In this case, the Soper Trust: For the past forty years, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington has been the beneficiary of the Ruth Gregory Soper Trust fund. Constructed as a trust handled by Riggs Bank and then its successor PNC Bank, the diocese received interest from the body of her money.  Under PNC’s careful investments, …
Don't Level the Playing Field, Just Tilt the Table
I was surprised that the groups referenced even had to ask Eric Holder to do this: This week, 90 religious, educational, civil rights, labor, LGBT, women’s, and health groups signed a joint letter (full text) to Attorney General Eric Holder asking that the Office of Legal Counsel withdraw the Bush Administration's June 29,  2007 memo allowing faith-based organization …
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The Children of Paradise Lost: Reflections on Being a South Floridian
Everyone has milestones in their life they stop and either celebrate or reflect on. Â In my case, it is something that looks superficial but made a profound difference. Â Fifty years ago this month, my parents, brother and I packed up my mother's car and pulled out of the place I live now to move to …
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Tea Party Ivy-Leaguer Beats Eric Cantor
In the moderate panic (are people who are really moderates supposed to panic? Â isn't that for emotionalist extremists? ) this is easy to overlook about Dave Brat, the Roman Catholic economic professor who upset Eric Cantor in the Republican primary for his U.S. House seat: Brat, who is Catholic, got his masters from Princeton Theological …
A Clarification on My Position on Civil Marriage
Those of you who follow my Twitter feed noted an link to a CNBC article about why my contemporaries are cohabiting in their dotage. Â I sensed a little pushback on Facebook on this, so I think that, in my advocacy for the abolition of civil marriage, some clarification is in order. I do not think …
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The Russians Look for a Fistful of Yuan
And they may find it, too: Russian companies are preparing to switch contracts to renminbi and other Asian currencies amid fears that western sanctions may freeze them out of the US dollar market, according to two top bankers. "Over the last few weeks there has been a significant interest in the market from large Russian …
Has Everyone Forgotten About Utah Beach? (And a comment about the VA to boot)
Today, of course, is the seventieth day of the Allied invasion of Normandy. Â We will be regaled with films of American soldiers under fire as they hit the beach. Â Just about all of those films will, by necessity, come from one beach--Omaha. Â So what about the rest of the Allied forces that participated in the …
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Born to be Alive: After the Second Chapter
For the entire work and an interactive table of contents, click here. It is the custom of Evangelical and Pentecostal authors these days to finish their works with the confident assertion that, if the reader follows what is in the book they have just read, everything will be all right, as the advice given is …
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The Downhill Run of Roman Catholicism
As documented by Thomas Aquinas about the frequent reception of the Eucharist, in Summa Theologiae, 3, q. 80, a. 10 (I have added the papal dates): In the primitive Church, when the devotion of the Christian faith was more flourishing, it was enacted that the faithful should communicate daily: hence Pope Anaclete (76-88) says (Ep. …
Born to be Alive: Everything in Common
For the entire work and an interactive table of contents, click here. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything …
Positive Infinity 