The Trinity: Tertullian and Hilary

By Todd Rester
Reformation21

The Trinitarian formulations of the early Church often seem to our postmodern culture as the inevitable brainchild of monastic orders, burlap habits, deserts, and Neoplatonic philosophy. Austere, abstract, and unconnected from everyday life – just like the stereotypical image of a monk. Even worse, in a fit of postmodern amnesia, it is no less than the Christian community who has lost sight of the significance of the Trinity for the Christian life. Does it really matter whether we refer to God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Are these not simply human conventions imposed upon an infinitely loving being? Have we not outgrown such small-mindedness? What could detailed, protracted arguments over the terms perichoresis, hypostasis, communicatio idiomatum, monarchia, and oikonomia possibly offer the 21^st century Church in terms of its devotion to Christ and the growth of His Church? Won’t our God-consciousness simply choke and die on the dust of such dogmatic doctrine? (more)

Does the MTV Generation Lack the Pilgrim Spirit?

By Ken Connor
Human Events

In Argentina and Mexico, for example, 60% of young people between the ages of 16-34 identified themselves as happy, and over 80% of children aged 8-15 said they were happy. Likewise, 60% of India's youth told researchers they were happy. Compare that to young people in the "developed" world. In the United States and the United Kingdom, less than 30% of young adults aged 16-34, and less than 50% of children 8-15, said they were happy. The situation in Japan is even worse; only eight percent acknowledged that they were happy. (more)

Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history

By Dinesh D'Souza

These figures are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people. (more)

The Human Calculus of National Security

By Philip R. O'Connor
TCS Daily

Any leader disposed toward treating these decisions in exclusively personal terms is unfit for leadership. But what happens if our leaders have no referent for the human calculus of preserving the nation's security? Suppose they have no idea or refuse to even consider the price they are willing for us to pay for our security. We recognize the inevitability of deaths in our police and fire services and among our utility and sanitation workers. As a society we know that, taken together, these four professions alone have an average daily duty-related death rate of about one per day. But we also appreciate the absolute importance of those jobs for our daily well being. (more)

Philanthropy Expert: Conservatives Are More Generous

Well, how about this?! Will liberals admit that conservatives, esp. the religious kind have better solutions to social problems? This is a good sign. If they accept this finding, there is hope for them and our society yet. If not, then they would have proven themselves as stubborn losers.

When it comes to helping the needy, Brooks writes: "For too long, liberals have been claiming they are the most virtuous members of American society. Although they usually give less to charity, they have nevertheless lambasted conservatives for their callousness in the face of social injustice." (more)

Shoot-First Apologetics

by Richard J. Mouw
Christianity Today

I was chided recently by someone who was upset with me because of my extensive dialogues with Mormon scholars. "How can you engage in friendly conversations with people who believe such terrible things?" he asked me. I tried to explain that if we are going to criticize Mormonism, it should be on matters that they actually believe, not on what we think they believe. I said the best way to know Mormon beliefs is to actually engage in dialogue with Mormons. (more)

A Critical Symposium on A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future

Touchstone Magazine Forum

Issued in the September issue of Christianity Today, A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future notes that today “the church is confronted by a host of master narratives that contradict and compete with the gospel,” and calls Evangelicals to “strengthen their witness through a recovery of the faith articulated by the consensus of the ancient church and its guardians in the traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, the Protestant Reformation, and the evangelical awakenings.” (more)

Debate Over Evolution Not Going Away

by John G. West
Human Events

The debate over Darwinian evolution is typically framed by the news media as a clash between “right” and “left.” Conservatives are presumed to be critical of Darwin’s theory, while liberals are presumed to be supportive of it.

As in most cases, reality is more complicated. (more)

What Would Jesus Tax?

By Jerry Bowyer
TCS Daily

Critics on the left charge that lowering the tax rate on capital helps the rich, not the poor. This reveals the fundamental presupposition error of their thinking—that the rich and poor have an inherent economic conflict of interest. They do not. The tendency in modern dynamic economies is for the rich and poor both to get richer, but at different rates. Growth-oriented policies are beneficial to both. They have an inherent harmony of interests. This is demonstrated by current economic data. Lowering the cost of taxes on capital lowers the risk of capital investment. The tax cuts of 2003 triggered a very strong surge in capital spending. This means more buildings, more computers, and more machines, which means more people to occupy, sit at and operate them. That's why the household survey shows a gain of 8 million jobs in the past 3 years. (more)

Common Sense Economics

by Walter E. Williams
Human Events

Professors James Gwartney (Florida State University), Richard Stroup (Montana State University) and Dwight Lee (Georgia University), three longtime colleagues of mine, have recently published "Common Sense Economics." It's a small book, less than 200 pages, that addresses a serious economist dereliction of duty: making our subject understandable to the ordinary person. (more)