Month: May 2013

Shlaes’s Coolidge

  

Amity Shlaes is a very good writer. She’s also a top-notch researcher. Her niche is showing how the 1920s and 1930s are not what many people think they were. Tackling academic political correctness is not for the fainthearted, so she apparently has a rather stout heart. I first became acquainted with her writing in the book The Forgotten Man, which lanced effectively the liberal-progressive theme that FDR was the nation’s savior during the Great Depression. Now she has struck again…. Read more »

Up from Slavery: The Character of Booker T. Washington

  

I’ve been reading the autobiography of Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery. The story of his childhood in slavery, the privations he suffered both under slavery and in the years after its abolition, would have made many men bitter. Washington, though, never lost the vision planted in him by God that someday he would be able to rise above it. He learned, along the way, that one’s goal was not to be selfishly motivated but to become the best for… Read more »

Exposing Abortion

  

It’s always difficult getting the mainstream media’s attention on a real life and death issue like abortion. As I’ve noted numerous times, they aren’t interested because the majority are in favor of abortion on demand. Even the horrific practices of Kermit Gosnell were ignored until the roar of the alternative media finally was heeded. The remnant who still believe in the sanctity of innocent human life made their voice heard. Gosnell was justly declared guilty, but a plea deal allowed… Read more »

Memorial Day 2013

  

As I reflect on Memorial Day, I try to make it as personal as I can. That’s not easy because I never served in the military. My dad was in the newly formed Army Air Force after WWII, so he didn’t see combat. His brother—my uncle—was in the service during the Korean War, but I don’t recall any particular information about that; I don’t think he actually went to Korea. If he had seen combat, I assume I would have… Read more »

Finney on the Holy Spirit

  

I’ve heard people criticize Charles Finney as someone who believed man’s efforts are all that are necessary to further the Gospel. Yet what does he say in his autobiography? Here he makes it clear what his foundational beliefs are in this respect: When Christ commissioned his apostles to go and preach, he told them to abide in Jerusalem till they were endued with power from on high. This power, as every one knows, was the baptism of the Holy Spirit… Read more »

C. S. Lewis on Eternal Life

  

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis targets those who think their religious beliefs don’t have to be specific. I like his colorful way of expressing his dissent: A vague religion—all about feeling God in nature, and so on—is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work; like watching the waves from the beach. But you will not get to Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in… Read more »

Educational Trends: Not Good

  

Let’s take today to acknowledge the end of the academic year. Mine actually ended a few weeks ago; those in elementary and secondary schools still have some time left. Overall, though, how would one evaluate the state of American education? I know someone in my position is not supposed to say this, but let’s be honest: we’re in trouble. Our society is doing its best to convince almost everyone who graduates high school that they need to go to college…. Read more »