Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 325
June 11, 2014
Vocation Bible School
Paul McCain tells me that the 2015 Vacation Bible School curriculum from Concordia Publishing House for 2015 will be about Vocation! The theme will be “Jesus is at work through us.” That’s an excellent succinct description of vocation, focusing not so much on our work but on Christ’s work through us. The fun-and-games part is [Read More...]
House Majority Leader beaten by Tea Party challenger
Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, lost his Virginia district’s Republican primary. He was defeated by David Brat, a conservative college professor with hardly any money, who was supported by Tea Party activists. For other national primary results, go here. From Eric Cantor succumbs to tea party challenger – The Washington Post: In a stunning [Read More...]
June 10, 2014
An example of imaginative apologetics
Mathew Block asks me to give an example of imaginative apologetics. So I talk about how this is what C. S. Lewis is doing, in addition to his rational apologetics. CL: Can you give us a practical example of how imaginative apologetics has been done before? C.S. Lewis is a great example. He’s mainly known [Read More...]
The father of modern journalism: Martin Luther
World Magazine editor Marvin Olasky writes about how an independent press has its roots in the Reformation. Modern journalism began, he says, with an unusually skillful writer named Martin Luther. From WORLD | The Reformation roots of an independent press | Marvin Olasky | June 7, 2014. Read it all, but here are some excerpts: [Read More...]
Unaccompanied minors pouring into USA
The Obama administration has a policy that children of illegal immigrants can defer deportation. Though the policy applies only to those who have been here before 2007, the word on the streets in Latin America is evidently that the USA won’t deport children. So now unaccompanied minors are pouring into the country by the tens [Read More...]
The anti-conservative vendetta in Wisconsin
To retaliate against conservative organizations that thwarted efforts to recall Gov. Scott Walker for his anti-union policies, Democratic prosecutors launched a series of legal investigations against them, complete with police-state-style pre-dawn raids. A federal judge has ruled against these actions, and now those targeted are suing. Details of what happened after the break. From [Read More...]
June 9, 2014
Is the free market incompatible with Catholicism?
The pope’s right-hand man has essentially declared that free market economics is incompatible with Catholicism. Speaking at a conference entitled “Erroneous Autonomy: The Catholic Case against Libertarianism,” Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, drawing on statements from Pope Francis, said that the free market economy “kills” and oppresses the poor. His condemnation seemed to conflate Ayn Rand-style libertarianism [Read More...]
How Bill Gates gave us the Common Core
The left usually complains about the influence of big corporations in government and public policy, but the most dramatic example of that is out in the open and garnering little but praise. That would be Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates, who is directly responsible for the implementation nation-wide of the controversial school reform program called the [Read More...]
Imaginative Apologetics
From my interview with Mathew Block, in which we discuss “imaginative apologetics.” CL: This ties in to what you and others call ‘imaginative apologetics.’ How does awakening the imagination open people up to the Gospel? One function of art, it has been said, is to defamiliarize experience. We can become so familiar with things that [Read More...]
June 7, 2014
Pentecost as holiday of Law and Gospel
For the Jews in Jesus’ time and today, Pentecost was a celebration of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, which was thought to have happened 50 days after Passover. So for centuries, it was a holiday that celebrated the Law. But then, on the same day, God gave His people the Holy Spirit, [Read More...]
