Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
It's the time of the year when most people graduate from whatever school they're graduating from. This is a hypothetical graduation address, this week aimed a college students. I'll take on the high school students in a subsequent post. These days college--especially undergraduate studies--is a long, expensive undertaking, usually accomplished by a large amount of …
Continue reading "Advice to Graduates: Past Performance is Not a Guarantee of Future Returns"
The Washington Post's Dana Millbank is just a little too happy over the Catholic bishops' rebuke of Rep. Paul Ryan's economic proposals: In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody this month, Ryan, the author of the House Republican budget endorsed by Mitt Romney, said his program was crafted “using my Catholic faith” …
Continue reading "Playing Both Sides of the Street on Catholic Social Teaching"
Notre Dame's Gary Gutting doesn't think much of the real import of the Sermon on the Mount: The Sermon on the Mount, however, does not offer a clear view of what makes for a good life. Many seem to think Jesus is saying little more than be nice to everybody. Others see a call to …
Continue reading "Living the Sermon on the Mount, Episcopal Style"
At the end of the quest, victory: A coalition of bishops and leaders from Africa, the Americas and Australasia said it was time for a “radical shift” in how the church is structured away from models of the “British Empire”. They criticised what they called “revisionist attempts” to abandon basic doctrines on issues such as …
Continue reading "They'll Finally Get the Communion After All"
Nobody--yet--is thinking about this as things develop: In an article in the current National Journal called "The Post Al Qaida Era," I write that the Obama administration is taking a new view of Islamist radicalism. The president realizes he has no choice but to cultivate the Muslim Brotherhood and other relatively "moderate" Islamist groups emerging …
Continue reading "The Only Freedom That Matters is Sacrified to Foreign Policy Considerations"
Oh, yes he should have: Clashes between supporters of two prominent Shi'ite clerics in Iraq have spread from Nasiriya in the southern province of Dhi Kar to other parts of the country, as Baghdad struggles to calm tensions between them. The trouble began on February 17, when a recently-opened office of Shi'ite cleric Mahmoud al-Hasani …
Continue reading "Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Should Have Quit While He Was Ahead"
At the start of the month, I made the following statement regarding the Episcopal Bishop of Virginia's "victory lap" in the Washington Post: To put it bluntly, this is one of the most duplicitous things I have ever seen a man of the cloth put out. I’ve griped about the Anglican Fudge and how Episcopal …
Continue reading "Complicated Times in Old SC: Do We Really Have Diocesan Rebellion?"
While casting about the Anglican blogosphere, I ran across an idea from an unexpected source: an endorsement of the lay presidency from John Richardson, the "Ugley Vicar". This concept is usually associated with the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia, the same archepiscopal entity which put subordinationism within the Trinity back into play in order to counter …
It's been an active week at this blog, so it's time to catch up on the "mailbag" so to speak. Did the NAE Really Ruin the Church of God? It's been a long time since a piece I've written has gone so viral as this one. Based on the response I've been able to see, …
Continue reading "The Blowback: The NAE and the Church of God, the Baptists, and the Constitution"
The Old Grey Lady needs some education in ethnicity re comments like this: The effects of this exclusionary mindset are palpable. France today has Europe’s largest Islamic minority, making up nearly 10 percent of its population. Yet Muslims remain a people apart, as documented in 2011 by a research team recruited by the Open Society …
Continue reading "They May Not Be French, But They're Definitely Not Arab"
Positive Infinity 