James Arlandson

James Arlandson

  • December 10, 2023

    The best way to fight Hamas

    It is difficult to sort out what is happening in war.  Will the IDF flood the tunnels with sea water?  Reports say this has already begun.  Other reports say this has not happened yet.  Whatever the case, the bes...

  • November 13, 2022

    Good election news flying under the radar

    Here are two stories that conservatives care about.  They have one thing in common: children. Nowadays, school board elections are extremely important, since they guide our future.  The Christian Post is reporting...

  • February 26, 2022

    Protect Taiwan the Eisenhower way

    With Putin's invasion of Ukraine, it is now clear that Xi believes that Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, is ripe for the plucking.  They have factored in President* Biden's obvious weakness and mental decline. ...

  • November 6, 2021

    The Big Truth: Election 2020 Really Was Rigged

    Mollie Hemingway has written a blockbuster book about all the strands of deception and falsehoods that converged to take down Donald Trump on Nov. 3 and 4 and beyond (and before) in her book: Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech and the Democrat...

  • January 10, 2021

    Note to the Left: We Who Cast Legal Votes Have Nothing to Be Ashamed Of

    Yes, Trump really did win the election, but it was stolen by last-minute, unauthorized rule changes, like flooding the system with unverified mail-in ballots, accepting them past Nov. 3 without sequestering them.  Yet Article...

  • December 31, 2020

    Stunning turn of events in PA may lead to Trump victory

    On Dec. 28, Pennsylvania lawmakers concluded that "Numbers Don't Add Up, Certification Of Presidential Results Premature and In Error."  President Trump tweeted about it: Breaking News: In Pennsylvania there were 205,000...

  • December 12, 2020

    We Don't Need SCOTUS to Win

    The Texas suit, later joined by other states, against Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia, was a nice try, but it was always a long shot.  Of course SCOTUS would be reluctant to grab so much power by ordering state legislatures t...

  • October 11, 2020

    The Great Barrington Declaration says to end the lockdown

    Over 18,000 (and growing) medical public health scientists and medical practitioners have signed the Great Barrington Declaration, pleads with the various governments around the world to end the lockdowns and open the economy. As of right now, o...

  • July 12, 2020

    An Evil Counterfeit to the Jesus Revolution

    Pres. Trump used a variety of terms for the confused, factious movements in his stand-strong Mt. Rushmore speech: "angry mobs"; "cancel culture"; "totalitarianism"; "dangerous movement"; "new far-left...

  • July 11, 2020

    Reagan said 'Make America Great Again'

    Reported at Townhall, the Army gave a handout that said the slogan "Make America Great Again" is to be classified as "white supremacy."  The Military Times reports some of the phrases and incidents that al...

  • June 28, 2020

    Should White Christians Wash Black People's Feet to Atone for Racism?

    So many commentators don't understand the biblical background to the act of kneeling and washing feet.  (Biblical ignorance is such a bad influence in our society.)  And of course the religious left takes Scripture out of cont...

  • June 13, 2020

    The morality of calling in the National Guard to stop mayhem

    Contrast these two stories. First, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) used the National Guard to crush the violence.  In an opinion piece written by the governor for Fox News, she says: America is a place where all voices can be he...

  • June 5, 2020

    Trump's church walk was a strong move

    On Monday, June 1, Trump stood in front of St. John's church in Washington, D.C. and held up a Bible.  CBN News has the story: President Donald Trump visited Washington, DC's St. John's Episcopal Church near the White House...

  • April 21, 2020

    Radical Muslims mock Western and American corona weakness

    A little historical context, first. On May 28, 1998, Osama bin Laden gave an interview to an American journalist and called America a "paper tiger."  In mid-November 2001, shortly after 9/11, he said that when people ...

  • April 12, 2020

    Give me liberty or give me a mild fever

    We will remember this time as the Great Media-Driven Panphobia of 2020. The British prime minister recovered from his bout with the virus.  ABC (Australia) has the story: The 55-year-old UK leader spent three nights in the intensive...

