Category: Politics & Government

Opinions on contemporary political happenings and the workings of civil government.

The Atrocity Known as Planned Parenthood

  

The House Judiciary Committee is holding another Planned Parenthood hearing today. This one will focus on the details of abortion procedures, with much of the attention on late-term abortions, as well as a medical analysis of the ramifications of altering abortion techniques to acquire intact, usable organs. At its last hearing, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards was grilled on the ghastly practices of her organization and the way in which taxpayer money has been spent on those practices, along with… Read more »

Christians & Politics: Cynicism or Faithfulness?

  

For years I have been trying to encourage political participation—or at least political awareness—among Christians. While there are many who have seen the light on this, some still remain on the sidelines, allowing what once was a drift in the wrong direction to turn into a tsunami. Sometimes, I hear the refrain that it makes no difference, all politicians are the same, so there’s no point in trying. I must admit, when one surveys the political field, it can be… Read more »

Russia & the Decline of American Influence

  

Syria? Who cares about Syria? Iraq? Old story. Never should have gone there in the first place. Leave it alone. Let everyone in that whole region just fight it out amongst themselves since there’s no one to support anyway. That last paragraph summarizes what a lot of people think. That’s pretty much what Donald Trump said as well. Some of the sentiment I can understand. Trying to build nations is a complicated mess when there is no practice of self-government… Read more »

The Christian Witness to the World

  

The arrival of Pope Francis in America takes me back in my thoughts to an earlier era when a pope who grew up under communism and understood the horrors of socialist practices worked with an American president who was a Protestant (with a Catholic father) and a British prime minister who was tutored all her early years by her Methodist shopkeeper father (and who later said that C. S. Lewis was one of her spiritual mentors) to overthrow the Soviet… Read more »

Carson, Islam, & the Constitution

  

Ben Carson says he wouldn’t support having a Muslim for president and the politically correct world explodes in outrage. He says Islam and the American Constitution are at odds and he’s decried as some kind of constitutional ignoramus. Time to step back and breathe. As many have noted, he made the quite valid point that anyone who is devoted to Sharia law as the basis for one’s personal life and for how a society should operate is not in sync… Read more »

Walker’s Withdrawal

  

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker last night withdrew from the GOP presidential nomination race. All things considered, it is understandable that he did so, but I believe it says a lot of things—mostly bad—about our current nominating process and the expectations of the electorate. I’ll explain in a moment. First, I want to examine Walker’s comments in his withdrawal statement. They say a lot. One of the points he made was how disappointed he was that this entire campaign “drifted into… Read more »

The Fine Art of Being Sorry

  

We’re very good at being sorry. We’re not so good at being repentant. Wait a minute—aren’t those the same? Not necessarily. You can be “sorry” for a lot of things, and it’s all too easy to make your “I’m sorry” statement sound petulant or forced, as if you don’t really mean it. Genuine repentance takes stock of one’s heart and actions, acknowledges when there is sin, and does more than a simple “I’m sorry” in response. Repentance leads to a… Read more »