Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 97

And now multigender

How many genders are there?  Jenny Crofton says an infinite number.  And that each person has a unique gender.  (That doesn’t add up to infinity, but let that pass.)  She goes on to describe the phenomenon of “multigender.”  She says that individuals can have change their genders, inhabit more than one gender at the same [Read More...]

Trump’s national security advisor resigns

Michael Flynn, President Trump’s national security advisor, has resigned.  He was caught negotiating with the Russian ambassador over sanctions before taking office.  It is illegal for a private citizen to do so.  Flynn also lied to Vice-President Pence about it. The pressure for him to leave evidently came from Trump himself. From Flynn resigns amid controversy over [Read More...]

Why is Cedar Rapids so Godless?

Iowa defines the American heartland, with its staunch Midwestern values and rural American virtues.  Though its prairie populism sometimes elects Democrats, today its elected officials are most Republican.  The candidate favored by Christian conservatives usually wins the Iowa caucuses. A recent study ranked Iowa as the 19th most religious state in the union.  Except for one mysterious [Read More...]

An obituary for a contemptible life

Obituaries summarize the events of the life of the deceased, a way of honoring the dead by looking back on the life they have lived. They often turn into eulogies, praising the character and good deeds of the person who died.  Lutheran funerals try to keep the focus away from the person’s good works as [Read More...]
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Chicken sacrifices and overturning the travel ban

We now have an answer questions about the appeals court’s legal reasoning in throwing out President Trump’s  seven-nation travel and immigration ban.  The judges did so, in part, by invoking his campaign speeches that he would ban entry to America for all Muslims.  This shows, they said, that the intent of the ban was to discriminate [Read More...]
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The formal and the material principles of theology

The “formal principle” of a particular theology is its source and authority.  The “material principle” of a theology is its central teaching, the characteristic “content” of the theology that shapes its other teachings and practices. In the course of some research for a project I am working on, I learned that this distinction emerged out [Read More...]

Appeals court rejects Trump’s immigration ban

The lower court that blocked President Trump’s ban on immigrants from seven terrorist-plagued countries was upheld by an appeals court.  Next stop, more than likely:  the Supreme Court. I understand that lots of people are pro-immigration and feel compassion for refugees from some of these dangerous countries.  But I’m curious about the legal reasoning.  As I [Read More...]

Why millennials are having less sex

Millennials are having less sex than their peers in previous generations.  But it isn’t, for the most part, because they are embracing Christian sexual morality.  Rather, it is largely because their sexual desires (especially for men) are being slaked by pornography.  And because their main relationships are often online rather than in the flesh. Lutheran [Read More...]

Should tax-exempt churches be allowed to preach politics?

In 1954, President Lyndon Baines Johnson pushed through a law that would revoke the tax-exempt status of churches and other non-profit organizations if they get involved with politics.  President Donald Trump wants to get rid of that law. What do you think?  Granted that an overtly political focus can make a church this-worldly instead of attending [Read More...]

Selling abortions

Abortion is Planned Parenthood’s product.  Like other businesses, Planned Parenthood imposes sales quotas and uses sales techniques to maximize purchase of their product. The abortion provider, which poses as a center for women’s health, gives its clinics specific quotas for the numbers of abortions they must provide or refer.   And employees learn sales pitches to manipulate women [Read More...]