  • February 9, 2020

    Mitt Romney's self-righteousness and moral blindness are not heroic

    Mitt Romney voted guilty on Article One in the impeachment sham.  The Salt Lake Tribune has the story: "I swore an oath before God to apply impartial justice. And, as you know, I'm a very religious person. I take that ver...

  • January 24, 2020

    Time to shut down the runaway impeachment train

    Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell put in the rules that the ability to stop the trial can be filed at various intervals.  However, Townhall is reporting that lead counsel for the president are refusing to file a motion to sto...

  • January 17, 2020

    GOP senators: Don't overthink impeachment scam

    The articles of impeachment have finally been delivered to the Senate.  The news media covered it with extra piety: The resolution passed largely along party lines by 228 votes to 193. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed cop...

  • December 23, 2019

    Christianity Today's pious blind spot

    We all have blind spots.  Some are produced by vices, like drug addiction and alcoholism.  Others are produced by super-piety, the kind that makes the rest of us cringe.  Christianity Today, in an editorial calling ...

  • December 15, 2019

    Millennials and Christianity: Is there hope?

    Church leaders in a variety of denominations have noticed it, and confirmation comes from a study that says millennials are leaving church, and the study's authors prognosticate that the millennials will not come back. The problem is stated in...

  • February 17, 2019

    Stop Sneering at Evangelicals for Supporting Trump

    The religious left is still looking down on conservative Christian peons for supporting imperfect, feisty Trump.  Throughout social media and elsewhere, the left accuses us of compromising our faith and standards. Prof. Randall Balmer of Dart...

  • February 14, 2019

    Numbers tell the story: Is there a war between white cops and black men?

    The news media feed the belief to the American public that police officers are racists.  The number say otherwise.  Here is the summary of the data from a team of journalists at the Washington Post (not a right-wing website)....

  • November 8, 2018

    Watch the House Democrats implode and Trump win in 2020

    It was a good night for Trump and GOP.  He himself was the protective wall against a blue wave.  By comparison, in 2010, Obama's first term, the GOP in the House picked up 63 members, the biggest seat change since 1948, w...

  • October 24, 2018

    Cyrus is winning on the Korean Peninsula

    North and South Korea and the U.S.-led U.N. forces agreed to remove weapons at border.  Reuters has the basics: North and South Korea and the U.N. Command agreed on Monday to withdraw firearms and guard posts in the demilitarized zone ...

  • August 26, 2018

    God Chose Trump

    When Trump tweets something, the Self-Righteous Indignation Brigade demand that Christians immediately drop their support of the president.  If we don't, then somehow we have lost our integrity or compromised our faith. ...

  • August 15, 2018

    Someone in the Bible used harsher language than Trump's

    It's time for the Self-Righteous Indignation Brigade to calm down and get out of their swoon and fetal position. Yes, Trump called Omarosa Manigault a dog. When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at th...

  • August 5, 2018

    The long game in North Korea negotiations

    The U.N. issued a report that says North Korea is still developing its nuclear program.  The BBC reports it simply: North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes, violating UN sanctions, a report commissioned...

  • July 28, 2018

    Trump is not Reagan; he's Lincoln

    In an article titled "The Lincoln Model: How Trump Can Shut Down the Democrat Plantation," which must be considered the most insightful – or the boldest – of the year so far, Dinesh D'Souza links Lincoln and Trump....

  • July 22, 2018

    The Protestant Work Ethic and the Founding of America

    In his book The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-05, translated into English in 1930), Max Weber first posited the thesis that the Protestant work ethic has opened the door to prosperity through capitalism for the...

  • June 16, 2018

    On laughing it up and shaking hands with evil dictators

    Trump has been criticized for showing too much affection for Kim Jong-un.  But what else was he supposed to do?  Yes, his rhetoric was inelegant and exuberant, but he just signed a deal on the road to a possible concrete peace....

