Health Care Plan Struck Down

Last updated on: January 31, 2011 at 5:01 pm By Scot McKnight

From CNN.com: [A federal judge in Florida, named] Vinson dismissed the key provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act– the so-called “individual mandate” requiring most Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or face stiff penalties. “I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate. That is not to say, of course, that Congress is without power to address the problems and inequities in our health care... Read more

Lenten Reading

Last updated on: January 26, 2011 at 7:07 am By Scot McKnight

What will you read this year for Lent? Many Christians don’t even bother with Lent, thinking that time of year is for high churches and the liturgicals. Some churches don’t bother with Lent because they’d rather not interrupt the series they already have planned. But Lent has been a part of the Church life from the 2d Century on, and it’s a discipline and a season worthy of the entire Church. What is Lent? Essentially it is a time of... Read more

Seeking God in Haiti

Last updated on: January 29, 2011 at 7:02 am By Scot McKnight

Kent Annan’s new book on Haiti, After Shock: Searching for Honest Faith When Your World Is Shaken, records his deeply personal search for God — for the reality of the Christian God — in the rubble of Haiti. Kent has been connected deeply in Haiti for nearly a decade, had returned to the USA not longer before the earthquake, and six days after the earthquake was back in Haiti. He’s since carried on an active ministry in Haiti. What are... Read more

American Political Mythbuster

Last updated on: January 31, 2011 at 6:35 am By Scot McKnight

David Sehat set out to “bust” apart some myths about the American political process in this new well-written and finger-pointing book: The Myth of American Religious Freedom. He goes after three myths that are both historically inaccurate and yet — because asserted so often and so well — are influencing American culture and the political process. Here’s a major claim of Sehat’s: We will never understand the source, the development , or the stakes of the debate about religion in... Read more

Melting Snow (cheaply)

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 5:42 pm By Scot McKnight

Did you see this? If there ever was a sign that we’ve had more than enough snow this winter, here it is. Bergen County, New Jersey administrators found themselves in quite a pickle this winter. With their plowing budget quickly running dry, they’ve come up with a juicy solution. Bergen County is just across the Hudson from New York – and despite being among the wealthiest counties in the nation, this winter has busted their budget for snow removal. Road... Read more

Obama’s Options

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 5:23 pm By Scot McKnight

Kai Bird, at Slate, on Obama shadowing Carter’s decisions about Iran: President Barack Obama has a “Shah problem” in Egypt. Recent events in Egypt recall the street protests of 1978 in Tehran when President Jimmy Carter had to decide whether to remain loyal to the Pahlavi regime, a long-standing American-backed dictatorship—or whether the time had come to abandon the Shah and support a popular uprising demanding human rights and democracy. Carter tried to have it both ways, modulating his support... Read more

Egypt’s Options

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 1:57 pm By Scot McKnight

From WaPo, by Elliott Abrams, a former aide to President Bush: In 2003, George Bush asked: “Are the peoples of the Middle East somehow beyond the reach of liberty? Are millions of men and women and children condemned by history or culture to live in despotism? Are they alone never to know freedom and never even to have a choice in the matter?” It continues: Of course, neither [Mubarak] nor we can know for sure what Egyptians really think; last fall’s... Read more

What’s Natural?

Last updated on: January 30, 2011 at 9:48 am By Scot McKnight

By April Diaz … When we signed up to adopt to kids back in July 2009 we knew it would be hard. Most every parent we’ve talked to since then has knowingly chuckled, sighed, or pitied us when we told them we were adopting 2 little ones at the same time. We’re grateful for those informed parent responses because never once did we think this was going to be simple. They were right! On maybe our second or third day... Read more

Prayer for the Week: 4th Sunday after Epiphany

Last updated on: January 9, 2011 at 7:36 am By Scot McKnight

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

The Middle East in the Hands of Egypt

Last updated on: January 29, 2011 at 1:33 pm By Scot McKnight

From NYTimes: “After so many years of political stagnation, we were left with choices between the bad and the worse,” said Fadel Shallak, a Lebanese writer and a former government minister. “Now there’s something happening in the Arab world. A collective voice is being heard again.” The unrest is indeed grassroots but it is not the sort of movement that wants to mimic Western democracies, but wants out of the tyrannies they are now experiencing. These shifts could change the... Read more

Who saw a vision of a ladder reaching heaven?