7 Things I Learned About Dealing with Officials
I was fully prepared to breeze over a July 14 article in theguardian.com headlined “Ghostbusters in line for China ban due to supernatural theme.” But I read it, and I’m glad I did…
I was fully prepared to breeze over a July 14 article in theguardian.com headlined “Ghostbusters in line for China ban due to supernatural theme.” But I read it, and I’m glad I did…
In despotisms and tyrannies, people have no rights to be informed about the conduct of their leaders. That is not surprising, as neither their input nor their influence is wanted…
Christianity rests on facts. And because the record of Christianity relies on the accounts of facts set forth in the Bible, that Book is continually at the heart of debates and arguments over the…
Author Carl Sandburg popularized an old lumberman’s saying when he wrote, regarding the death of President Abraham Lincoln, “A tree is best measured when it is down.” The news that U.S. Supreme Court Justice…
The Constitution of the United States sets limitations regarding international treaties. It is a hallmark of the bizarre state of politics in Washington that…
Since June 26, when five Supreme Court justices issued their majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, the millennia-old idea of religious freedom in America has…
In June the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, in which gay rights activists won the constitutional right for same-sex marriage. Five of the nine justices granted that right, inventing it out of whole cloth…
As the adage goes, “Ideas have consequences.” However, in these dangerous times of savage jihadism, bad ideas can have disastrous consequences. If they woo our Washington policy makers or…
In November, four Israelis—three of them Americans—were slaughtered in a synagogue in Jerusalem when Palestinians armed with guns, knives, and axes burst in during prayer and…
The city of Houston ignited a Bill of Rights uproar a few months ago, and the controversy is not likely to die down anytime soon. It started when the Houston City Council, at the urging of…
A recent deal between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and an anti-faith activist group promises to threaten the religious free-speech rights of churches around the nation.
When the hot days of summer began to descend, two significant legal issues were heating up in Washington. One was the well-known case involving Christian-run Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc….
This year the White House has promoted two disconcerting proposals that would cede more power over the Internet to the international community. The result would undoubtedly…
Everyone loves a good story. Today, perhaps the most powerful storytelling takes place on the silver screen. And 2014 looks as if Hollywood is casting its attention…
Years ago I traveled to the Netherlands on a book tour for my novels. A well-known cartoonist had recently been arrested there and his computer seized by Dutch police…
Last fall author Joseph Atwill made a splash in London when he claimed the Gospels were faked by the Romans to quell a possible Jewish uprising. The theory, preposterous as it is, goes like this…
I was watching a television talk show one evening that centered on a discussion between the host, a well-known skeptic, and a spokesman for the “evangelical” left. Political and social issues…
Earlier this year a former intelligence defense contractor named Edward Snowden made some stunning disclosures. His revelations pertained to federal government surveillance via two…
Times have changed. In ancient days, the poet Virgil began the Aeneid—his famous ode to national duty and military exploit—with the celebratory words, “I sing of arms.” In April, the UN…
To provide for the common defense is an artful, 18th-century phrase that some have tried to modernize to mean to “defend our country from other…
For several years Google has displayed on YouTube, its Internet video platform, an end-of-the-year review in images, photographs, and news…
Powerful evidence is mounting that we are in the middle of worldwide convergences—stunning unifications taking place across the planet on at least four fronts…
Now that national elections are over, I have taken the time to reflect on a consistent theme in American politics of late: the presence (or absence) of civility in campaign…
When I read the e-mail in May from a legal webcasting group that regularly advises lawyers on current, but usually mundane, employment issues, I knew it was one more bit…
Radical New Testament critic John Dominic Crossan, touted by his publisher as being “widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time,” has written a new book called The Power…
The familiar words of the U.S. Declaration of Independence remind us we are endowed by God “with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of…
Do you remember as a child being told to pick up your room? Most of us do. There are advantages to orderliness. And when it comes to our most fundamental liberties…
Although they knew God, they did not glorify [honor] Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise…
A common thread in John Bunyan’s 17th-century Christian classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, involves his hero’s wisdom (or lack thereof) in choosing companions as he travels on his long road through life…
When the news first broke that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan, television captured images of college students celebrating in Washington, DC, and National Public Radio gave unenlightened coverage…
An ultra-liberal movement is ripping its way through American culture. I call its purveyors the “new barbarians.” When we think of barbarian, we often picture Neolithic-looking creatures in animal skins, wielding giant clubs.
The timing was striking. The article appeared in the December 5, 2010, issue of The New York Times. Harvard philosophy professor Sean D. Kelly wrote about what makes a “life worthy of…admiration.”
When I read the comment in Wired magazine last fall, I was so astonished I had to read it again. It reaffirmed my suspicion that there is a quiet, almost…
Julea Ward was getting A’s in her classes. She had completed all of her required work for a master’s degree in counseling at Eastern Michigan University, but problems arose during…
Now that the hotly contested Senate confirmation hearing of Elena Kagan is over and President Barack Obama’s nominee has become the 112th justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court…
It all started when the Christian Legal Society (CLS), a fellowship group of Christian law students and lawyers, sought official recognition at the Hastings Law School, a part of the California…
In January the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Although the 5–4 decision narrowly upheld freedom of speech, it also made obvious the two…
Even the quickest glance at the text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution makes one thing exceedingly clear: each of the rights guaranteed therein—religion, speech, assembly, and freedom…
On October 22 in Washington, DC, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) convened a hearing process that may determine who will rule the Internet. What happens could affect the freedom of Christians…
Now that Sonia Sotomayor has been sworn in as the newest associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, some reflections are in order. How much do we really know about…
As part of my work with National Religious Broadcasters, I was involved in a small meeting in the Capitol Hill office of a congressional representative not long ago. Known in political circles…
Thomas Jefferson once famously said, “Almighty God hath created the mind free….All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens [burdens]…are a departure from the plan of the Holy…