  • June 14, 2018

    Ten Positives from the Trump-Kim Summit

    After the professionals have analyzed and criticized the results, let's look at some of the positives. Here is a summary of the main portion of the four-part deal. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S...

  • June 9, 2018

    Flaws in 'Death Roe'

    When Socrates appeared before the jury of Athens, he said he was not used to the specialized idioms and restrictive language of the court; he was a stranger there. In that spirit, let's look at Roe as outsiders.  Maybe...

  • June 2, 2018

    Judge commands Iowa not to reduce number of babies killed

    An Iowa judge has blocked the restrictions that the Iowa legislature had placed on "death Roe" abortions.  And the Iowa attorney general wouldn't defend the new law anyway. A local TV news outlet su...

  • May 6, 2018

    'Mr. Kim, tear down this wall!'

    On June 12, 1987, President Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and proclaimed, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"  The people applauded. Here is the bigger context: Behind me sta...

  • May 1, 2018

    Is Kim setting a public relations trap for Trump?

    Consider these observable facts: the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, and the "rocket man" of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, were all hugs and kisses.  They held hands as they walked across the border between a free and...

  • April 26, 2018

    Macron's speech: Mostly positive but with foibles

    Give Pres. Macron credit.  In his speech, he praised America, covered our shared history, mentioned George Washington and Lafayette working together, said Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin hugged and shook hands, and reminded us that...

  • February 18, 2018

    The Aussie Invasion: Hillsong Hits America's Shores

    The Australians in the form of the global Hillsong churches, are coming.  Actually, they are already here. Let's take stock. Just after Memorial Day weekend 2016, the massive Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) invited Hillsong church...

  • February 1, 2018

    Why Evangelicals support Trump

    How would you like it if your sin was enshrined in Scripture till the end of time? Adam and Eve had fellowship with God, until they violated God's command. We know the rest of the story. Jacob was a trickster and was frightened his bro...

  • November 26, 2017

    Trump was right about tariffs

    Time to take a break from the national sexual harassment self-immolation, as the men and women of America try to figure out where to draw the line – unsuccessfully, I predict.  Instead, let's look at this issue that impacts regula...

  • November 22, 2017

    On the five-year anniversary of Colorado pot legalization

    A Colorado Springs Gazette opinion piece, written up in the Oklahoman, reports on the toll that pot legalization has taken on the Centennial State. Five years later, we remain an embarrassing cautionary tale. Visitors to Colora...

  • November 16, 2017

    The Happy, Harmless Quran

    What’s all the fuss about? If only we threw off our secular ignorance, religious ignorance and fearful ignorance, then we could interpret the Quran wisely and rationally; then we could reach this conclusion: “The religion of the Quran is ...

  • November 9, 2017

    The DC blue bubble has consumed Virginia

    It is well known that numerous federal employees and allied trades work in D.C. and live in the northern Virginia counties.  This has not stopped the Dems and their ideological soul mates in the mainstream news media from rejoicing...

  • November 3, 2017

    Why do terrorists yell 'Allahu akbar' when they attack?

    It's not complicated, except for our overpaid intellectual news media betters and the punditocracy. For example, Huffington Post contributor Carol Kuruvilla informs us that the phrase is used in Muslim prayers and affi...

  • October 26, 2017

    Another argument for marijuana put to rest

    According to a recent Gallup poll, 51% of Republicans support the legalization of marijuana, and 72% of Democrats and 67% of independents do, too (down a little) (h/t: Townhall). Is it a lost cause to oppose legalization nowadays?  ...

  • October 17, 2017

    Does Islam show the way to treat women respectfully?

    In a remarkable post written for the Independent, Qasim Rashid, an author and a national spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, says the following about Islam's "glorious" treatment of womankind.  (Let...

  • September 28, 2017

    Flipping the Trump Phenomenon 180 degrees

    It's tough to admit that one is wrong, but not if one can learn from it.  First the miscalculations, and then a new perspective. I was wrong when I treated his entry into the race as a publicity stunt. I was wrong when I th...

