President Obama, a couple of days ago, in a speech trying to justify his edict on immigration policy, brought the Bible to his side for support. I quote: “The good book says, don’t throw stones in glass houses.” Now, if you are biblically illiterate, that will sound good. The only problem—probably only a minor one in his mind—is that there is no such verse in the Bible. Before he was president, he gave another speech in which he drew attention… Read more »
The Senate Democrats have released their report on America’s enhanced interrogation techniques. Most of this was already known; the timing is somewhat suspect. The hypocrisy blatant. Sen. Diane Feinstein, the driving force behind the report, has now told all enemies that they don’t have to worry about how we treat them, and that we are totally “transparent.” The CIA is castigated in this report for using techniques that might harm known terrorists—people who want to kill more Americans. The reason… Read more »
When Whittaker Chambers was making his testimony against Alger Hiss, his former associate in the communist underground, the stress of the situation was sometimes overwhelming. But encouragement can come in many forms. In his classic autobiography Witness, he remarks on one of those means of encouragement: In those days, came the first of a series of letters that I was to receive throughout the Hiss Case. They came almost weekly and, in the depths of the Case, sometimes twice a… Read more »
Combing through the letters of C. S. Lewis as research for a book I want to write has uncovered some real gems. Whenever I get one of these, I like to share it. In 1954, Lewis wrote to an American woman named Cynthia Donnelly, who apparently had asked what was necessary to be a good Christian writer. His response clearly points to the concept that everything we do, whether overtly Christian or not, is part of the calling God has… Read more »
I’ve been periodically presenting glimpses into American history, and have been writing about the Pilgrims and Puritans for quite some time now. There’s a lot to say. I’ve analyzed the Christian roots of the colonies they started (primarily Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, with Rhode Island added in) and have pointed to both the high points and low points of their development. In the 1680s, those colonies, along with New York, faced a threat to their original goals. The new king,… Read more »
It’s been both a revelation and a joy to be able to sit in my study and systematically go through C. S. Lewis’s collected letters, concentrating on the correspondence he had with Americans. He became quite personal with a good number of regular correspondents, sharing tidbits of his life and offering whatever advice he could when they asked questions regarding the Christian life. One of those letters, from January 1954, may provide a perfect example of how he combined the… Read more »
The smoke (literally) has not cleared totally on the Ferguson riots. Since I wrote my blog a couple of days ago, protesters/criminals have continued to cause problems. The National Guard, which was conspicuously not called in by Missouri governor Nixon on the night of the grand jury decision, has helped calm the area, working in tandem with the police and state law enforcement officials. That’s probably not what most National Guardsmen signed up for. Our military is supposed to protect… Read more »