High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news.
What is more important, having a religion or having a spirituality? First of all, I will make two things very clear: Jesus did not found any religion and second, no saved religion. Salvation is not to belong to this or that religion, to be in this and that Church. Spirituality is one thing and religion […]
Episode 136 of the Consider This Podcast (one of the Top 50 Conservative Podcasts according to Newsmax) has been released; conservative commentary in 10 minutes or less. In this episode, I’m thrilled and honored to be interviewing Erick Erickson, conservative blogger, radio talk show host, and author of the book “You Will Be Made to […]
One of the first things I noticed when I first started investigating Gospel for Asia’s finances in India was the corpus fund set up for the Indian organizations (i.e., GFA-India, Believers’ Church, Love India Ministries, & Last Hour Ministries). When I examined Indian records (FC-6 reports), I saw millions in U.S. dollars used to fund […]
Here in Asia, we have a society where the family is the basis for welfare: in disasters, you seek family to help you.. Many people are getting out of poverty because they have family members who support the rest of their family by working overseas and sending back money to pay for school fees, decent […]
While the press is full of news about Boyance and Justin Bieber, one of the completely ignored stories has been how China is busy taking over Africa. Not politically, of course, but by investing in minerals, exporting their cheap goods to Africa and establishing stores there to sell things cheaply, and by investing in farm […]
Sometimes, the best way to gain insight into a thing, person, or an issue is to consider it through the lens of its seemingly opposite. For example, in terms of celebrations on the calendar, on their surface few would be more opposite than Halloween and Christmas. Halloween, on the one hand, is a reflection that […]
Sam Harris, says in his book The End of Faith that faith and religion are “the most prolific source of violence in our history.” The three-volume Encyclopedia of Wars, which chronicles some 1,763 wars that have been waged over the course of human history, begs to differ. For those wars, the authors note the causes […]
The latest episode of the “Consider This!” podcast is out. Conservative commentary in 10 minutes or less. The school voucher program in Louisiana is a fantastic success. The high school graduation is significantly up, and the poorest are benefiting the most. So, of course, Obama’s Justice Department is suing to stop it on the ground of … […]
Some American news papers are taking quotes by Pope Francis out of context to criticize those few bishops who dare to say abortion is murder, or for supporting the idea of traditional marriage that have been around for a few millenia. Like most of what the pope says, this is cherry picking quotes out of […]
MariaElena at Fountain of Elias reminds us that Sept 24 is the (pre Vatican II) feast of Our Lady of Ransom. This feast was one of the church’s way of reminding folks of the many captured by various pirates and to raise money to ransom them. The origins of the Feast can be found in […]
Don’t pay attention to the quotes taken out of context and spun to make Pope Francis seem to the left of the trendier than thou Episcopal church. Go and read what he actually said, and what he has said in the past, and you will find nuances that don’t fit into sound bites. The Catholic […]
One wrench that use to be tossed into Darwinism’s mechanistic view of the universe was the raising of the issue of what supposedly happened to all of those transitional forms. Even Darwin himself is alleged to have relented that his theory would ultimately be proven or discarded on the basis of such geological evidence. For […]
The Hunger Games ranks among one of the top grossing movies of the past several years. Obviously, something about the film has captured the imagination and interest of a wide range of people and viewpoints. This includes segments of the Evangelical Christian population as well. One might assume adherents of this particular belief system might […]
The rate of technological and cultural change is so fast and comprehensive in these days in which we live that futurist Alvin Toffler has likened the phenomena to waves sweeping over society and labeled the feeling of disoriented perplexity that settles over us in the wake as “Future Shock”. Many of these changes appear to […]
Only ethicist Arthur Caplan has the nerve to say it: Years ago, when he moved from Minnesota to Pennsylvania, he was reapplying for his driver’s license, and advised by the clerk: Don’t mark that: If you do, they will let you die. The fact that the governor quickly got a heart/liver transplant made a lot […]