  • September 20, 2017

    Trump's UN speech was prophetic

    The purpose of this post is not to draw an exact parallel between the ancient world and the one we live in today.  Rather, it was good for conservatives (and anyone else who thinks through the international issues) to hear their president call o...

  • September 15, 2017

    Barnett, the slave

    We don't know where he was born – probably Virginia – and we don't know who his parents were.  But we do know the year he was born and who owned him. Let's keep track of the basic records and at the end draw some concl...

  • August 23, 2017

    Human nature and Trump's Afghanistan policy

    On Monday, 22 August, President Trump revealed his Afghanistan policy.  Some highlights from CBS News: - The U.S., he announced, will shift from a "time-based approach to one based on conditions" in which he said his administ...

  • August 11, 2017

    Let North Korea implode

    First, let's cover the "fire and fury" comment.  The pendulum swings.  We had eight years of soft-spoken and out-of-his-depth Mr. Obama.  People were frustrated with him.  Then they elected outspoken Mr. Trump. ...

  • August 3, 2017

    Special deals under the table for Congress and staff on Obamacare subsidies

    In Washington, Phil Kerpen, the president of the think-tank American Commitment, which promotes free enterprise, in an interview with CBN News on 02 Aug 2017, said congressional leaders approached Obama in 2013, asking him for an executive ...

  • August 2, 2017

    Positive Lessons from Indentured Servants in Colonial America

    It is commonplace that the left take out cudgels and bash nearly everything about America, and the seventeenth century is for them a rich target.  For them, it is not America the Beautiful (different from America the Perfect), but America the Su...

  • July 15, 2017

    Challenges for Obamacare purists on the reach and scope of government

    One prominent talk radio host said a while back that Americans shouldn't rely on health care insurance.  They should pay their medical bills out of their own pocket.  That's what his parents did.  Then he added a note of s...

  • June 22, 2017

    Why Democrats keep losing

    They have gone 0-4 in the last special elections, and they keep blaming the wrong people and coming up with the wrong reasons for their losses. Here are ten reasons why they keep losing. 1. They have broken the federal budget. We...

  • June 2, 2017

    Is the Bible More Violent than the Quran?

    UK's newspaper the Independent in its online version cites Tom Anderson, who runs a computer text analytics business. He did some textual analysis and "discovered" the Bible is more violent than the Quran. His findings cheer up Muslims ...

  • May 11, 2017

    The uncomfortable truth about that blasphemy conviction in Indonesia

    Islamic law is totalitarian and must be stopped. Reported by World Monitor: Tuesday's verdict of an Indonesian court, sentencing Jakarta's outgoing governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as 'Ahok', to two years in prison for b...

  • May 5, 2017

    Were the original Virginia colonists swashbuckling, irreligious, greedy Indian-killers?

    There is a popular sentiment circulating throughout high schools and colleges that the original colonists were only secular, irreligious, rapacious.  However,  their own testimonials, from two primary sources, show ...

  • April 27, 2017

    When colleges don't protest conservative speakers and faculty

    It is wrong to block free speech of any kind (except threats).  Colleges and universities are wrong to allow students to shut down conservative guest speakers. However, it's time for a little perspective. What do these three kinds of c...

  • April 22, 2017

    Should Turkey be allowed to join the European Union?

    Time magazine's report, titled "Turkish President Erdogan Claims Victory in 'Historic Decision' That Greatly Expands His Powers," includes this disturbing paragraph: Roughly 100,000 people – including judges...

  • April 19, 2017

    America's first call to prayer at a government meeting

    In the debate over whether prayer should be offered in the Senate and House, state governments, county meetings of supervisors, and city councils (and even in public schools), it is good to remember that such prayers have a long history in this ...

