Litfin is so eager to minimize the legitimacy of LGBT people's claims to legal and civil equality that he starts from an "activist judges" narrative that fails to grasp even a Schoolhouse Rock-level understanding of how government works. In Litfin's telling, the "judicial branch" just suddenly decided one day to start legislating from the bench -- "pressing hard" to create new "controversial" rights for LGBT people. That's not how courts work. Read more
Christianity Today was co-founded by L. Nelson Bell -- Billy Graham's father-in-law and also the founder of The Southern Presbyterian Journal, a pro-segregationist magazine explicitly dedicated to what Bell (a Wheaton graduate) called "racial integrity." Bell's argument in opposition to the Civil Rights movement was irreducibly and emphatically "moral and religious." He categorically denied that "bare-knuckled racial discrimination" or animus had anything to do with his position. It was, he insisted, a matter of faithfulness to God and of defending the authority of the Bible. Read more
This is Rayford's first trip back to O'Hare since he fled it six days ago, threading his way across the tarmac through scattered charred bodies and the wreckage of multiple airliner crashes. It must have been a very busy week at the airport, as everything there has apparently been cleaned up and restored. Rayford is too distracted even to notice this Herculean achievement of post-disaster logistics. He's too busy trying to figure out how to talk to Chloe about her status as a sinner in need of salvation, and he's not sure how to do that. Read more
The usurpation by Big Gubmint that Reagan imagined everywhere is always possible, and sometimes happens. But far, far, far more common is the situation Chief Brown describes: government forced to take on ever-greater responsibility due to the irresponsibility of other actors in our network of mutuality. Government is far too burdened with the responsibilities abdicated by all those other actors to have much time or resources left over for the nefarious usurpation of even more responsibility. Read more
When people with guns are summoned in an emergency, they sometimes respond as people with guns -- whether or not guns are capable of addressing the emergency in question. This makes things worse. This is particularly -- and often tragically -- the case when police are called on to be the "first responders" in an emergency involving someone suffering from mental illness, emotional distress, or psychosis. Read more
When there's a bear trapped in a Subaru, it's probably prudent for the deputy to bring along a shotgun. But most of the time in their role as "first responders" to emergencies unrelated to law enforcement, the guns that police officers carry are neither necessary nor helpful. The presence of those guns -- the introduction of those guns -- increases the danger present, rather than reducing or helping to resolve it safely. Read more
Donald Trump's history as a predatory scam artist is just one of many reasons he's viewed by many as a "threat to American democracy." The possibility of a Trump presidency is thus prompting unprecedented warnings from those who haven't previously addressed specific candidates -- from Historians Against Trump to the Notorious RBG. Also: Blowing up the world as a response to boredom; a Philistine cemetery; and Michael Collins looks up at the moon. Read more
Psalm 104 is a beautiful, moving, heartfelt hymn of praise -- just so long as it isn't the product of "plenary verbal inspiration." If we read that Psalm assuming that every particular word of it was chosen and determined by God -- by the very same God who is the apparent subject of all that praise and adoration -- then it just becomes something weird and kind of creepy. Read more
The title-instead-of-a-raise ploy works best with a certain kind of emotionally needy, thin-skinned employee. These are the kind of people who, once given a title like "senior writer," will insist that others use it and will correct anyone who fails to do so. ("So you're a writer for ..." "Senior writer. Senior writer!") L&J's obsession with Buck's ceremonial title reminds me of such people. L&J remind me of such people. Read more
Events like this inevitably cause some folks to cling more tightly to the sword, reciting again that passage from Romans 13 and insisting that this is why the authority of the sword was instituted by God and not wielded in vain. For me, events like this send me back to the verse that prefaces that passage, reminding me that it is not only wise, but necessary: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Read more
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