Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 327
June 4, 2014
School lunch wars
The children’s crusade against big government that we’ve blogged about earlier is intensifying, as kids are rebelling against the healthier lunch room fare–ignoring fruits & vegetables, protesting whole wheat facsimiles of culturally significant foods like biscuits and tortillas, and filling the garbage bins with other nutritious food that they just don’t like–required by federal guidelines [Read More...]
Weird politics
A Congressional primary candidate in Arizona has changed his party from Republican to Democrat and legally changed his name from Scott Fistler to Cesar Chavez to improve his chances in the heavily-Hispanic district. From Mystery candidate Cesar Chavez defends campaign: Cesar Chavez, the Phoenix congressional candidate who adopted a Hispanic name for political advantage, defended [Read More...]
June 3, 2014
Pastoral care for the transgendered?
The latest Time Magazine cover story announces that “another social movement is poised to challenge deeply held cultural beliefs”; namely, that of the transgendered (men who feel they are women, and women who feel like men, often undergoing surgery accordingly). A few years ago, seminary professor and now head of the Baptist Ethics & Religious [Read More...]
Obama enacts carbon restrictions despite Congress
Congress has refused to pass legislation restricting carbon emissions, so President Obama is doing it on his own. He has decreed what is being called a “war on coal”: The Obama administration took aim at the coal industry on Monday by mandating a 30 percent cut in carbon emissions at fossil fuel-burning power plants by [Read More...]
Imagination and the arts
More from my interview with Mathew Block, who asks about the connection between the imagination and the fine arts. CL: How do the fine arts—music, literature, the visual arts, and so forth—reflect the imaginative life in a special way? The imagination is the source of the arts. It’s what allows us to be creative. We [Read More...]
June 2, 2014
Moralism of the right & moralism of the left
United Methodists are considering whether or not to have an amicable split, so as to accommodate both sides of the moral debates that the denomination is struggling with. As I know from personal and family experience, Methodists have always had a strong emphasis on morality. It certainly has an evangelistic strain, with its roots in [Read More...]
The imagination as the forgotten power of the mind
When we think of the mind, we tend to think of the intellect, our ability to reason and understand. But the mind has many other facets: We experience our emotions in our minds. Another mental faculty is the will. There has been quite a lot of theological reflection on those three, but not so much [Read More...]
Prisoner exchange and the law
The Obama administration negotiated the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive in Afghanistan for nearly five years, in exchange for five senior Taliban leaders being held in Guantanamo. He was reportedly the last POW being held. The problem is, the law requires the administration to consult with Congress when releasing [Read More...]
Sudan denies the release of condemned Christian
This weekend there were reports that Sudan would release the woman who was condemned to be hanged because she would not repudiate her Christianity. But now Sudan is denying those reports, saying that only a court ruling could release her. The woman, Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, whose husband is an American, had her baby in prison, [Read More...]
May 30, 2014
The essence of Protestantism?
Dale M. Coulter discusses H. Richard Niebuhr’s The Kingdom of God in America and the issue he raised of “constructive Protestantism.” For Niebuhr, the essence of Protestantism is the unmediated relationship between the individual and God’s Word. The issue then becomes how Protestantism can create or even support institutions. Read the discussion. What do you [Read More...]