  • April 9, 2017

    Target (still) losing money after transgender rule

    In case you have wondered, Target's policy allowing people to use whichever restroom or fitting room comforts them is still costing the store. At Yahoo! Finance: Target triggered a nationwide boycott las...

  • April 1, 2017

    Wisdom from Reagan during tough negotiations

    In his autobiography, Ronald Reagan writes that sometimes he was willing to compromise if he could get seventy-five or eighty percent of what he wanted. Reagan writes: When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in ...

  • March 30, 2017

    Bernie Sanders's and Dems' morally repugnant $19.8-trillion national debt

    Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote a column for USA Today titled "Trump's Morally Repugnant Budget Must be Defeated."  All the usual cries and demands and exaggerations are there: [T]his budget would slash Pell grants an...

  • March 29, 2017

    Time for the GOP to unite

    "How can you say it's a minor issue? I can never lay it aside to unify!"  C.S. Lewis said (paraphrased) that whenever someone is asked to leave a position, the proponent will always claim it's the most important of al...

  • March 28, 2017

    Nine questions about the GOP health care setback

    The recent withdrawal of the Trump-Ryan plan is a setback but not a defeat, and certainly not a permanent setback. To put us on the right track, we need to ask some tough questions across the political perspective.  The possible answers ...

  • March 25, 2017

    Freedom Caucus sinks Trump-Ryan plan

    Fred Barnes, over at the Weekly Standard, has described the situation perfectly in his post "Sand in the Gears." First he says the turbo-conservatives (my term, not his) demands perfection in the world as they envision it. There...

  • March 20, 2017

    Conservative winners and losers in the GOP health insurance program

    We are now talking about the GOP health insurance program.  NBC News has the story of how Mr. Trump is convincing extra-pure conservatives to get on board Paul Ryan's plan: "I want to let the world know, I'm 100 ...

  • March 9, 2017

    American College of Pediatricians doubles down on common sense

    All the way back in August 2016, the American College of Pediatricians took a brave stand and proclaimed that gender ideology harms children.  They updated their post in January of this year, and it must not go unnoticed. They write (emp...

  • February 20, 2017

    The Real George Washington

    These are facts and stories one does not hear about too often because they are personal, and not about national politics. George Washington died a fabulously wealthy man. He was also generous in funding schools and universities. His Last Will and ...

  • February 11, 2017

    1685: When Quakers in Philadelphia tried to impeach a judge

    Many conservatives are rightly upset about the Ninth Circuit's ruling that refused to restore Trump's executive order banning for ninety days immigrants from seven Islamic countries, where the government is in disarray or hostile (except...

  • February 1, 2017

    Stop worrying about the 'ISIS narrative'

    The news media are promoting the odd belief that if we can only behave ourselves by Islamic terrorist standards or by Islam's standards generally, then we won't be attacked anymore.  CNN quotes several "experts," a...

  • January 29, 2017

    Forget the Devil's Playground

    Let’s get personal for a moment. Do you remember when you messed up? When you got drunk and went too far? What about the flirtation that went too far? What about saying stupid stuff at the job or Thanksgiving? When you lost your temper? What...

  • January 21, 2017

    The speech: Bulldoze and rebuild

    Despite what the media say about how supposedly thoroughly disunifying and grim Donald Trump's speech was, it was actually hopeful, but realistically hopeful, not the empty hope of eight years ago.  Nonetheless, the speec...

  • January 13, 2017

    Deconstructing Roe v. Wade

    One of the few benefits of deconstruction is that it takes down overwrought orthodoxy.  Roe v. Wade has achieved a divine status, like a textual god.  But it's possible to expose its feet of clay. One prime example of deconstruction ...

  • January 10, 2017

    Meryl Streep's embarrassing Hollywood trifecta

    Taking her cue from Hugh Laurie's joke at the Golden Globes, Meryl Streep, in her Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award thank you speech, criticized Donald Trump. First, Hugh Laurie: "I suppose it's made more amaz...

