This weekend's discussion topic for our back-to-school days: How would you assess the education you received? Consider your primary grades (were you taught to read by phonics or whole language?) through higher education if that applies (was it worth your student loans?).
Teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education. But how to do that has been controversial. Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read. But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.
Progressives are attacking Trump supporters for trying to overthrow the government. But some progressives really are trying to overthrow the government. They seek to eliminate the Constitution completely in favor of a pure majority-rules democracy.
A rabbi refutes the notion that one can be Jewish without believing in God, that performing the rituals and following the ethics is all that counts. That is an example of "fictionalism," in which someone participates in religion while believing its precepts are nothing more than a beneficial fiction. This is a problem also in Christianity.
By executive order, President Biden is canceling much of the college debt incurred from student loans. The $330 billion cost will more than offset the $102 billion saved by the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. And is it fair to make the 65% of Americans who didn't go to college pay the expenses of those who did?
The UK, Sweden, Finland, France, Belgium, and Australia are turning against transgender medical treatments for children. But the United States is an outlier, with our government and the medical profession encouraging them.
This weekend's discussion topic: Is democracy in the USA really being threatened today? If so, by whom? Are "election deniers," whether Trump supporters who think Biden's election was rigged or Hillary Clinton supporters who thought Trump's election was engineered by the Russians, really opposing democracy? However deluded they might be, aren't they really trying to defend democracy?
Methodist congregations are having to choose whether to leave their denomination or stay. Mark Tooley urges them to leave, not just over the controversy about sexual morality but because the institutional hierarchy is no longer serving the church. What he says can apply to other mainline liberal denominations.
Dr. Päivi Räsänen, a medical doctor and member of parliament, has been fighting hate crime charges in Finland for writing a booklet that states what the Bible says about homosexuality. While she awaits a judge's ruling on an appeal of her acquittal, she was at the Issues, Etc., conference. Joy Pullman of the Federalist interviewed her and gives more details about her story.
The Atlantic Magazine has published an article expressing alarm at the rosary, the beads Catholics use to keep track of their prayers, calling it an "extremist symbol" and associating it with the AR-15 rifle. Correcting that impression. Though prayer is, indeed, a weapon. On the use of prayer beads, including various types of "Lutheran rosaries."
Select your answer to see how you score.
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