thoughts in and out of season
One Vatican official warns of a plan to supplant Christianity with a “global ethic”, while a pontifical council calls for “a sense of community among people of different religious beliefs who work together as a human family to achieve a world peace.” Something for everyone—isn’t it wonderful?
The account of the finding of the empty tomb in John’s gospel reads like an eyewitness account rather than anything made up for a purpose. It seems obvious that it is given in the words of someone who was there, in fact “the other disciple whom Jesus loved.” This isn’t mythology or propaganda or the … More ...
Why did Christ have to die to make up for our sins? People today find the idea stupid and brutal. Why couldn’t God have given us a way out of them without letting his own son be tortured to death in such a horrible manner? What does the one thing have to do with the … More ...
Some stories in the Bible are so clearly contemporary that critical scholars in the year 4000 will almost certainly view them as interpolations from our own period. The Temptation of Christ (Matthew 4:1-11) is an example. Immediately after his baptism Christ went off to fast and pray, and the devil tempted him with the conquest … More ...
News from the “world government” front:
I’m told I have to choose one. At the moment I’m inclined toward Thomas, after Thomas the Apostle and Thomas Aquinas. It seems to me the two span the possibilities of faith seeking understanding. Both had faith, but they differed in their ability to say what it was about. In the end they weren’t so … More ...
Rigoberta Menchu wasn’t the first: the leading first-person account of the “Middle Passage” endured by slaves brought to the New World turns out to be about as authentic as Roots or Martin Luther King’s scholarship. The ex-slave author of the narrative was in fact born in South Carolina. Quite naturally, a lot of people are … More ...
So here’s the meaning of the welfare state: MPs call for full ban on spanking because if social service agencies have to supervise everything it’s easier for them if no one’s allowed to do anything. Once you leave the interior of government offices, though, you find that it’s difficult and troublesome to supervise disorderly people … More ...
A sign of where we are: a video presented at the Lincoln Memorial suggests that Lincoln would have supported such modern-day causes as homosexual and abortion rights. That’s the meaning of America now, folks, and those who instruct us in patriotism and citizenship aren’t about to drop the point.
What are “human rights?” Libya must be the expert, since they’ve just been elected to head the UN rights watchdog committee. One pointer for the rest of us, who aren’t experts, is that they mean an end to the freedom of religious institutions to run their own affairs. For example, across the Atlantic they … More ...