  • January 5, 2017

    Obama's Disastrous Legacy

    Obama is proud of himself.  He and his devoted followers believe he has left America in better shape than when he found it. Wrong. To avoid the accusation of bias and (fake) "fake news," let's use the mainstream news media a...

  • January 5, 2017

    Time to boycott Turkey

    When Mr. Trump cuts taxes and rolls back the regulation bureaucracy, Americans will prosper.  When they prosper, they travel.  Turkey is home to many sites that the New Testament names: Ephesus, Colossae, Lystra, Sardis, Mile...

  • December 22, 2016

    The most dangerous verse in the Quran

    In light of the terrible crimes against humanity in Berlin, Germany, and Ankara, Turkey, let's review some of the basic bedrock facts about Islamic violence.  Let's first begin with a startling fact. All the verses (except one...

  • December 21, 2016

    Meet Trump's 'tremendous' Christian advisers

    Back in June 2016, Christianity Today published a list of Trump's Christian advisers.  The story received little attention except in a subset of Evangelical circles because many of us believed that Trump was going to lose. ...

  • December 19, 2016

    The 'conservative' case for gender-free bathrooms

    At National Review Online, Josh Gelernter has made a strong libertarian case for inviting transgendered men into women's restrooms, but curiously not for showers.  Why not, if one trusts the libertarian case and the neutrality of transgender...

  • December 15, 2016

    Believe in the American miracle

    Talk radio host Michael Medved has penned an edifying book, about the strange coincidences and unusually timed events that have contributed to the against-all-odds rise of America as we know her today, titled The American Miracle. Here are just so...

  • November 18, 2016

    News flash to protesters: Obama has deported 2.5 million illegals

    People are protesting with signs that read "Stop Deportations Now!"  Those signs never popped up before Election Day 2016. Cornell West, a black professor at Princeton, who is so hard-left that he is disappointed in Obama, in a...

  • November 16, 2016

    Paul Ryan in for another term as House speaker

    The GOP voted unanimously to renominate Paul Ryan as speaker of the House, which shows that the caucus ignored Steve Bannon's strategy to oust Ryan as enemy number one. The Hill reported a month ago: In December 2015, weeks after Rya...

  • November 11, 2016

    About That Mandate

    People are rightly euphoric with Trump's stunning upset.  He won against all the pollsters and pundits.  Hillary won't pick the SCOTUS nominee to replace Antonin Scalia, and if one or two others retire or vacate with health issues, ...

  • November 8, 2016

    Good Luck Using the Bible to Defend Abortion

    Despite the confusion circulating over the web for years, the Bible unambiguously upholds the sanctity of prenatal life. First, let's begin with a passage in a legal section of the Torah (first five books of the Bible) that does not cover...

  • October 20, 2016

    Please stop bashing the GOP

    With the background threat of a New Conservative Party, which will ensure GOP losses for years if the new third party gathers more momentum than did the Tea Party, and other examples of bashing the GOP, particularly by the anti-establi...

  • October 13, 2016

    California Stonin' on such a winter's day

    Getting lost in the presidential race is an issue that will soon sweep across the nation. As once-prosperous and still most populous California goes, the nation will soon follow.  It's called Prop 64, which will legalize recreational...

  • September 1, 2016

    Happy election results for GOP 'Establishment'

    Whatever this amorphous, ill-defined entity actually is, surely Paul Ryan, John McCain, and Marco Rubio are full-fledged leaders of the Washington "cartel."  They must be rightly pleased that they won easily. ...

  • August 29, 2016

    The Battle for America's Mind

    What is the root or basis of the battle? Simple.  It's epistemological and psychological: truth vs. ideology and facts vs. feelings. Is there such a thing as truth or facts?  Do we let ideology warp truth?  Do we let feelings...

  • August 25, 2016

    Sad day for religious liberty in French town

    In the wake of the 84 murders by a truck in Nice, the police ordered a woman sitting on the beach to remove her "burkini." The Telegraph has the story, along with comments from the bystanders: Along the coast in Cannes,...

