The Mormons might show a way. They are zigzagging in a way that might be a line to follow.  It might be what Rod Dreher has called the Benedict Option.  Saint Benedict protested surrounding culture by starting monasteries in which could be lived the fullness of the Christian life, but only within.  Not outside. This is the argument of Tom Stringham at First Things.  Read here for more. Read more

Friends, this is a must-read. Jean Lloyd was a confused young woman twenty years ago wondering what she, a Christian, should do with her attraction to other women. In this open letter she urges pastors to keep the following in mind: 1) Recognize that you are under spiritual attack. 2) Do not enter into dialogue about things clearly revealed in both natural law and the Scriptures as if everything is revisable. Doing so opens the door to deception. 3) Remember... Read more

It’s worse than we thought.  By that I mean the thinking of average Palestinians. Most of us have thought and hoped that average Palestinians just want to live in peace with their neighbors the Jews.  That it is only their leaders who want continued war, and eventually to drive the Jews into the Sea. Or that only a minority of Palestinians think killing innocent Jews is a good thing. Think again.   (more…) Read more

The brave Palestinian journalist Bassam Tawil reports on the lies that Muslim sheikhs and the PA leader Abbas are spreading. The first lie is that Israel is threatening the safety  of the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa mosque there. The second lie is that Jesus was a Palestinian. Tawil, who is a Muslim, argues that even the Qur’an prophesies the return of Jews to Israel and says the Jews are Allah’s Chosen People! Read this astonishing article here. Read more

Now there is extraordinary evidence that even if climate change is a serious problem–and that is a big if–the problem has been solved. How?  By natural gas. Coal has been the major producer of atmospheric carbon, which is thought to be a bad thing causing climate change.  But now that fracking has unearthed enormous supplies of natural gas all over the world, and (cover your ears) capitalism has shown ways to harness that natural gas for real-time energy, the world... Read more

Both Solzhenitsyn and Kierkegaard said that courage is the rarest commodity in these modern times. Chen Guangcheng is a man of immense courage.  Blinded as a boy because his parents could not afford the 31 cents needed for medicine, he has fought for human rights as a lawyer in China. His reward?  Torture, imprisonment, threats, and more torture.  Then a welcome from the Obama administration when he fled for sanctuary, only to be followed by betrayal when America cravenly caved to... Read more

Robert Gagnon is the most learned scholar around on homosexuality and the Bible. Now he weighs in on how we should deal with parishioners who seek Jesus but wrestle with feelings that they are transgender. Some orthodox psychologists, such as Mark Yarhouse, are recommending that we treat them as they want to be treated.  So if a man wants to be thought of as a woman, we should use his new female name, etc.  We should focus only on his... Read more

Rachel Danziger Sharansky is the daughter of Nathan Scharansky, the legendary human rights activist in Israel  and former political prisoner in the Soviet Union. Ms Danziger is a scholar with deep knowledge of the Christian tradition, and is a deeply thoughtful and spiritual soul.  I have had the privilege of corresponding with her a bit. She has lived in Jerusalem all of her life, is married, and has children.  She writes with poignancy of the soul-searching that this new unprovoked violence... Read more

We need to pray for our friends in Israel today. Vicious, ungodly terrorism stalks the streets.  Many Jewish Israeli citizens have been stabbed while going about their daily lives.  Some have died from their wounds.  Jews walk in fear, looking nervously behind them. Here is Ruthie Blum, an Israel-based journalist: “Since early September, Israelis have been living in a kind of limbo: watching their backs while walking down the street; driving with trepidation; hesitant to ride the buses; afraid to... Read more

The biggest news about the just-concluded Synod on the family in Rome is that there is new wiggle-room for divorced Catholics. The language is ambiguous in the final statement, but nonetheless opens the door for a priest to permit a divorced person to receive Holy Communion after careful discernment and (perhaps) penance. But at the heart of the debate is a false assumption–that Jesus banned all divorce. (more…) Read more