The Bible begins with two uncontested presuppositions: First, God exists, and, second, He is the Creator of “the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). A third presupposition logically follows from the first two: “The earth is the LORD’s and all it contains” (Ps. 24:1; see 1 Cor. 10:26). Not only the land, but the stuff of creation also belongs to God: “For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattl [...]

William Goldman, author and screen writer,[1] sums up the problem of attempting to be certain about the success of a film—“Nobody knows anything.”[2] Goldman was not saying that Hollywood types are stupid. He was pointing out that they are not omniscient. They don’t have enough knowledge about people and their tastes to know whether a film will be a success. For example, Disney executives sold off [...]

The word economics is derived from two Greek words: oikos, meaning “house,” and nomos, meaning “law.” Almost all modern definitions of economics, like contemporary definitions of “government,” assume that the State, civil government, is the starting point in understanding economic theory and practice. To understand economics, so the argument goes, the role of the State must first be considered. On [...]

“It is hoped that but few will think the subject of [this sermon] an improper one to be discoursed on in the pulpit, under a notion that this is preaching politics, instead of Christ. However, to remove all prejudices of this sort, I beg it may be remembered that ‘all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’ Why, then, should [...]

“Even the most wicked men sometimes tell the truth or reason correctly.”[1] If you are about to lose a debate, call your opponent a Nazi! Such a charge brings all subsequent argumentation to a screeching halt. Calling someone a racist is almost as effective. The reductio ad Hitlerum, as University of Chicago Professor Leo Strauss named the fallacy, takes the following form: “Adolf Hitler, or Nazis [...]

Most Americans, many of them Christians, have had their worldview shaped, for good or ill, by information gathered through pop culture channels. There is nothing new in this phenomenon. Like electricity that follows the path of least resistance, pop culture makes its way into our homes through easily digestible media like newspapers, comics, novels, radio, films, television, music, sports, graphic [...]

The new Superman movie comes to the big screen on June 28th as Superman Returns. Continuity has been established with the earlier movie version that saw Christopher Reeve play the title character by sticking with but enhancing the original musical score and using archival footage of Marlon Brando who played Jor-El, Superman’s father from Krypton. Superman is an American icon. He is probably one of [...]

In an interview on CNN, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the new bishop of the Episcopal Church USA, had this to say when asked if she believed homosexuality is a sin. “I don’t believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us,” [...]

One way to keep Christians out of the public arena, especially politics, is to claim that there is a separation between Church and State. The argument is based on the assumption that in biblical times Church and State were merged, and in modern times the First Amendment separates the two institutions. Supposedly, under biblical law, priests ruled over elders, judges, and kings. If this is the case [...]

Ann Coulter begins her book Godless: The Church of Liberalism with this opening salvo: “Liberals love to boast that they are not ‘religious,’ which is what one would expect to hear from the state-sanctioned religion. Of course liberalism is a religion. It has its own cosmology, its own miracles, its own beliefs in the supernatural, its own churches, its own priests, its own saints, its own total w [...]

Comparing homosexuality with race and gender has become a culture-wide strategy of the homosexual lobby. Not even children are spared these tactics. Consider how homosexual propaganda is set forth in the world of comic books and the way the press handles the topic. In the March 1992 issue of Marvel’s Alpha Flight comic book series, Northstar, a former (fictional) Canadian Olympic athlete, decides [...]

If there is no final authority, then there can be no law that has legitimacy. “If there is no absolute moral standard,” Francis A. Schaeffer wrote, “then one cannot say in a final sense that anything is right or wrong. By absolute we mean that which applies [to all people], that which provides a final or ultimate standard. There must be an absolute if there are to be morals, and there must be an a [...]

Barbara Ehrenreich, author of a number of books pushing Marxist ideology and articles hostile to the role of Christianity and politics, claims that the “fear of governmental tyranny kept the Founding Fathers from proscribing anything like ‘family values.’ Homosexuality was not unknown 200 years ago; nor was abortion. But these were matters, like religion, that the founders left to individual consc [...]

Aware of the anti-religious climate that was directed at him, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Rush that he would not publish The Life and Morals of Jesus. Did he fear public retribution? [I am] averse to the communication of my religious tenets to the public, because it would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion [...]

Early in his campaign for president Jefferson was accused of being an atheist by many prominent clergymen. One of Jefferson’s most vocal early critics was Timothy Dwight, president of Yale. On July 4, 1798, Dwight delivered a speech urging the voters to defeat the Jeffersonians—“the illuminati, the philosophers, the atheists, and the deists.” Dwight predicted dire consequences if Jefferson and his [...]

Most of what comes out of Hollywood these days is rubbish, although occasionally one does find a few gems (e.g., Chariots of Fire, Hoosiers, Driving Miss Daisy, Babe, October Sky, A Walk to Remember). Many movies that could be enjoyed by children and adults are often spoiled by raw language (My Cousin Vinny), taking God’s name in vain (Cinderella Man and The Aviator), inappropriate language (Searc [...]

In Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, first published in 1957 and one of the most widely read novels, the people who make the world work and run with their ideas and productivity go on strike. They disappear from the society that was exploiting their gifts and energies. With these achievers no longer contributing to society, disintegration sets in. The interventionists are left without the productiv [...]

Americans are feeling the pinch at the gas pump. They believe they are paying way too much for a gallon of gasoline. Take a trip to England where you will pay about $6.00 per gallon. Most of the price is in taxes. I can remember seeing the movie Tender Mercies starring Robert Duvall as a drunken country-western singer who finds Christ and a new family. The woman he married owned a gas station. [...]

With the high price of gasoline, the temptation to fix the problem through government will be strong. It won’t work; it hasn’t ever worked. If all governments have to do to make us prosperous is to pass laws, why not get them to make us all rich? Socialism, as a political and economic system, continues to attract adherents around the world. America has its large share of operational socialists. Ma [...]

The History Channel aired a two-part program on the Ten Commandments last week (April 12–13, 2006). While I did not see all of it, I was able to watch from the eighth commandment to the conclusion. Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard and popular author who made a name for himself by getting a conviction overturned for Claus Von Bülow who had been accused of attemptin [...]