Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 130
September 26, 2016
Liveblog the debate right here
Use the comments at this post to react to this first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I will be doing so, assuming my plane gets in on time. UPDATE: I made it, with 7 minutes to spare! I don’t like either candidate, so I can be objective. Or maybe biased against both [Read More...]
Teaching predestination at Berkeley
The New York Times has a fascinating article by Berkeley history professor Jonathan Sheehan about how he teaches John Calvin in his secular classroom. Specifically, he uses the scary stuff in Calvin–particularly, double predestination–to blow the minds of his students and to teach them their limits. Read the article and a response to what he [Read More...]
Tonight’s great debate
Tonight at 9:00 ET, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will debate each other. The event will be televised on all major networks. Right now, the race is pretty much even. This will be the first time voters will get to see both of the candidates side by side and assess how they measure up. For [Read More...]
Suspect in mall shootings arrested
On Friday, someone shot up a Macy’s make-up counter in Burlington, Washington, killing four women–aged 16 to 95–and a man. A suspect has been arrested: 20-year-old Arcan Cetin, a Muslim from Turkey. He has a record of assaulting his step-father, drunk driving, and selling drugs. Police say they don’t yet know a motive, but they [Read More...]
September 23, 2016
Garrison Keillor and the test of a good religion
Garrison Keillor has stepped away from Prairie Home Companion. Ethan McCarthy discusses his depiction of the Midwest and its values, which Keillor loves, though he often finds them annoying. But you’ve got to read what McCarthy says about Keillor’s depiction of the church and Christianity (excerpted and linked after the jump), which, I suspect, many [Read More...]
All Americans are Whigs
Lutheran political scientist James R. Rogers explains things like gay marriage and transgender bathrooms–and the speed with which they became popular in the American mind–by pointing out that all Americans are basically Whigs. That is, they believe that history is about unfolding progress and the progressive emancipation of human beings. Both American liberals and conservatives, [Read More...]
September 22, 2016
Charlotte riots
Charlotte, where police shot a black man on Tuesday, went through a second night of riots, arson, looting, and violence. From Charlotte police protest: One shot in second night of protests | News & Observer: Protests turned violent for a second night in Charlotte after Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of a black man. Late Wednesday, [Read More...]
Sexual progress
I blogged about the book by my former student Matthew Rueger, Sexual Morality in a Christless World. In it, he shows the sexual ethos of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which was dehumanizing, exploitive, and oppressive. (He writes, for example, about the sexual use of male and female slaves.) The advent of Christianity brought with it [Read More...]
The invention of grape juice to avoid communion wine
Grape juice didn’t exist, as a product, until 1869. It was invented by a Methodist minister named Thomas Bramwell Welch who sought a non-alcoholic alternative to communion wine. This is where we get Welch’s grape juice to this day. Christianity Today tells how this happened, excerpted and linked after the jump. From Luke T. Harrington, [Read More...]
September 21, 2016
Finnish Lutherans say “no” to gay weddings
The state church of Finland will not perform same-sex weddings, even though gay marriage will be legalized beginning next year. The bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland say that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that will not change. They say that gay couples will, however, be welcome to participate [Read More...]
