The Lukewarm Generation


First Things | by W. Bradford Wilcox | 3/8/2010

Sociologist Christian Smith began his ambitious, multivolume effort to plumb the religious lives of Americans across the life course in his 2005 with Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. In that book—aimed at an audience that the author hoped would include general readers as well as clergy and scholars—Smith painted an incisive portrait of religion among America’s adolescents. Especially insightful was the way Smith explained why the more sectarian religious traditions in the United States, such as evangelical Protestantism and Mormonism, were achieving greater success than more churchly traditions such as mainline Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in transmitting their faiths to the next generation. Also notable was the way Smith explained how the guiding religious ethos of American teenagers—what he aptly termed “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”—seemed so suited for our culture. [Read more…]

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The Undemocratic Democrats

Townhall | by Linda Chavez | 3/5/2010

Arrogance is an occupational hazard in politics, one that is often fatal, and the Democrats show every sign of having succumbed. You would think someone in the party would sound the alarm. But, so far, Democrats seem willing to follow their leaders off the cliff. The president, House speaker and Senate majority leader appear ready to defy the American public and ram a disastrous and unpopular overturn of health care down our throats, regardless of the consequences to the country or their own political futures. There is something deeply disturbing about this turn of events — and undemocratic. [Read more…]

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Fear-Mongering Demagogue Al Gore

Al Gore is a Fraud and a Charlatan
Al Gore is a Fraud and a Charlatan

WorldNetDaily | by Joseph Farah | 3/3/2010
Al Gore is nothing but a two-bit charlatan, but he is treated by the press establishment like a prophet, a courageous leader, a selfless crusader, a man of vision and ideals.

Which are you going to believe: Al Gore or your own eyes?

Forget what we in the United States and many around the world have experienced this winter, he writes in a New York Times op-ed. It may seem colder, but this is exactly what should be expected in a global-warming scenario, he claims. Just as a snowless winter in Washington a few years ago was also exactly what we should expect.

If it’s hot, blame global warming. If it’s cold, blame climate change.

Al Gore is not a serious person. He’s a get-rich-quick artist who is peddling the biggest con game in the history of man. [Read more…]

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Teacher wins major victory for God in school

Judge scolds district for trying to scrub America’s Christian heritage

Bradley Johnson 1
Bradley Johnson and one of the two banners he was ordered to take down

WorldNetDaily | by Drew Zahn | Mar. 1, 2010

A federal judge in California has handed down a scathing ruling against a school that required one of its teachers to remove signs celebrating the role of God in American history from his classroom walls.

As WND reported, math teacher Bradley Johnson had banners hanging in his classroom at Westview High School in San Diego, Calif., for more than 17 years with phrases like “In God We Trust” and “All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed by Their Creator,” only to have the principal order them torn down during the 2007 school year.

But Johnson filed a lawsuit alleging the order a violation of his constitutional rights, and the teacher has now been rewarded with a court victory and a powerfully-worded ruling. [Read more…]

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Government, Yes! God and Parents, No!

Townhall.com | by Dennis Prager | Feb. 23, 2010

One of the major differences between the right and the left concerns the question of authority: To whom do we owe obedience and who is the ultimate moral authority?

For the right, the primary moral authority is God (or, for secular conservatives, Judeo-Christian values), followed by parents. Of course, government must also play a role, but it is ultimately accountable to God and it should do nothing to undermine parental authority.

For the left, the state and its government are the supreme authorities, while parental and divine authority are seen as impediments to state authority. [Read more…]

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Prosecuted for Saving a Girl’s Life

American Thinker | by Pamela Geller | Feb. 27, 2010

A girl flees from her home in fear for her life — and law enforcement goes after the people who helped her. That’s the situation in the Rifqa Bary case. The Columbus Dispatch reported this about Rifqa’s friend Brian Williams: “An Ohio minister accused of driving a teenage runaway to a bus station last year has retained a lawyer as police say they’re investigating whether anyone broke the law in helping the Christian convert leave home for Florida.”

And why did she flee to Florida? Because, she says, when her devout Muslim father found out she had become a Christian, he said to her, “I will kill you.” And with Islam’s death penalty for apostates, she had to take that seriously. But Rifqa’s father is not in danger of being prosecuted. Brian Williams is. [Read more…]

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Opposing the Homosexual Agenda: Religious Bigotry or Science and Justice?


Catholic Online | Sonja Corbitt | Feb. 16, 2010

To claim that by opposing the gay agenda the Church is acting in an unloving manner is patently untrue.

It is considered negligent to allow or actively support action, drug abuse for example, that you know is both dangerous and destructive. Imagine being accused of bigotry after forbidding such action in one of your children. Yet Church opposition of the homosexual agenda draws angry criticism from those who claim her stance on homosexuality is based solely on religious bigotry against homosexuals. [Read more…]

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The Faith of the Founders, How Christian Were They

BreakPoint | by Gary Scott Smith | Feb. 23, 2010

One of today’s most contentious culture wars is over the religious commitments of our nation’s founders.

Were most of them orthodox Christians, deists, or agnostics? Scholarly books, college classes, radio talk shows, and blogs all debate this issue, and the Texas Board of Education recently joined the fray. Because of Texas’ large number of students, its huge educational fund, and its statewide curriculum guidelines, this board strongly influences what textbooks are published in the United States. Last month the board reviewed the state’s social studies curriculum, and its conservative Christian members injected more analysis of religion into the guidelines, including assessment of whether the United States was founded as a Christian nation and how Christian were the founders. [Read more…]

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Global Warming Update

Townhall | by Walter E. Williams | Feb. 24, 2010

Private industry and governments around the world have spent trillions of dollars in the name of saving our planet from manmade global warming. Academic institutions, think tanks and schools have altered their curricula and agenda to accommodate what was seen as the global warming “consensus.”

Mounting evidence suggests that claims of manmade global warming might turn out to be the greatest hoax in mankind’s history. Immune and hostile to the evidence, President Barack Obama’s administration and most of the U.S. Congress sides with Climate Czar Carol Browner, who says, “I’m sticking with the 2,500 scientists. These people have been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real.” [Read more…]

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