Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 229

The Pope’s coming accord with evangelicals

Pope Francis believes that the Reformation is over, that the breach with Luther and later Protestants has been healed.  This is thanks to the Joint Declaration on Justification worked out between the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation.  (Conservative, confessional Lutherans reject that document.)  Moreover, Pope Francis has deep ties to Latin American [Read More...]

The new moralism of the Supreme Court

Stanley Fish is a postmodernist scholar of the highest rank, but his conclusions are not always what his fellow academics expect.  A professor both of literature and of law, Fish explains how, in previous rulings about homosexuality, the Supreme Court arrived at the principle that just because something is immoral, that doesn’t mean it should [Read More...]

Help me live blog the Republican debate

Let’s live blog the Republican presidential primary debate tonight, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET.  Tune in, with your laptop ready.  Come to this post and set the comments to “sort by oldest,” so that we can have a running commentary.  I’ll be commenting on the unfolding spectacle, and you comment too.  Your remarks can be [Read More...]

. . .and the second tier debate

I’d also like us to live blog the 5:00 p.m. debate featuring the seven candidates that didn’t make the top ten.  But I doubt that I will be back from work on time, and the same will be true for most viewers.  This adds injury to insult. The Fox network scheme of breaking the debates [Read More...]

IRS won’t revoke tax-exempt status over gay marriage

When the Supreme Court was hearing arguments about gay marriage, the solicitor general made some ominous comments about religious schools that don’t believe in gay marriage possibly losing their tax exemption, just as Bob Jones University did for not accepting inter-racial marriage.  (That policy has since changed.) But the IRS commissioner told a Senate committee [Read More...]

Who made the GOP debate roster

Fox News, which is conducting the first Republican presidential primary debate, has crunched the poll numbers to arrive at the top 10 candidates.  These will debate each other on Thursday night, 9:00 p.m. ET. The remaining seven second-tier candidates will debate each other at 5:00 p.m. ET. See the lists after the jump. From Fox [Read More...]

Planned Parenthood video #5: “intact” fetuses for “revenue stream”

As the pro-abortionists try to distract the public by saying how terrible their critics are, the fifth Planned Parenthood video was released by the Center for Medical Progress.  This one shows another official discussing how to secure “intact fetal cadavers” so as to increase “diversification of the revenue stream” and “make it part of the [Read More...]

Christian leaders are favoring Rubio

World Magazine has surveyed evangelical leaders and insiders on the presidential candidate they are supporting.  The big winner:  Marco Rubio.  Not the overtly evangelical Mike Huckabee.  Not Rand Paul.  And certainly not Donald Trump. From J. C. Derrick, WORLD | Who do evangelical insiders favor in 2016? | J.C. Derrick | July 30, 2015: Good [Read More...]

Senate fails to defund Planned Parenthood

Democrats played the filibuster card to stop a Senate bill to defund Planned Parenthood, with Republicans being unable to come up with the 60 votes to stop debate.  The vote was 53-46.   Contrary to what pro-abortion apologists were arguing, the bill would not lead to more abortions by keeping women from getting contraceptives.  The money [Read More...]

If not an introvert nor an extrovert, maybe you’re an ambivert

In addition to introverts and extroverts, psychologists are studying another personality type:  the ambivert. From Elizabeth Bernstein, Not an Introvert, Not an Extrovert? You May Be An Ambivert – WSJ: The personality traits of extroversion and introversion fall on a spectrum, and most of experts’ focus has been on the two ends. Now, social psychologists, [Read More...]