don’t watch the video (or mute the sound but that would pretty much ruin it since there is . . . Continue reading →
Does The State Illegitimately Control The Church?
It has recently been argued to me that, in the various states, because the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act(s), the Uniform Child Custody Justice Enforcement Act(s), and because most congregations (and denominations) have formed non-profit corporations (in the USA congregations usually become . . . Continue reading →
50th Anniversary Of The “Dream” Speech
For more here’s a recent Office Hours interview with Mika Edmondson on Dr King’s legacy.
Private Property, Public Accommodation, And Religious Freedom
There are such things as unintended consequences and Americans are impatient with injustice. There were real, gross injustices being committed against an entire class of Americans that led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act that forbids restricting access to “public accommodations” on . . . Continue reading →
Have We Become Bedford Falls Without George Bailey?
I know it’s a sentimental movie and I know that its view of angels isn’t biblical and I know that the anthropology of the film is problematic. Nevertheless, I get the sense that the whole country is becoming Bedford Falls without George . . . Continue reading →
Jack and the Kingdom of God (Updated)
In a piece that appears in Christianity Today online Ted Olson argues that a plan, which was cancelled, to free the Korean hostages in Afghanistan by taking hostage the families of the kidnappers is a bad idea because the Apostle Paul wouldn’t . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch: Chilling Protected Religious Speech In The Military
Todd Starnes reports The Obama Administration “strongly objects” to a proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have protected the religious rights of soldiers – including evangelical Christian service members who are facing growing hostility towards their religion. Rep. John . . . Continue reading →