The latest episode of the “Consider This!” podcast is out. Conservative commentary in 10 minutes or less. Would you support a baker who refused to bake a cake with a Swastika on it celebrating a pair of loving neo-Nazis who were getting married? Would the ACLU come down on the side of the baker, or the couple? […]
Michelle Obama told off a heckler who yelled at her when she was trying to give a speech yesterday. Good for her. Such protests are traditionally the way that the left wing fringe tries to get publicity for their causes, but alas, with the start of the tea parties, heckling and interrupting speakers is now […]
It is perhaps one of the greatest intellectual stumbling blocks in all of religious thought. As much as any soul would like to avoid the topic all together, sooner or later each person will be forced to grapple with the seemingly incongruous realties resulting from the simultaneous existence of both a sovereign God and the […]
The Washington Post is busy printing “opinions” but today’s editorial seems to go over the wall. A psychologist who once was an ordained minister disdains standing for “god bless America” during ball games. Why? But being pressured to stand up at a baseball game for a song that’s essentially a prayer seems, well, un-American. The rest […]
BBG Watch Commentary Fired Radio Liberty Russian journalists delivered some of the best in depth analysis of the links between the Boston bombings, violent jihadism and Chechnya. Known as Radio Liberty in Exile, journalists fired last year by the former management of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) turned to their still employed RFE/RL […]
It’s Holy Week here in the Philippines, which means lots of church going and Manila is emptying out for folks to go home for the Easter Holidays. First Things magazine discusses how Americans should view the crucifixion: not as an event to be watched, but as the result of our sins. They even quote Luther […]
One only has to scan the news papers or listen to comments about religion to see anti religion is now in style: not just of Catholics, of course, but hatred of all men of good will who follow traditional values. How dare they think that some things are actually right and some things are wrong […]
Well, today we Filipinos woke up and found we wouldn’t be losing Cardinal Tagle to Rome: Apparently an Argentinian bishop was picked for the next Pope. But choosing a name usually is a hint on what the Pope plans to do when in office, and it is interesting that Cardinal Bergloglino chose the name of […]
This week we Catholics celebrate Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. A lot of good Catholics were slightly hung over from too much Mardi Gras on Tuesday, but never mind: The idea is that “there is a time to party and a time to fast”, and now the time to fast has arrived. Traditionally, at […]
Welcome to the First Virtual Church of Our Lord and Savior, Steve Jobs. As you enter the sanctuary, please do not make eye contact with anyone. Keep your eyes focused on the screen of the mobile device of your choice. We are relevant and practice diversity here, which is easy since no one will even […]
It is the fearful, unthinking herd instinct and the forces that exploit it that are making us such a polarized nation. You don’t have to have a sick religion or be a right wing Republican to be delusional. Twitter is dripping with delusionalism in politics and atheism. And just try to convince me that Oswald […]
We read about one incident of a lunatic shooting people in a theater, a lunatic shooting people at a school, a lunatic crashing jetliners into skyscrapers. Then we conclude that all strangers are lunatics, too dangerous to connect with. So we stay alone, unconnected, and slowly we become a nation of benign lunatics.   I see […]
The fight between the NRA and the Obama administration is just political fog. The “excuse” is because of several high profile mass murders, yet the real problem is that the press publicizes and glorifies such murders, leading to “copy cat” crimes by the unstable. One has to wonder at dear old Joe Biden’s remark, justifying […]
NO ONE else in America is put underneath a law that dictates how you are supposed to spiritually raise your kids. The 1st amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”… but the ICWA Congress enacted comes dangerously close to doing just that.
Every Christmas Eve, before the kids go to bed, we listen to Mannheim Steamroller’s “Silent Night” as the last thing in the day. Usually I’ll say a little something about remember family far away, or about soldiers deployed during this time. It’s usually short. However this year, with the Newtown shooting, and getting some inspiration […]
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