Generally speaking I stop this time of year and commemorate an event of which you, the reader of this blog, are the beneficiary (?). On 1 July 1997 I uploaded the pages of my first website, called then The Wave Equation Page for Piling and now vulcanhammer.net. I duly editorialised the tenth anniversary of that …
Two Score of Episcopal Ministry: My Response to a Dean's Reflections
I found retiring Dallas Episcopal Dean Kevin Martin's reflections on his long life in ministry fascinating, largely because his career span--to say nothing of his span as an Episcopalian--sweeps most of the enormous transformation that has taken place both in TEC (which was PECUSA when he started) and in the country at large. The question …
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When It's Fashionable to be Cynical
Like now: President Obama spoke today at a campaign rally in Durham, New Hampshire. "You know, it's fashionable right now for people to be cynical. We go in cycles like this and right now a lot of people are saying "Oh, America is doing terribly" and "What are we going to do?"... Being cynical, however, …
The EU is Really Good at Undermining Certain Things
The head of the Global Forum on Migration and Development thinks they should be undermining their national identities: The EU should "do its best to undermine" the "homogeneity" of its member states, the UN's special representative for migration has said. Peter Sutherland told peers the future prosperity of many EU states depended on them becoming …
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We Really Don't Need to Make a Religion Out of Science
This from the "godfather of global warming", among other things: Lovelock blasted greens for treating global warming like a religion. “It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion,” Lovelock observed. “I don’t think people have noticed that, but it’s got all the sort of terms that religions …
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Maybe the NAE Will Ruin Us After All
Things aren't going to plan in the vanguard against liberalism: It gets worse. In 2010, the NAE adopted a resolution seeking "common ground" and "fresh national dialogue" on the subject of reducing the number of abortions in the United States. Cizik's successor, Galen Carey, said at the time that partnering with notorious pro-abortion groups like …
The Important Difference Between Inexcusable and Unforgivable
I recently read a Father's Day article from a man well-known in men's ministry circles, who described the importance of forgiving his father for certain things, as his father had to do with his father, and so on. One of the commenters launched into a bitter diatribe about his nasty Broward County divorce, about how …
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The Tithe in Old Palestine
I recently came across a fascinating book entitled The Handbook of Palestine by H.C. Luke and E. Keith-Roach. Produced in 1922 by the British Mandate government which had just taken control of the country after a long Ottoman Turkish rule, it’s a fascinating snapshot of the Holy Land beginning its transition to the State of …
Same-Sex Civil Marriage: The End of the Marital Estate and Gift Tax Exemption?
Most on the "religious right" aren't paying attention to rulings like this, but like Charles Rubin they should be: The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that same-sex couples can take advantage of the estate tax marital deduction provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. This ruling has far-reaching federal …
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Generation Y Answers the Question from the Last Presidential Cycle
Pollster John Zogby finds young people disillusioned these days: Nearly four years after enthusiastic younger voters poured into polling booths to help push Barack Obama over the finish line and into the Oval Office, their hope has turned to fear and pollster John Zogby says that they are ready to give up on politics. “I …
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Positive Infinity 