Obama and the Global Police: More Friendly Fascism?

John W. Whitehead January 14th, 2010

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."– James Madison

Over the course of his first year in office, Barack Obama has shown himself to be a skillful and savvy politician, saying the things Americans want to hear while stealthily and inexorably moving forward the government's agenda of centralized power. For example, in one breath, Obama pays lip service to the need for greater transparency in governme … (Read More)

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What Has Happened to Evangelicalism in America?

John H. Armstrong January 5th, 2010

The famous historian of theology, H. Richard Niebuhr, once called theological liberalism a religion devoted to "a God without wrath [who] brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross" [The Kingdom of God in America, (The Wesleyan University Press, orig. 1937; 1988), p. 193].

I can’t think of a statement that better sums up much of the problem inside the church in our time. Where once liberal theology ravaged the older c … (Read More)

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Pregnant, single teen… gives birth to Saviour!

Susan Isaacs December 22nd, 2009

This past Sunday’s New Testament reading was from Luke 1: Mary Visits Elizabeth and Mary’s Magnificat. If you’re like me and you’ve been going to church for years, it’s easy to gloss over the Christmas stories with detached calm. You know it turns out OK: Joseph doesn’t divorce Mary, Jesus is born, and the wise men return home by another way. Personally, I have a hard time visualizing the players as anyone other than the figurines from my childhood crèche: blonde Mary in her pink dr … (Read More)

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Let Hanukkah be Hanukkah

Terry Mattingly December 16th, 2009

Here we go again.

Is it a mainstream news story that the beleaguered social-events staff at the White House sent out an invitation card for the First Family’s second Hanakkah party (not the first, the second party) that referred to it as a “holiday reception”? And does this have anything whatsoever to do with the strained relations between liberal Democrats and, believe it or not, Jewish voters (see “Catholic voters”)?

In other words, is this a real story because it’s somehow linke … (Read More)

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cartoon: question everything

nakedpastor December 8th, 2009

Some of you might remember this cartoon from August 3, 2009. This is the way it should have been drawn. This is what nakedpastor.com is about.

(If you're on the front page of the site, click the title of this post to see the cartoon.)

nakedpastor is David Hayward. David is an artist trapped in a pastor's body. Go to nakedpastor.com for more cartoons, blog posts, art and insight from a pastor who's stark naked honest about church life.

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Is Tweeting Now a Felony Under Federal Law?

John W. Whitehead November 18th, 2009

Say you want a revolution.

We better get on right away.

Well you get on your feet

And out on the street.

–John Lennon, "Power to the People"

The ominous rise of the surveillance state continues unabated. With each passing day, hope fades that the Obama administration will diverge from George W. Bush's erection of a police state.

The government's treatment of Elliot Madison is a case in point. Madison, a 41-year-old self-styled anarchist and social worke … (Read More)

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