Dawn Bornemann posted on her Face Book page a link to something on a church website that I wrote a long time ago and tagged me. In the piece, I tell about how I, personally, have benefitted from Lutheranism, which I stumbled across after a long period of church shopping, theological study, and spiritual searching. In doing so, the essay pulls together what it means to be a Lutheran and what Lutheranism means, particularly in the context of the rest… Read more
May 23, 2019
Abortion’s Underlying Issue
May 23, 2019 By Gene Veith
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The great Anthony Esolen has written a brilliant article for Public Discourse on the underlying issue in the abortion controversy: autonomy. That is, the insistence on being a law unto oneself. Having a child puts us in relationships and gives us obligations that undermines the possibility of sexual, economic, and personal autonomy. Read the whole essay. It begins by showing how logic, science, evidence, experience all support the anti-abortion position. In fact, all of the arguments for abortion have been… Read more
May 22, 2019
Why “Spiritual but not Religious” Doesn’t Help Much
May 22, 2019 By Gene Veith
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Most of the “Nones” who have no affiliation with any particular religion do hold religious beliefs. But they claim to be “spiritual but not religious.” They often believe in a deity of some kind (only 21% don’t believe in God), and they may even pray and do other religious exercises, but they reject “organized religion.” For them, religion is a purely private, internal affair, and they cannot stand the “institutional” dimension of the world’s different religions. But research is showing… Read more
May 21, 2019
Why Joe Biden Leads the Democrats
May 21, 2019 By Gene Veith
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So far, Joe Biden is running away from the crowd in race for the Democratic presidential nomination. How can it be, that an elderly white male, a traditional Democratic politician from a by-gone era, is doing so well in an era when the Democratic party is supposed to be dominated by identity politics, the Millennial generation, and the new radicalism? The answer reveals much about the realities of American politics. The latest polls show Biden taking 38% of the projected Democratic… Read more
May 20, 2019
Conservatives’ Upset Victory in Australia
May 20, 2019 By Gene Veith
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Here in Australia, the country held its national election. And contrary to all predictions from the media, the pollsters, and even the exit polls, the conservative coalition decisively defeated the progressives. The victory was so surprising that it is being compared to the UK’s Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump in the annals of experts asking, “How did we get it so wrong?” The “Liberal” party–which, since Australia is upside down, means the “Conservative” party–won big over the… Read more
May 17, 2019
A “Churchillian” Critique of the Cultural Left
May 17, 2019 By Gene Veith
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Australia’s Mark Latham is the former head of the Labour party leader and an avowed non-Christian humanist, so he has impeccable progressive credentials. But he has become appalled by the excesses of the cultural left. He has given a speech that has electrified Australia’s conservatives and that could have the same effect in the United States. Latham’s disenchantment with political correctness, identity politics, gender switching, and cultural Marxism led to his joining the populist One Nation party. (In Australia, where… Read more
May 16, 2019
Getting Fired for Saying that Sinners–including Gays–Will Go to Hell?
May 16, 2019 By Gene Veith
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Israel Folau is a star player for the professional Australian rugby team the Wallabies. But he is on the verge of losing his livelihood for posting on social media that sinners will go to Hell unless they turn to Jesus, including a meme paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that mentions homosexuals. Besides being a rugby superstar, Folau, an Australian whose parents are from Tonga, is a devout Christian, a leader in his tiny Assemblies of God congregation pastored by his father,… Read more
May 15, 2019
Going on Walkabout
May 15, 2019 By Gene Veith
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An Aboriginal boy between the age of 10 and 16 will go on “walkabout,” a solitary wandering in the outback for as long as six months, during which time he must survive by living off the land and undergo a spiritual quest. After his walkabout, he is considered a man. That strikes me as a good use of travel–a rite of passage, an occasion to “find oneself,” a quest for spiritual discovery. I’m not going on THAT kind of walkabout,… Read more
May 14, 2019
Victories through Tools
May 14, 2019 By Gene Veith
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Have you noticed that victories in the Old Testament are often won not with weapons but with tools or other unlikely implements? Andrew Wilson draws attention to this fun fact in his essay Bringing a Tent Peg to a Sword Fight in Christianity Today. In the first battle at Armageddon, the mighty general of the Canaanite army, Sisera, is done in by Jael, a woman with a “workmen’s mallet” and a tent peg (Judges 4:17-22; 5:26). Shamgar slew 600 Philistines with a cattle prod… Read more
May 13, 2019
The Christian Life: Trusting, Laboring, Suffering
May 13, 2019 By Gene Veith
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The three “theological virtues” are faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). What is the relationship between these three? And how do they play out in the Christian life? Martin Luther explores these questions in an absolutely stunning sermon on Christ’s healing of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19). Read how it concludes (my bolds). From Martin Luther, The Ten Lepers, 14th Sunday after Trinity, Luke 17:11-19, from Church Postil of 1521: 81. And in conclusion we observe that this Gospel… Read more
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