Author Archives: Dr Snyder

Was the American Revolution Revolutionary?

  

In my ongoing analysis of American history (which has been interrupted by all the crucial current events that needed commentary), I am up to the point of the American Revolution. I have to use that term so people will know what I’m talking about, but I let my students know I don’t fully agree that it was all that revolutionary. What do I mean? Revolutions, by nature, try to upend the existing establishment. However, in the case of the American… Read more »

The Biblical Perspective on Persecution

  

ISIS has released another video, this time showing the execution of Ethiopian Christians. The locale seems to be identical to the earlier video of the beheading of Egyptian Coptic Christians. Thousands of Christians in Nigeria have been massacred by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini continues to languish in an Iranian prison. He is told he must convert to Islam if he wishes to be released. Abedini’s plight is not part of the crumbling Iranian deal… Read more »

The Lewis-Chambers Missed Opportunity

  

Another of C. S. Lewis’s regular American correspondents was Mary Van Deusen, someone with whom he shared thoughts on deep theological issues and on current events. One of her chief concerns, in the early 1950s, was the knowledge of how communists had infiltrated the American government. In one response to her, Lewis talked about how that issue showcased one problem with the modern concept of democracy: Your question about Communists-in-government really raises the whole problem of Democracy. If one accepts… Read more »

An Agenda at the Clinton Library

  

I conducted research at the Bill Clinton Library this week for my project on spiritual advisers to presidents. In the documents, I found what I expected to find, namely that some of those spiritual advisers were decidedly liberal in their theology and politics, thereby giving “cover,” so to speak, for the policies Clinton put forward, including his agenda for the acceptance of homosexuality in our society as normal. The research room staff was professional and nice to work with. The… Read more »

Normalizing Cuba?

  

President Obama has now met with Raul Castro and begun the normalization of relations process with Cuba, thereby reversing American policy that has been in effect for more than 50 years, ever since the Castro brothers and their chief lieutenant, Che Guevara, ousted what was admittedly a corrupt Cuban government. However, replacing a corrupt government with a totalitarian Marxist regime that routinely rounds up “enemies” of the state and executes them is not an improvement. Allowing the old Soviet Union… Read more »

Lewis on the Welfare State

  

One of C. S. Lewis’s longtime American correspondents was Vera Gebbert, who had written plays with some success in the 1940s. Their exchange of letters had a personal side throughout the years, as Lewis gave advice on her writing career, a painful divorce, and the raising of a son as a single mother. They also commented on the political/governmental issues of the day. Here’s an excerpt from a chapter in my upcoming Lewis book: In one of his first letters… Read more »

Tocqueville’s Prophetic Word

  

Alexis de Tocqueville was a Frenchman who visited America in 1831. He traveled extensively, made many notes of what he experienced, and wrote them down in a massive tome called Democracy in America. It is a classic, and is still being used today in university political science courses. It points out both the strengths and potential weaknesses he saw in this new nation. It is obvious Tocqueville liked much of what he witnessed in this country, but he also wrote… Read more »