Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 138

Another staff shakeup for Trump and more Russian connections

For the second time since his nomination, Donald Trump has shaken up his campaign staff.  He has brought in Steve Shannon, head of the pro-Trump website Breitbart News to be the CEO of his campaign. This is presumably a rebuke of his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has been trying to get Trump to restrain himself [Read More...]

Mexico’s one gun store

Mexico’s constitution guarantees the right of citizens to own firearms.  But it also allows the government to regulate them.  So there is only one gun store in the whole country, and should you go there, it is still almost impossible to buy a gun. Mexico, of course, is plagued with gun violence on a colossal scale, [Read More...]

A comedy-thriller about the Reformation

You have GOT to read The Relic Master, a novel by Christopher Buckley (son of conservative icon William F. Buckley).  It’s about a dealer in sacred relics (bones of the saints, artifacts from Bible stories, etc.) that, when venerated, were thought to provide time-off from purgatory.  The story takes place in the time of Martin [Read More...]

Outcome-based vs. morality-based voting

A lot of us dislike both of the major party candidates.  Quite a few of us also dislike the minor party and independent candidates.  So we are agonizing over what to do come election day.  Perhaps it would help to think through what factors should enter into the act of voting. The usual approach is [Read More...]

New Zealand’s animal kill-off

New Zealand has almost no native mammals.  Just bats.  So when rats, possums, and stoats were introduced from the outside, lacking any natural enemies, they have wreaked havoc on New Zealand’s natural wildlife.  So the prime minister has announced a plan to eradicate all said predators.  Experts also want to wipe out feral cats, but [Read More...]

Saying God is transgender

The contours of a new liberal theology, one in accord with the new ideology of sex and gender, are starting to come together.  (Liberal theologians have never found a new leftist ideology that they don’t like and won’t refashion theology around.)  A rabbi has written an op-ed in the New York Times maintaining that God is transgender. [Read More...]

Morality as politics

The Pew Research Center has conducted a study finding that 64% of church goers heard political issues being preached from the pulpit.  Those “political issues” included abortion, homosexuality, religious liberty, the environment, and economic inequality. Now those are mostly moral–not political–issues.  Churches have always taught about sexual morality and respect for human life.  They have [Read More...]

Doctors push back against assisted suicide

Vermont has a law allowing for physician-assisted suicide.  State agencies are interpreting the law so as to require doctors to tell their patients about this option.  Also, doctors who don’t want to kill their patients must refer them to another doctor who will. A number of Vermont doctors have decided to fight these requirements and are [Read More...]

ELCA makes new accord with Catholics

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (the theologically liberal Lutheran denomination) has arrived at a new accord with the Roman Catholic Church, focusing on church, ministry, and eucharist. Read the document here. After giving all of the agreements that were found, the document gives the issues of disagreement that remain:  the papacy and women’s ordination [Read More...]

Trump’s ideology test will require belief in gay rights

In a major speech on immigration and fighting ISIS, Donald Trump said that he would set up a system of “extreme vetting” for immigrants who wish to enter the United States.  This would include an ideological test to measure the extent to which the immigrant agrees with American values.  These will include belief in gay [Read More...]