The always insightful Michael Novak has a great piece over at First Things regarding the wrongheaded anti-capitalistic arguments of the Christian left. It’s also a good primer on supply-side economics. Here are some key paragraphs: In April 2007, the IRS received more tax dollars than in any month in its prior history. The new tax policies of the last few years are soaking the rich heavier than they have ever been soaked before. The rich are paying a larger percentage of the income tax than ever before (85 percent in 2004, compared to 65 percent in 1979). They are also … Continue reading Christian Socialism Is Dead. Long Live Christian Anti-Capitalism!

Over at First Things, Robert T. Miller comments on Senator Sam Brownback’s New York Times op-ed on the relationship between faith and reason. Miller’s critique is spot-on, in my opinion. Here are Miller’s crucial remarks: Senator Brownback thus distinguishes faith and reason on the basis of subject matter, for in his view “they deal with very different questions”—faith treats “the spiritual order,” and reason “the material order.” This, however, is obviously wrong. For some people, of course, it’s a matter of faith that God created the world in six days about six thousand years ago; but it’s nevertheless knowable by … Continue reading Getting the Relationship between Faith and Reason Wrong…and Right

Christianity Today offers two articles on hymns today. The first is actually a slideshow of hymnals and hymn-singing from around the world. The second is an article by my college history professor, Mark Noll: "We Are What We Sing." Here’s the opening paragraph of Noll’s article, with which I heartily agree: Evangelicalism at its best is the religion displayed in its classic hymns. The classic evangelical hymns contain the clearest, most memorable, cohesive, and widely repeated expressions of what it has meant to be an evangelical.I I’m a fan of contemporary worship music, but I also think we should keep singing … Continue reading Hymns

The featured article in today’s Opinion Journal is "The Conservative Mind" by Peter Berkowitz, senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Here are the opening paragraphs. The left prides itself on, and frequently boasts of, its superior appreciation of the complexity and depth of moral and political life. But political debate in America today tells a different story. On a variety of issues that currently divide the nation, those to the left of center seem to be converging, their ranks increasingly untroubled by debate or dissent, except on daily tactics and long-term strategy. Meanwhile, those to the right of center are … Continue reading “The Conservative Mind” by Peter Berkowitz

…can be viewed online here. Continue reading Christianity Today’s 2007 Book Awards…

Over at the Christianity Today website, Mark Dever answers this question using the Old Testament prophet Obadiah. Continue reading Does God Have Enemies?

Recently, a spate of books has been published that extol the virtues of atheism and excoriate the vices of religion: Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion, Sam Harris’s Letters to a Christian Nation, and now Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great.  Having perused a couple of these books myself, my conclusion is that these men are clever writers but far from clear thinkers. If the village atheist had a Ph.D. in biology, a witty pen, anger management issues, and an unfamiliarity with contemporary work in the philosophy of religion, he would write these books. If not, he would leave well enough alone. Unfortunately, the … Continue reading Who Will Review the Reviewers?