By now, you’ve heard stories like this too many times. Father McFarlin had a reputation for sexual deviancy. He crossed the line in conversations with children with sexually suggestive language. By 2005, his Bishops had investigated complaints by six different children in his diocese. But they didn’t report him to police or remove him from […]
Europe Is Not Lost, She Just Needs the Real Thing
The spiritual condition of Europe has been the focus of attention for American Christians and conservatives for quite a while. The twentieth century did in practice what the Enlightenment thinkers had imagined in theory: The complete removal of Christianity from public life. Christianity has retreated, even from those countries that a century ago were vocally Christian in their public policies. The two world wars helped for short revivals of spiritual activities, and the Cold War – and its end – contributed somewhat for a renewed interest in Europe’s Christian history. But in general, Europe has been on the road to thorough secularism, rejecting Christianity as a moral paradigm, silencing its politicians and public figures who dare speak in the name of the Christian religion, and ridiculing Christianity as a backward religion of her savage past. And with the rise of Islam and the impotence of the European nations to stop its tide, the future looks bleak.
Traditions Don’t Work, Christian Relevancy Does
Most American Christians will probably not hear or pay attention to today’s news from Europe. The news is disturbing: The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg declared the public display of crucifixes in schools in Italy illegal. This was in response to a complaint filed by a Finnish-born mother who sued the schools for displaying the crucifixes. Crucifixes in the classrooms of public schools in Italy are mandatory by law, and that law is approved by the majority of the population, whether they believe in Christ or not. But the Court in Strasbourg decided against the democratic opinion of the Italian people and declared the law illegal.