American Vision ran an ad on Facebook that elicited some uninformed and disturbing comments. I mentioned some of them in “Were the July 4th and 1787 Founders Deists?” In offering the 1864 book The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, all kinds of responses were posted, from the witchcraft trials to young children found in “mass graves” in Canada. There were [...]
American Vision ran an ad on Facebook for the republication of The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States. The ad went to a broader audience. Some historical crazies responded. Keep in mind that no one who had responded had read the 1000-page book that is filled with original source documentation. It’s easy to argue a case when you are ignorant and assume other [...]
Once again, the Olympic Games are the center stage for racial issue protests. It began at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 when Tommie Smith (gold medal) and John Carlos (bronze medal) made an international public statement about racial injustice in the United States with their bowed heads, “black-socked feet without shoes to bring attention to Black poverty, beads to protest lynchings, and raised [...]
There were more shootings in Chicago over the weekend. The irony of these shootings, in which 52 were shot and 5 died (Chicago Sun-Times Wire, 6/21/21), is the weekend itself….Father’s Day weekend. Some sociologists note that what we’re seeing in large part are quite often the results of fatherlessness in America. Mark J. Perry, a scholar with American Enterprise Institute, put out a chart on Marc [...]
“Atheists in Mississippi are suing the state over its new license plates — which display the phrase, ‘In God We Trust’ — arguing that their First Amendment rights are being violated. One group is even arguing that the phrase is rooted in ‘deep hostility’ toward atheists. “Wherever I use my trailer, I am forced to profess a religious idea that I do not believe," said plaintiff Jason Alan Grigg [...]
Recently, a student at Justice High School in Fairfax, Virginia, led the graduation ceremony in the Pledge of Allegiance. In this public school setting, when she got to the part about “one nation under God,” she said, instead, “one nation under Allah.” This was apparently without any permission from school officials. The idea of “one nation under Allah” is a natural outgrowth of the idea of “multi [...]
On October 15, 2006, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia participated in a one-hour televised debate with American Civil Liberties Union president Nadine Strossen.[1] Scalia defended a number of his opinions and stated that neither homosexual rights nor abortion can be found in the Constitution. “On controversial issues on stuff like homosexual rights, abortion, we debate with each other [...]
There are at least two types of “equality.” The first refers to equality before the law. The other is to use the law to force economic and social equality. This type of equality attempts to level society to force equal outcomes for everyone’s good. Orwell’s Animal Farm explains it best as there are always those at the top who define equality who become more equal than others. In the en [...]
When our first president under the Constitution was sworn in on April 30, 1789, it was in New York City. Back then it was our capital city. Today it is often called the cultural capital of the country. George Washington took the oath of office in the common way it was done in his Anglican Church, by saying, “So help me, God.” He took the oath with his hand on an open Bible. [...]
“[T]he state is necessarily hostile to Christianity due to it being not only a rival pole of power in society, but because the state itself promotes its own religion in the form of progressivism.” — Zachary Yost It has been said that he who frames the debate wins the debate. I think the “progressives” were brilliant to coin this term. But in reality, it’s one big lie. Progress is a good thing, but [...]
A Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski, the head of Calgary’s Street Church in Alberta, and his brother, Dawid Pawlowski, were arrested and charged with “organizing an illegal in-person gathering,” according to a statement by the Calgary Police Service. A video capturing the arrests showed police vehicles parked on the street as officers carried the handcuffed brothers, who appeared to refuse to walk o [...]
If there are riots now in America, what will it be like 20 years from now if the New York Times gets its way? The New York Times sponsored the 1619 Project, which postulates that America’s real beginnings as a nation are when the first African slaves were brought to Jamestown in 1619. Many historians note that this is a distortion of our nation’s roots. Worse, it makes young people turn against th [...]
“Little Foxes have lived in all times, in all places. This family happened to live in the deep south in the year 1900.” — Prologue to THE LITTLE FOXES. A few weeks ago my wife and I watched the 1941 film The Little Foxes with the always delightful Teresa Wright. The title comes from the Bible: Catch the foxes for us, The little foxes that spoil the vines. For our vines have tender grapes. [...]
Mother’s Day is May 9th this year. I thought I’d give it a headstart with one of my favorite films. I Remember Mama is based on the memoir Mama’s Bank Account written by Kathryn Forbes. The setting is pre-WWI San Francisco. The irony of the setting should not be missed. Modern-day San Francisco is the philosophical center of familial redefinition incorporating everything from Heather Has Two Mommi [...]
When my oldest son was about four, we were at the check-out line at a Blockbuster video store when he noticed a display promoting a new video release of The Godfather. “Dad, are these movies about God?” he asked. A reasonable question for a four-year-old given the title and his always curious nature. Knowing that he would not care to hear a long retelling of the plot, I summed up the storyline by [...]
This is Part Six of a six-part series titled “THE BIBLE, THE CONSTITUTION, AND THE JURISDICTIONAL SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.” If you would like a full illustrated transcript of this series, send an email to Support@AmericanVision.org “Getting to Know Your Church-State Jurisdictions” is Part One in this series, “The Biblical Model of Church and State” is Part Two, Part Three is “Can Secularism [...]
The following movie review from a 2005 issue of Biblical Worldview Magazine is quite relevant to our own day and time of “burn it down” revolutionaries. G.K. Chesterton, ever the prophet and eminently quotable, made the point about good always needing to be vigilant in the fight against evil with his “old white post” analogy: Chesterton addressed this perennial fight for go [...]
This is Part Five of a Six-Part series titled “THE BIBLE, THE CONSTITUTION, AND THE JURISDICTIONAL SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.” If you would like a full illustrated transcript of this series, send an email to Support@AmericanVision.org “Getting to Know Your Church-State Jurisdictions” is Part One in this series, “The Biblical Model of Church and State” is Part Two, Part Three is “Can Secularis [...]
“Getting to Know Your Church-State Jurisdictions” is Part One in this series, “The Biblical Model of Church and State” is Part Two, and Part Three is “Can Secularism Account for Morality in Government?” To understand the relationship between Church and State we need to go to the source, and that source is not the United States Constitution. Modern-day social theory is based on an evolutionary mode [...]
“Getting to Know Your Church-State Jurisdictions” is Part One of this series and “The Biblical Model of Church and State” is Part Two. This third installment asks, What is civil government’s basis for morality? Stanley Fish, writing in the New York Times,[1] describes the way various philosophical traditions understand the “role of religion and public life.” He begins by pointing out that under “C [...]
