Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 312
August 6, 2014
Exploited surrogate mother asks, “are you humans?”
An Australian couple hired a poverty-stricken woman in Thailand to be the surrogate mother of twins. They took the healthy child but the other one had Downs Syndrome so they left him with the mother. From Thai surrogate mom not upset with Australia couple – The Washington Post: A Thai surrogate mother said Sunday that [Read More...]




Published on August 06, 2014 02:45
A true comic book movie
After lamenting the state of summer movies, we finally saw one that was just right for the season: The Guardians of the Galaxy. And finally, a comic book movie that has the feel of a comic book. It is exuberant science fiction fantasy with Marvel’s trademark witty dialogue and off-the-wall but highly individualized and engaging [Read More...]




Published on August 06, 2014 02:30
August 5, 2014
Half of marriages aren’t valid?
Roman Catholics don’t believe in divorce. But they do allow for annulments. These involve ecclesiastical tribunals that rule that a valid marriage never existed in the first place. If it was determined that a couple was too young and didn’t know what they were doing or that they didn’t understand the Catholic theology of marriage, [Read More...]




Published on August 05, 2014 03:00
Fact-checking sermons
An urban legend is one of those fascinating and sometimes inspiring anecdotes that are presented as true, except they aren’t. One of the ways they are often spread is by sermons. Christian Journalist Bob Smietana had to promise his daughter to stop fact-checking the sermon on his cell-phone during church, but he wrote an amusing [Read More...]




Published on August 05, 2014 02:45
Big corporations & big government
Progressives are outraged at the power over the government wielded by big corporations. But, in a comment made in a column on a different subject, George Will observes that the big corporations wouldn’t have the power they do if it weren’t for the existence of big government, a creation primarily of progressives. From George Will, [Read More...]




Published on August 05, 2014 02:40
August 4, 2014
Nonliturgical liturgy
All Christians, including “non-liturgical” Christians, worship with a liturgy, in the sense of a predictable order of worship that reflects their theology. The key question is what the liturgy is and what it means. A new book is out on this subject by Yale worship scholar Melanie Ross, Evangelical versus Liturgical?: Defying a Dichotomy. From [Read More...]




Published on August 04, 2014 03:00
Stupid person tricks
One of the latest YouTube “challenges” is to rub alcohol on yourself, set yourself on fire, and then put yourself out before you get burnt up. All the while filming yourself so that you can post it on video. Needless to say, this is resulting in serious injuries across the country, including at least one [Read More...]




Published on August 04, 2014 02:45
The Ebola plague comes to America
An outbreak of ebola, the horrific viral disease, has killed over 700 people in Africa. It infected two American medical missionaries. They had only one dose of a medicine that might help, whereupon the sick doctor self-sacrificially insisted that the other patient receive it. Now the two have been flown to Atlanta for treatment, bringing [Read More...]




Published on August 04, 2014 02:30
August 1, 2014
Lutherans in exile
Carl Trueman argues that Christianity is going into a kind of cultural exile, and he tries to make the case that the church tradition best equipped to endure what awaits us is Reformed theology. Rod Dreher counters by making the case for why his own Eastern Orthodoxy is best equipped to carry Christianity through the [Read More...]




Published on August 01, 2014 03:00
Todd exposes the war photo from space
The internet, newspapers, and television news have been showing this photograph of Israel and Gaza from outer space, purporting to show the explosions from the war in that region: You know tODD, a super-commenter on this blog who specializes in throwing cold water on over-hyped and misinterpreted claims (including those I make in some of [Read More...]




Published on August 01, 2014 02:43