A discussion with a pastor this week led to a question by the pastor: “The difference is just nuance, isn’t it?” What difference?, you ask. The difference between the old and the new perspective.  Toss in the apocalyptic Paul and some think this is nothing but a squabble among scholars that has nothing to do with the church, with the Christian, and with the Christian life — especially for ordinaries. My contention, and the contention of the authors of our... Read more

I agree with Yeonmi Park (from a FB post): Another disappointing fact from Obama’s approach with Cuba has been his unwillingness to call the Cuban dictatorship by its name: a dictatorship (at the same time Obama does not mind calling Pinochet a dictator and his government’s legacy a brutal dictatorship). Instead, throughout this policy, Obama and his spokespeople have used a number of euphemisms (“the American people getting closer to the Cuban people”) to obscure the fact that while President... Read more

Ari Bendersky: Six or seven days a week, Erick Williams leaves his two-story, red-brick single-family home to head to his job as executive chef of MK restaurant in River North, the kind of place that hosts estate wine dinners and offers $79 tasting menus. He gets there in his new Chrysler 300, driving by a mix of restored graystones and empty lots where dilapidated homes sat before they were demolished by the city. This is Lawndale, one of the city’s... Read more

Lydia DePillis: Amid a flurry of legislation to pass in the final days of spring state legislative sessions last week, nurses won two more victories in a long war for independence. For decades, most of the country has required physician oversight for nurses to conduct certain procedures, and especially to prescribe drugs. But that’s slowly changing, as the nation’s health-care needs rise, and nurses fight for the right to practice everything they learned in school. The most recent wins came... Read more

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.... Read more

Children of Monsters Jay Nordlinger is senior editor of National Review. He also contributes as a music critic to The New Criterion. His book, Children of Monsters  framed this interview. David George Moore conducted the interview. Dave blogs at www.twocities.org. Moore: You’ve written a history of the Nobel Peace Prize. Is Children of Monsters a companion work? Seriously, what led you to write such an offbeat kind of book? Nordlinger: Some years ago, I was in Albania, which had suffered... Read more

O yes, on reading chairs — Lindsey M. Roberts: [That’s my reading chair.] A living room without a reading chair is like a spa bathroom without a big tub. Something is missing. Add a cozy reading corner, though, and the room starts to get friendly. “Comfortable furniture will make you want to stay in the room, and any room that makes me want to actually spend time in there is a winner for me,” says Emily Henderson, an L.A.-based stylist and... Read more

Rick Noack: We drive through one roundabout routinely and really like them. How about you? France is ahead of the curve. The country is among the world’s leaders in circular intersections, or roundabouts. Every 45th intersection in France is a roundabout, whereas the United States lags far behind with one per 1,118 intersections. That’s a real problem because researchers say roundabouts can save lives. According to data by the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent at intersections where... Read more

By John Frye I came into the Christian community as a Junior Higher. Our family began attending a Bible church which was part of small coalition of independent fundamental churches. Not knowing at the time, I was immersed in a rigid, legalistic, dispensationalist version of fundamentalism. Hell was a destiny of fiery pain forever and ever for all who “did not accept Jesus as their Savior.” A vestige of those early roots linger in my soul. This view of hell... Read more

Trump: An Eruption of Secularism Donald Trump has exposed us all. Although it is particularly trying at this moment, I am still trying to identify as an evangelical. So I am very saddened (though far from shocked) that so many evangelicals are rallying around Donald Trump. For years, evangelicalism has become far too comfortable with American imperialism, racism, and fundamentalism, and in Trump the chickens are coming home to roost. I lament it. It sickens me. I will campaign against... Read more