Religion in America

Christianity Without Salvation

Wall Street Opinion Journal | Joseph Loconte | May 11, 2007

The legacy of the “Social Gospel”–100 years later.

Within a few years of its publication in 1907, “Christianity and the Social Crisis” swept through America’s Protestant churches like a nor’easter, selling more than 50,000 copies to ministers and laypeople alike. In an age of social upheaval, Walter Rauschenbusch’s jeremiad was meant to rouse the church from its pietistic slumber. “If society continues to disintegrate and decay, the Church will be carried down with it,” he warned. “If the Church can rally such moral forces that injustice will be overcome . . . it will itself rise to higher liberty and life.”

[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

The Kennedy Catastrophe: Banishing Religion from the Public Square

Townhall.com | Ken Connor | May 6, 2007

For quite some time in America, frank public discussions about candidates’ religious views have been deemed verboten. The trend began in 1960, when John F. Kennedy found that his Catholic faith was proving to be a liability with Protestant voters. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic to run for president since Al Smith’s landslide defeat in the 1920s, and throughout the campaign he met significant resistance from detractors who were deeply suspicious of the Catholic faith. Hundreds of anti-Catholic tracts were sent to millions of homes across America discouraging voters from supporting Kennedy. Many refused to vote for the young Senator from Massachusetts because they did not agree with his religious beliefs, and this created a crisis for the campaign.

[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Can Jews debate Jesus dispassionately? Should they?

Wall Street Opinion Journal Jordana Horn Friday, May 4, 2007

Interrupting the Intellectuals

“What’s He Doing Here?: Jesus in Jewish Culture.” An unusual conference title, to be sure, for what proved to be an unusual event on a beautiful spring Sunday in New York. Writers, critics, filmmakers and scholars gathered at the Center for Jewish History to discuss the man whom Leon Wieseltier termed “the world’s most famous ex-Jew.” The gathering was an intellectually illustrious one. Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt and poet Robert Pinsky were speakers on a panel coyly titled “Why I Think About Jesus.”

[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

You’re Dead, I’m Healing

Townhall.com Dennis Prager Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Within hours of the massacre of more than 30 people at Virginia Tech University, the president of the university issued his first statement on the evil that had just engulfed the college campus and concluded with this: “We’re making plans for a convocation tomorrow at noon in Cassell Coliseum for the university to come together to begin the healing process from this terrible tragedy.”

[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

America’s Secular Jihadists

Breakpoint Church Colson January 12, 2007

Atheists on the Offensive

Just a few months ago, I thought it was insulting to be called a “theocrat.” I was wrong. “Theocrat” is almost a compliment compared to what the Left is calling Christians now.

According to a New York Times review, we Christians are fascists—that’s what the Nazis were. And if we’re not stopped, we’ll try to take over America. It’s an illustration of how vicious the invective has become against faithful Christians.

[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

The real schismatics and bigots

Townhall.com Patrick J. Buchanan December 22, 2006

“I grew up in the Episcopal church. I hope I don’t cry when I talk about this. But the issue is: Are we going to follow Scripture?”

So an anguished Katrina Wagner, a member of the leadership of Truro Episcopal parish, told Washington Post reporters Bill Turque and Michelle Boornstein. They have been covering the sad Christmas story of the breakup of the Episcopal Church in Northern Virginia. Nine parishes have voted to secede from the American church.

[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Faith and Funding

Wall Street Opinion Journal Andrew Stark November 14, 2006

A left-wing evangelical view of faith-based government programs.

David Kuo created a stir just before the election by claiming, in his book “Tempting Faith,” that the Bush administration had betrayed evangelicals and other members of the Religious Right by failing to devote sufficient moral force or government funds to “compassionate conservatism,” not least to the faith-based initiatives that were part of Mr. Bush’s early domestic program.

[Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail