President Obama has taken new steps to improve public education, and part of his plan is to overhaul the No Child Left Behind program. I come from a family of public educators, and I’m glad Obama is focusing again on education. Here’s a clip, but wonder what your thoughts are? Did the No Child Left Behind work? Did it achieve measurable results? (Bring back shop classes and make public education genuinely public.) The Obama administration on Saturday called for a... Read more
I am currently reading a book by David N. Livingstone, Adam’s Ancestors: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Human Origins. David Livingstone is Professor of Geography and Intellectual History at Queen’s University, Belfast and this book reflects both of his interests. It is a readable, but thorough and academic, book looking at the history of the idea of pre-adamic or non-adamic humans in western Christian thinking from the early church (Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine) through the middle ages,... Read more
Tom Wright’s newest book is about virtue ethics, about how we move from where we are through habituation so we can arrive at the goal. This is all found in After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters . A development in this book that is not found at the same level is how he defines the goal. Readers of Wright know he has worked hard to eradicate the idea that we get saved so we can go to heaven when we... Read more
David Brooks gets it when it comes to how people are sketching Obama. If you ask a conservative Republican, you are likely to hear that Obama is a skilled politician who campaigned as a centrist but is governing as a big-government liberal. He plays by ruthless, Chicago politics rules. He is arrogant toward foes, condescending toward allies and runs a partisan political machine. If you ask a liberal Democrat, you are likely to hear that Obama is an inspiring but... Read more
We have a number of guest writers on this blog, including RJS (who writes twice per week and has done so for a long, long time — and I’m exceedingly grateful for her gift to this blog) and Michael Kruse. And David Opderbeck has been writing for us about law, and his posts reach into spaces this blog has never seen — and this post by David is a response to responses on other sites. My post last week on... Read more
I’m amazed at the comments being made by some evangelicals, in this case the son of Jerry Falwell, that “charity” is purely voluntary and individual, and that charity is not designed by God or by Jesus to be something done by the government. What is happening is that some conservatives are now equating libertarian principles with the Bible and with the biblical world. Libertarian care for the poor is utopian. I quote from Falwell, not because he’s alone, but because... Read more
Christians shaped during the 70s and 80s are more often than not shaped by John R.W. Stott. I know I was. It may be a sign of aging to be disappointed when I mention Stott and the person asks, “Who?” In 70s and 80s many of us couldn’t wait for the next exposition of Scripture to fall from the pen of Stott and land at IVP. What’s your favorite book by John Stott? But Stott was not one to tell... Read more
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Read more
Jesus Creed
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In