Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 91
March 13, 2017
LCMS judge is censured for following her church
We blogged about (here, here, and here) the case of Judge Ruth Neely, a municipal judge in Pinedale, Wyoming, who mentioned to a reporter that, as a Lutheran Christian, she would not be able to preside at a same-sex wedding. Uproar ensued. Never mind that no gay couples have ever asked her to do their [Read More...]
The social implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
In discussing the debacle at the Oscars, government incompetence, political surprises, and unintended cultural consequences, Jonah Goldberg invokes the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This is the principle in physics that closed systems will increase in entropy (become less ordered) unless energy is introduced to maintain the order. (A lay definition by me, a layman. Feel free [Read More...]
The difference between Mike Pence’s e-mails and Hillary Clinton’s
Vice-President Mike Pence, it turns out, used his private e-mail account for government business when he was governor of Indiana. Democrats are indignant, accusing Republicans of making it into a big scandal when Hillary Clinton did the same thing. But the two cases are not at all the same. Tyler O’Neil gives three reasons why [Read More...]
March 10, 2017
The decline of Christian bookstores
The biggest Christian bookstore chain, Family Christian Stores, is going out of business. Then again, mostly what it carried was Christian knick-knacks. As for books, the top 20 Christian bestsellers last year included, the words of one observer, “three versions of Sarah Young’s controversial Jesus Calling, two kids joke books, two adult coloring books, titles [Read More...]
The checks & balances of Federalism
Obama’s executive orders and side-stepping of Congress provoked opposition from the states, whose attorney generals filed lawsuits against his administration. Now, under President Trump, states with Democratic attorney generals are doing the same thing. Those attorney generals went to the courts to stop President Trump’s first executive order on immigration, and now a group of [Read More...]
Is Russia seeding our shoreline with nuclear weapons?
Former Russian defense ministry spokesman Viktor Baranetz is claiming that “we are quietly ‘seeding’ the U.S. shoreline with nuclear ‘mole’ missiles (they dig themselves in and ‘sleep’ until they are given the command).” The context of his article in Pravda is that Russia is responding to U.S. military buildups and the prospect of even more defense spending [Read More...]
March 9, 2017
A religious revival in music?
Major rappers like Grammy-winner Chance the Rapper and Kendrick Lamar are now rhyming about Jesus. So are groups like indie-rockers Saintseneca and the post-punk Protomartyr. So are singer-songwriters like Sufjan Stevens. Marc Barnes says that “every genre of music is undergoing a religious revival.” But music critics don’t know what to do with it. I am [Read More...]
The return of cursive writing
As we blogged about some years ago, teaching cursive handwriting had all but disappeared from our nation’s schools, a victim of computer typing and the Common Core. But now, cursive handwriting is coming back into the curriculum! Some 14 states now mandate instruction in the penmanship art. And now even the progressive New York City school [Read More...]
Trump pushing conservatives to adopt GOP health care bill
President Trump is taking ownership of the Republican bill to replace Obamacare with an alternative national health care system. He is trying to “quash” conservative resistance to the proposal and has pledged to do what it takes to get the bill passed. But the President is open to changes to the bill, which will surely [Read More...]
March 8, 2017
Converts to “religion of freedom” are boosting church attendance in Europe
The Muslim immigrants converting to Christianity are having a noticeable effect on church growth and church attendance in Europe. (See this, this, and this.) For the last few decades, churches have been almost empty on Sunday mornings. But congregations that have evangelized Muslims are coming back to life. For example, theTrinity Lutheran Church in Berlin, which [Read More...]
