St. John Chrysostom vs. Communism

St. John Chrysostomby Editors –
This quote was supposedly written by St. John Chrysostom. Those warnings regarding core principles that form the foundation of socialist/communist ideologies should have been heeded by the Church and taught to the people.

St. John Chrysostom:
“Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person’s gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm. Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

The War on Academic Achievement

9/8/2010 – Robert Weissberg –
Judged by all the billions of dollars now flowing into “education reform,” it appears that Washington, and especially the Obama administration, is obsessed with improving academic achievement (see, for example, here). The billions are certainly real enough, but the intent is just the opposite. Rhetoric aside, the Obama administration, like Bush II’s before it, is profoundly opposed to brainpower. Our “commitment” to academic excellence is a cruel joke — we love stupidity and hate smart kids. Tellingly, not even “conservatives” who bemoan America’s educational decline will admit this awkward reality — they, too, are passengers on this reform gravy train heading to the bottom. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Why the Right Fears Transforming America — and the Left Seeks It

Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager

9/7/2010 – Dennis Prager –
The giveaway regarding presidential candidate Barack Obama’s plans for America was his repeated use of the words “fundamentally transform.”

Some of us instinctively reacted negatively — in fact, with horror — at the thought of fundamentally transforming America.

The “us” are conservatives.

One unbridgeable divide between left and right is how each views alternatives to present-day America. Those on the left imagine an ideal society that has never existed, and therefore seek to “fundamentally transform” America. When liberals imagine an America fundamentally transformed, they envision it becoming a nearly utopian society in which there is no greed, no racism, no sexism, no inequality, no poverty and ultimately no unhappiness.

Conservatives, on the other hand, look around at other societies and history and are certain that if America were fundamentally transformed, it would become just like those other societies. America would become a society of far less liberty, of ethically and morally inferior citizens and of much more unhappiness. And cruelty would increase exponentially around the world. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Our Dying Constitution

9/6/2010 – David P. McGinley –
Federal Judge Vaughn Walker, who unilaterally redefined the millennia old definition of marriage in his California marriage decision, will not have the last word on this issue. However, it is troubling who will. Many constitutional “experts” from both sides of the marriage argument agree that this issue will inevitably be “settled” by Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. Thus, one judge (one man) may get to tell over 300 million people how they are allowed to order the very basis of their society. How did it come to this? [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Work and the Two Great Love Commandments

Work: The Meaning of Your Life - A Christian Perspective9/4/2010 – Jordan Ballor –

Amid the threat of a “double-dip” recession, and the ongoing plight of joblessness across America, this Labor Day is bittersweet for many. For those who have the gift of employment, the right to work can seem more like a privilege. And for those looking for work, the hope of being hired soon can sometimes seem more like a fantasy. But it is precisely in this kind of challenging economic environment that we can most clearly see the blessing that work is both to ourselves and to one another.

For ourselves, work helps give life meaning and purpose. Human beings are naturally productive, tending, when unimpeded, to use our minds and hands to make things, to be creative. The very term “manufacturing” comes from root words that mean “making by hand.” Indeed, God has set up the world in such a way that work is a blessing, the way he provides for us to provide for ourselves and our families. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer in this context called work God’s “order of grace,” the regular means he has given to take care of our material needs. Anyone who has been out of work knows this to be true: having a job and receiving a paycheck is a great blessing. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Queering Education

9/3/2010 – Mary Grabar –
The recent court rulings against students Jennifer Keeton in Georgia and Julea Ward in Michigan reveal the power amassed by the cabal of radicals in academia who have pushed the gay agenda into education. In both cases, judges upheld the right of counseling departments at public universities to expel Christian students who refused to counsel homosexuals in a manner that affirmed their homosexuality.

In Keeton’s case, Augusta State University mandated that all students completing the master’s program adhere to professional standards that require counselors to counsel all clients in ways that do not criticize their sexuality or attempt to change it. According to affidavits, Keeton, whose attitudes towards homosexuality are rooted in her Christian faith, had stated a desire to refer gay clients to other counselors or to inform them about conversion therapies. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Humility in a Time of Recession

9/1/2010 – Samuel Gregg –
Since 2008, there has been much discussion about the contribution of unethical behavior to our present economic circumstances. Whether it was borrowers’ lying on mortgage-applications or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s politically-driven lending policies, there seems to be some consciousness that non-economic factors played a role in facilitating what we already call the Great Recession.

Unfortunately evidence is emerging that some people have learned nothing. A recent report, for example, commissioned by the Wall Street Journal illustrates that “losses from mortgage fraud—ranging from falsified credit reports to identity theft—rose 17% last year after declining 57% in the two years after its 2006 peak.” [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

What American President Would Do That?

9/1/2010 – Carol A. Taberr –
Other presidents have been wrong. Other presidents have been misguided. Other presidents have been weak and pusillanimous and pathetic.

Only one truly disdains America. His name is Barack Obama.

How else to explain his latest outrage against the country that elevated him to the ranks of world leadership? Last week, the Obama State Department submitted a report to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on the supposed human rights violations taking place in the United States. According to the Washington Times, the report [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Til Death Do Us Part–Or Whatever

Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson
8/31/2010 – Chuck Colson –

Worldview was on display at a church in Silver Spring, Maryland a few days ago. What did it look like? A lovely bride, dressed in white. A groom looking giddily in love. Promises to love and to cherish, as long as they lived.

If this sounds like an ordinary wedding—well, that’s just evidence that worldview is not always easy to spot. For instance, you couldn’t tell by looking that the bride and groom had never spent a night together before the wedding—unlike most couples these days.

They were both committed Christians—unlike many other brides and grooms who want a church wedding because it’s “traditional.” Most important of all, this young couple fully understood—and embraced—the meaning and purposes of marriage. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

The Left’s Unlikely Alliance with Islam

Radical Left Islam Alliance8/28/2010 – Robert Eugene Simmons Jr. –

As we look around the world at the countries that practice Islam as a state religion, it is almost incomprehensible that the left should defend Islam so fervently. We don’t have to look to the radicals in the Taliban or Hamas to see issues that most Americans would question. Sharia Law is practiced by most Islamic centric countries, and it is in almost direct opposition to the principles on which America was established and in direct contrast to the agenda of the left in America. What is important to realize is that Sharia Law isn’t an outlier, practiced by radicals like al-Qaeda, but actually the mainstream core of jurisprudence in the Islamic world.

The application of Sharia Law is incomprehensible to most Americans used to Western common law. For example, late last year, the Saudi equivalent of the Supreme Court refused to grant a divorce to an eight-year-old who was essentially sold to her fifty-year-old husband by her father. Child brides are prevalent and legal in Muslim countries governed by Sharia law. In another example, just recently, a case of a couple who were stoned to death for having sexual relations outside marriage made the news from Afghanistan, and a thirteen-year-old was stoned to death for being raped and ending up pregnant. [Read more…]

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail