Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 24

Is Being “Spiritual” as Beneficial as Being “Religious”?

An increasing number of Americans say that they are “spiritual but not religious.”  That is, they don’t participate in any organized religion, but they do have their own individual, personal “spirituality.”  Is that private, interior spiritual sensibility the same, for all practical purposes, as a religion?  Can the increasingly-recognized benefits of religion be found also […]

Ending Unemployment with $15 Per Hour Government Jobs

Unemployment would be completely ended with a program that would give every America who wanted a job employment with the federal government, which would pay $15 per hour, plus health care benefits. That is the proposal of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt).  Two other potential Democratic presidential nominees, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand […]

Google Bans Concordia Publishing House Ads for Mentioning “Jesus” and the “Bible”

Google has banned remarketing ads from Concordia Publishing House, the publishing company of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, because they mention “Jesus” and the “Bible.” Carl Vehse brought this up in a comment, I saw CPH president Bruce Kintz’s tweet, and I read the Federalist article, but I had trouble believing it.  Surely, this was […]

Is Liberal Democracy Diminishing or Intruding Where It Doesn’t Belong?

What’s happening to American freedom and democracy?  Is it in danger?  Is it thriving?  Or is it going to extremes? National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg, a prominent conservative Never-Trumper,  has written a book entitled Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy. He argues that America’s […]

Pastors’ Housing Allowance Exemption Update

As we have blogged, the housing allowance tax exemption for ministers of religion has been ruled unconstitutional in a Wisconsin lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.  Last week, an appeal of that decision was filed with Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The exemption allows ministers of religion–which includes called teachers on the roster […]

Do Academic Freedom and Tenure Apply to Conservative Professors?

Professor John McAdams was a tenured political science professor at Marquette University, a Jesuit institution in Milwaukee.  He is also a conservative with an outspoken blog entitled the Marquette Warrior (after the university’s former team name that was changed to Golden Eagles out of sensitivity to Native American warriors).  Marquette fired Prof. McAdams.  He has […]

California to Ban Books? Or Just Christian Speech?

The California State Assembly has passed a bill that would outlaw “the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer” that “includes efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.” Assembly Bill 2943 now needs the approval of […]

Free Health Care, Free College, Legal Pot, & Reparations for Slavery

A high-level meeting of big donors, Democratic party officials, and politicians came up with three major policy initiatives  for the party to pursue:   free universal healthcare, free college tuition, and reparations to atone for slavery.  Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer introduced legislation to remove marijuana from the list of restricted drugs under federal law, a major […]

An Ancient Description of the Early Christians

An article at Aleteia entitled This is How Christians Lived in the 2nd Century by Philip Kosloski put me on to a remarkable document that attempts to explain Christians to citizens of the Roman empire–those strange people who don’t expose their infants but let all of their babies live; who reject sex outside of marriage; […]

Millennials Don’t Know About Extermination Camps

In 1961, the Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was put on trial for his role in orchestrating the mass extermination of Europe’s Jews.  Television, such as it was then, covered the trial closely, and accompanied it with some moving documentaries on what happened in concentration camps such as Auschwitz.  My parents let me watch them.  I was […]