Category: Politics & Government

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

The Fine Art of Twisting Scripture for One’s Own Purposes

  

Normally, I would be pleased for a president to attend a prayer breakfast, as President Obama did yesterday. But it would have been better if he had just been an attendee listening to someone with a genuine Biblical message. Instead, he was the speaker, and he used the occasion to say Jesus would approve of his policies, specifically his proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy. He used the Scripture that says more is required from someone who has been… Read more »

The Court Gets One Right

  

Whenever the Supreme Court makes a proper decision, it’s worthy of mention. That mention is doubly worthy when the case involves religious liberty. Earlier this week, the Court concluded, 9-0, that a church in Michigan had the right to determine whether or not to fire one of its workers who went against the beliefs and/or practices of the church. The worker in question had sued for discrimination. Every specific case is unique, but the principle upheld in this decision is… Read more »

Winning the Semantic Battle

  

I comment frequently to my students that if you win the semantic battle, you can often win the war. How you frame yourself or your belief system/cause is extremely important, and if you can create an image that is positive, while not being dishonest, you can draw people to your side. Unfortunately, that also works for those with less integrity. Margaret Sanger, for instance, the great promoter of eugenics and lowering the birth rates of those she deemed “human weeds,”… Read more »

Renewed Minds

  

Why do I write these daily commentaries? And why do I so often focus on current politics? After all—I can imagine some readers thinking—shouldn’t I spend my time more profitably, writing about theology and/or the Christian’s everyday walk with the Lord? Don’t I realize—they may continue to ask themselves—that this world is passing away and all that matters is eternity? I understand the concerns behind such questions. Here’s what I believe. First, our relationship with God, through Christ, is the… Read more »

Chambers, Reagan, & the Spiritual Crisis

  

I finished another semester last Friday. The goal of my teaching is always to point students to Biblical truth; history is the vehicle. At the end of my course covering the second half of American history—after I’ve spent weeks showcasing the loss of Biblical principles in America over the last century or so—I like to close the course with a couple of quotes from those who clearly witnessed this loss and sought to reverse it. Whittaker Chambers and Ronald Reagan… Read more »

A Word of Wisdom from the Past

  

A voice from the American past has a message for us today. His name was James Garfield, who was elected president in 1880. Four years earlier, on the centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Congressman Garfield—who also was an ordained Disciples of Christ minister—offered this sage insight in a speech commemorating American independence: Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because… Read more »

The Totalitarianism of Government Compassion

  

Let me just speak from the heart today without any cartoons. I’m deeply disturbed by a number of developments in our nation, but one comes to the forefront of my mind this morning as I sit to write. Unless this is changed, there is no hope for turning around the trajectory of our culture. In the Roman Empire, government officials had to come up with ingenious ways to keep the populace under control. So many of the people were unemployed… Read more »