WSJ Now come climate scientists’ implausible explanations for why the ‘hiatus’ has passed (more…) Read more

[Friends, this is from my friend in Jerusalem.  He goes to Ukraine frequently and has many contacts there.] Some background facts from Ukraine: Militants from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) terrorist organizations continue to steal, kill, and threaten priests/pastors and Christians in the separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine. Also, pro-Russian militants continue to seize church buildings and rehabilitation centers to serve as their headquarters, ammunition depots, and firing points from which they continually attack... Read more

Dan Ritchie Today’s global citizenship movement emphasizes human rights disconnected from the history of any particular nation and without a clear conception of (more…) Read more

Gerald McDermott How could Jesus, whom Bonhoeffer and others have said prayed the psalms as his own prayers, have prayed this prayer of imprecation in Psalm 69? ISIS provides a clue. Its savagery helps us understand how God’s people could pray for the (more…) Read more

Michail Gorbachev once stated that, without Pope John Paul II, communism wouldn’t have collapsed at the end of the eighties. This is not merely because of John Paul II’s secret diplomacy—think about his meetings with Thatcher, Reagan, and many other world leaders—but because of the hope he implanted in the hearts of the hopeless. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/09/13222/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=2f9b02442a-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-2f9b02442a-84107317 Read more

It is easy for Evangelical Left leaders like Lynne Hybels, co-founder of Chicago’s Willow Creek Church, to react to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as armchair quarterbacks. From a comfy, safe distance they tout a “Pro-Israel. Pro-Palestine. Pro-Peace.” offense. http://juicyecumenism.com/2014/08/23/jerusalem-mayor-debunks-lynne-hybels-pro-israel-pro-palestine-stance/?utm_source=flocknote&utm_medium=email&utm_term=9&utm_content=jerusalem-mayor-debunks-lynne-hybels-pro-israel-pro-palestine-stance&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Wrap%20Up%208-29-14 Read more

Peter Leithart In his book on Dogma and Preaching, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger reflected on the value of Christian festivity: “A Christian feast . . . means that the human person leaves the world of calculation and determinisms in which everyday life snares him, and that he focuses his being on the primal source of his existence. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2014/08/feasts Read more

Sure, you’ve crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s, but you haven’t yet learned to “check your privilege.” That’s what orientation is for. Perhaps you’re only now learning that white is a synonym for racist. Brace yourselves for lectures all week on how to spot diversity and workshops about how to ensure your room is a safe space. http://online.wsj.com/articles/bari-weiss-how-to-surviveand-maybe-enjoypc-university-1409095585 Read more

Is opposition to same-sex marriage at all like opposition to interracial marriage? http://dailysignal.com/2014/08/27/7-reasons-current-marriage-debate-nothing-like-debate-interracial-marriage/ Read more

Malcolm Lowe Marginalia In the Gospel of John the interactions of Jesus with Ioudaioi occur almost exclusively in Jerusalem and its surroundings (for the exceptions, see my 1976 article). Consequently, the writer sees confrontations between Jesus and the inhabitants of a specific area, Judeans in the narrower sense. To translate Ioudaioi as “Jews,” as if the writer opposes Jesus to all of Israel, is therefore not merely false but pernicious, as a constant excuse for anti-semitism. (more…) Read more