Religion
Over at Spinning Clio, I’ve written a longish piece (“Christianity as a ‘Founding Religion’ Disavowed: What DID the 1796 Treaty with Tripoli Say (and when did it say it)?” that investigates the historical interpretation of a rather obscure treaty that has been used to buttress the arguments of many secularists and others who seek to…
While I (and others) have written of the bias on campus and the liberal tendencies therein, it also behooves us to point out examples where it is obvious that open debate is encouraged. Such an example is Providence College. (Full disclosure: I’m currently attending grad school at PC). One can correctly assume that a college…
This posting builds on three previous ones about the Naked Public Square (I, II, III). Greg Wallace, over at What Attitude Problem?, posted this story yesterday about yet another successful attempt to strip naked the public square. Read the story and follow the links. This latest news story leads me back to a quote by…
On Washington’s birthday, it is useful to remember why the founding of the United States, with its recognition of the equal natural rights of all, was such a boon to mankind. An emanation of the American Founding was religious freedom and tolerance. The folks at Powerline remind us of a particularly powerful example of the…
My wife heard last night the sad and horrible news of the death of one of her dearest friend’s daughter. We grieve for that wonderful family, whose kindness to others – including my wife – has never known any limits. Having been fortunate enough to be present at the birth of our three children, I…
People hold religious, social, or any other beliefs in varying degrees. Some treat them as relative, and whimsically; belief is a matter of perspective, so everybody’s beliefs are equally true, including the changing beliefs of an individual over time. Such people are metastatically dangerous, in their way, but the more palpable threat comes from the…
News reports have arrived in the last hour or so that Pope John Paul II has been hospitalized. Whether this is the time at which God calls his servant home or not, I found myself stopping this time upon hearing the news to ponder the enormous contribution he has made to the world and the…
Matthew Jerzyk of Providence has a particularly restrictive view of the appropriate content of public monuments: We have hundreds of places in our city for monuments of the Ten Commandments; they are called churches. Our public spaces, however, should be reserved to memorialize our common faith in government. For example, if any city official wants…
Given current jurisprudence, this is surely the prudent action: BENNINGTON — Officials at the Vermont Veterans Home were ordered to take down a red, white and blue lighted cross Wednesday after trustees decided it is illegal at a state-owned facility. … Employees had put the large cross, strung with patriotic colored lights, atop a gazebo…
My family enjoyed the annual Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular show this week for the third year in a row – this time in Boston. They always end the show with a live nativity scene and a slightly modified version of the attached story, which I thought was worth sharing in its modified form…
