Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 10

What China Is Doing to Religion

It’s one thing for a government to ban religion and to persecute religion.  That’s what the Soviet Union did.  China, though, is pursuing another approach to subjugate religion:  Have the government control the religion, forcing it to conform its teachings and practices according to what the government dictates. China may have found a form of […]

How Long Does It Take to Read the Bible?

My post about the One Hour Bible, an edition of highlights designed to be read in 60 minutes, got me thinking:  How long does it take to read the whole Bible? I stumbled upon these calculations posted on the website of the The Village of Euxton in Lancaster, England, which perhaps gave it a try: […]

Changing Church Teaching on Capital Punishment

Pope Francis has changed the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on capital punishment.  The church has always before upheld the right of the state to execute criminals.  In fact, the church of Rome often practiced capital punishment, with the co-operation of the “secular arm” (for example, John Hus, the victims of the Inquisition’s auto-da-fe, and […]

The Paris Statement on European Culture

Last year a group of European conservative intellectuals (including Roger Scruton) met in Paris in an effort to define European culture and to identify the threats against it.  They drew up a document they called The Paris Statement. Essentially, they said that European culture consists of distinct nations (as opposed to a bureaucratic European Union), […]

The Human Face & the Face of God

Have you noticed in a bookstore how so many book covers today depict a character’s body but cut off the face?  Have you noticed the difference between how people relate to each other online–without seeing each other–as opposed to face-to-face?  And how much easier it is to harm someone when you can’t see his or […]

The World Does Need More Cowboys

The University of Wyoming has put out an advertising initiative with the slogan “The World Needs More Cowboys.”  This has sparked outrage on the grounds that the figure of the cowboy is racist and sexist, an emblem of white privilege and toxic masculinity. This, even though the university ads will show pictures accompanying the slogan […]

Is Religious Liberty for Religions or Individuals?

One of the participants in the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom  was Callista Gingrich (wife of Newt), who is now the United States Ambassador to the Vatican. She argues that promoting the right to religious freedom also promotes the rights of women.  In the course of her discussion, she makes a distinction that I hadn’t […]

What about “Sheep-Stealing”?

Our recent post about proselytizing has gotten me thinking about “sheep-stealing.”  One kind of proselytizing is really evangelism, proclaiming the Gospel to a non-believer, with the purpose of changing the person from whatever religion he or she has or does not have into a Christian.  Another kind of proselytizing is trying to persuade a Christian […]

The Potomac Declaration on Religious Freedom

The Trump administration on July 24-26 convened a major diplomatic symposium on religious freedom.  Eighty nations (including some with bad religious freedom records) were represented at the “Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom.”  Read this account of the meeting and what transpired.  The participating nations agreed to a document entitled The Potomac Declaration. This agreement may […]

In Defense of Proselytizing

Fellow Patheos blogger Mark Driscoll has written a long and thoughtful post on the teaching that there is no salvation apart from Christ.  This takes him into the related subjects of evangelism and “proselytizing.”  We feel uneasy about trying to persuade someone to change religions and worry about causing offense.  But, he says, we don’t […]