The Lord’s Prayer as sung by Andrea Bocelli and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Heavenly, sublime, magnificent, powerful, amazing, and breathtaking!
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Andrea Bocelli – The Lord’s Prayer
The Character Deficit
6/22/2010 – Steve McCann –
When the framers of the United States Constitution completed their work in 1787, they acknowledged that the success and future of the republic as established by that document was dependent on the honor and integrity of its leaders and citizens. As John Adams wrote: “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Today, the Obama administration, the majority of the members of Congress, much of the Judiciary, academia, and the media represent the culmination of the degradation of ethics and character, which has put the United States in the nearly inevitable position of joining the annals of the rise and fall of great nations.
The die was cast in the early part of the 20th century, when Congress and the president discovered that they could bribe the public with the public’s money. The focus of politics began to shift from public service and adherence to the Constitution to seeking, centralizing, and maintaining power, as well as amassing individual wealth. [Read more…]
America’s Road to Serfdom
6/21/2010 – Terry Paulson –
Thanks to the attention from Glenn Beck, a recent top seller on Amazon.com is Austria’s Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. The book was written in 1944 to fight the drift from individual freedom and free-market competition to a growing dependence on economies controlled by central planning authorities. To Hayek, Stalin’s Soviet Russia was no better than the Nazi “National Socialists.” In all its forms, the increasing spread of socialism has and would always be a threat to individual freedom and economic progress.
Hayek’s book remains a wakeup call to apathetic citizens who take for granted that the improvements achieved through democracy, individual freedom and capitalism have been “acquired once and for all.” Hayek knew what history confirms; freedom must be earned and reearned in every generation. [Read more…]
Dennis Prager: The Greatest Threat Facing America
Dennis Prager explains what is the greatest threat that America faces today: “We have not passed on what it means to be an American to this generation.”
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Russia Church Wants End to Darwin School “Monopoly”
6/15/2010 – Conor Humphries –
The Russian Orthodox Church called Wednesday for an end to the “monopoly of Darwinism” in Russian schools, saying religious explanations of creation should be taught alongside evolution.
Liberals said they would fight efforts to include religious teaching in schools. Russia’s dominant church has experienced a revival in recent years, worrying rights groups who say its power is undermining the country’s secular constitution.
“The time has come for the monopoly of Darwinism and the deceptive idea that science in general contradicts religion. These ideas should be left in the past,” senior Russian Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion said at a lecture in Moscow. [Read more…]
Crime and Character
6/16/2010 – Chuck Colson –
Two weeks ago, I told you that crime rates are falling—despite the fact we’ve been enduring tough economic times for three years.
Obviously, this flies in the face of the liberal belief that the cause of crime is poverty. And one liberal columnist, Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, dared to look at the facts and ask the question, “Did Liberals Get It Wrong on Crime?”
Cohen has this to say about falling crime rates: “Surprisingly, this has happened in the teeth of the Great Recession, meaning that those disposed to attribute criminality to poverty,” which was his view at one time, he says, “have some strenuous rethinking to do.” [Read more…]
Maybe I’m Just Too American For This Orthodox Church
6/14/2010 – Protodeacon Eric Wheeler –
I firmly believe that America offers the potential for the Orthodox Faith to flourish and grow like in no other land or culture.
Unfortunately, at times, we cannot free ourselves from the “old world” mentality which mires us in our “ancient” faith. Consequently, it makes it difficult for Americans to even attempt to understand the fundamentals of our Faith.
As the first historic Episcopal Assembly ends, and I read the message delivered at its conclusion, I cannot help but feel that we are attempting to fix our American jurisdictional problem with an “old world” mentality solution. Consequently, it makes it difficult for this American to understand why we are being so Byzantine in seeking a plan for Orthodox unity in America. [Read more…]
Give Childhood Back to Children
6/13/2010 – Jeffrey Eckert –
Children are being dragged into adult situations on a more frequent basis. A child’s age of innocence is diminishing, and children are now living extended versions of young adulthood due to the immature actions of the adults responsible for raising them. Parents should be a buffer between their children and the world. All too often, children are becoming the person the parent goes to for emotional relief. The parents involves the child in the particulars of their messy divorce, money problems, health problems, and even sexual relationships.
In generations past, these problems occurred, but the children were kept out of the discussion. Adults spoke to other adults (family members, peers, professionals) about their problems. [Read more…]
Andrea Bocelli: A Story About a Mother and Her Baby
Andrea Bocelli tells us a story about a woman and her baby. This message needs to be heard by those who still don’t understand the precious gift of life and the importance of protecting innocence.
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Peter Singer: ‘Why Not Sterilize the Human Race into Extinction?’
6/8/2010 – Peter J. Smith –
Princeton philosopher Peter Singer one of the world’s foremost contemporary utilitarian philosophers infamous for his advocacy of infanticide, would like individuals to consider this question: would sterilizing the human race to spare future generations the pain of existence be a good idea?
In a blog post for the New York Times entitled “Should this be the last generation?” Singer discusses in glowing terms the thought of South African philosopher David Benatar. Singer calls Benator the “author of a fine book with an arresting title: Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence.”
“To bring into existence someone who will suffer is, Benatar argues, to harm that person, but to bring into existence someone who will have a good life is not to benefit him or her,” explains Singer.[Read more…]
