Last week, students across New York finished a set of tests taken over a two week period designed to measure their proficiency at reading and math against new federal college readiness standards known as Common Core. Some parents opted their children out of the exams in protest against what they described as the …
Most people would agree that the Federal government has abandoned any pretense of its responsibility to “ensure safe, decent and affordable” (Housing Act, 1937) housing for the poorest people in our country as it committed to do in 1937 when what is now HUD was formed. After years of …
Now that the Boston bombers have been identified—one killed and the other brother captured—the next question is why? Why did they do it, and did religion play a role? As soon as it became clear that the Tsarnaev brothers were Muslim and that Tamerlan, the older of the two, had become …
Christianity is having a youth recruitment problem. The much-analyzed Millennial generation is turning away from religion, especially Christianity, in record numbers. The Pew Forum has found that one in four Milleninials [3] is unaffiliated with a religion, putting the numbers of their irreligious at a significantly higher rate than Generation X and at …
On Thursday, I wrote about the central role that absolute free market libertarianism, as personified by the fictional John Galt, played in the horrific explosion in West [3], Texas that took the lives of fourteen people, most of whom were volunteer firefighters [4]fighting a fire at an unregulated fertilizer facility. We have now learned …
Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States. As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the twentieth century polished off …
Many of us here tonight might remember some of the progressive attempts to develop a moral, political and economic vision in the 1950’s and 60s. Their words ring as true today as they did then. Listen to some of their ideas. “WE ARE PEOPLE OF THIS GENERATION, BRED IN AT …
At age sixteen I began what would be a four year struggle with bulimia. When the symptoms started, I turned in desperation to adults who knew more than I did about how to stop shameful behavior—my Bible study leader and a visiting youth minister. “If you ask anything in …
Located in nearly the direct center of the brain, the tiny pinecone-shaped pineal gland, which habitually secretes the wondrous neurohormone melatonin while we sleep at night, was once thought to be a vestigial leftover from a lower evolutionary state. Indeed, according to recent research, we could be increasing our chances of …
Despite Vatican efforts to keep the public eye focused on pomp and circumstance, speculation about the real reason for Pope Benedict’s resignation dominates conversation about the papal succession: Is it the Vatileaks money laundering? Is it the pedophilia scandal? Might it have something to do with criminal charges filed in European courts? How about …
Will the next pope embrace liberation theology? The conventional answer would be: fat chance. However, without going too far out on a limb, one could also answer in the affirmative. In their own ways, both responses will likely be correct. The chances that a true radical will be …
A Church with a “disfigured” face. That is Pope Benedict XVI’s description of how the Catholic Church sometimes is seen because “of sins against the unity of the church.” He said this in his last public Mass, but he offered no reflections on the role he himself played in this …
The statistics continue to pour in. The churches in America that were once thriving and considered mainline are shrinking and struggling to stay alive. Southern Baptists, United Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians are melting away before our very eyes. Not only are they shrinking in numbers, they are getting very …
They say that religion is the opiate of the masses, but it seems that the opiates of the religious are antidepressants. A study released [3] yesterday confirmed that Mississippi remains the most religious state in the Union, followed by a handful of its southern belt brothers: Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, …
Pope Benedict XVI , aka Joseph Ratzinger, announced on February 11 th that he would be resigning early as the leader of over a billion Catholics worldwide. The reason for the surprising decision by the pontiff was due to “deterioration, and incapacity”, and “advanced age”, as stated by the Vatican spokesperson …