  • August 22, 2016

    Gender injustice at the Rio Olympics

    Is s/he a man or woman?  In the 800 meters, a human easily won gold and then flexed her biceps in celebration.  Should the South African have been allowed to compete in the games against women? The New York Times predictably says th...

  • August 13, 2016

    Believing Olympians

    It's time to give these Olympians the credit that the mainstream media overlook.  They are devout believers, and their faith inspires them to achieve. Sometimes conservatives can be churlish about such mundane things as the Olympics becau...

  • August 11, 2016

    The Second Amendment from the 18th-century yeoman's perspective

    The recent kerfuffle about the Second Amendment has another angle aside from that of the law professors today.  This post is written based not on current legal wranglings.  It's about the Second Amendment from a historical perspect...

  • August 10, 2016

    The conservative media ghetto

    If you are tired, as I am, of the same turbo-conservatives dominating talk radio and TV and Fox News, then Matthew Sheffield has written an important piece, first at his own website he edits and then reposted at National Review Online: "The...

  • July 30, 2016

    Wise words to Evangelicals who won't vote for Trump

    Wayne Grudem has been a theologian for nearly forty years. He has just posted a piece at Townhall, titled "Why Voting for Trump Is the Morally Good Choice". Voting for him is not the "lesser of two evils" because he's not...

  • July 27, 2016

    Thirty reasons not to vote for Hillary

    She would make a terrible president and Bill an equally terrible “First Gentleman” for these thirty reasons. She repeatedly denied requests from Ambassador Stevens to provide more security in Benghazi, and now he and three othe...

  • July 23, 2016

    What was missing from Trump's speech

    It's about tone and the wording. Yes, he took time out to thank Evangelicals for their support.  And at that moment, his voice seemed to calm a little. And it was more presidential than I've seen of him. However, a CTR...

  • July 20, 2016

    Turn ISIS into losers

    The evidence is piling up.  Certain Muslims join ISIS or identify with it from afar because it stands for something, for pure Islam, for the Islam preached by Muhammad.  The teen from Afghanistan who hit people with an ax in a German train ...

  • July 18, 2016

    How to politicize a White House documentary

    PBS recently broadcast a two-hour documentary, The White House: Inside Story. The politically neutral and interesting parts come first. The production company that made the documentary showed George Washington’s drawings of the origi...

  • July 16, 2016

    Understanding why jihadists fight

    What motivates these jihadists who attack innocents, as in Nice? In a complicated global war like jihad, there are many motives.  However, here is the main one that is embodied in these verses: Islam must dominate all other ...

  • July 2, 2016

    State-sponsored discrimination against Bible-based Christianity

    Religious Liberty TV has an alarming story about the California government discriminating against Christian schools that refuse to violate their religious convictions and conscience and beliefs. This is a summary of t...

  • June 24, 2016

    Stop calling us ‘Islamophobes’!

    Foreign Policy magazine has unloaded both barrels at those of us who ask questions and raise concerns about Islam. First, Lawrence Pintak in his article "The Muslims Are Coming! The Muslims are coming!" runs down a list of various A...

  • June 15, 2016

    Obama confused about our civilizational struggle with Islam

    In the June 14 presser, Obama knocked down straw "persons" and then missed the point about Islam.  He lectured us, as follows: So there's no magic to the phrase "radical Islam."  It's a political tal...

  • June 10, 2016

    Trump is conservative, but not a conservative

    Mytheos (his real name) Holt has penned an insightful piece that true-blue Trump supporters should post on all the social media they can get their hands on. It will go a long way to assuage a large voting bloc in conservatism. Trump may ...

  • May 17, 2016

    The federal bathroom squeeze

    President Obama has put the squeeze on school districts across the county: fall in line, or else! CNN has a report:   This latest guidance for schools goes beyond the bathroom issue, touching upon privacy rights, education records and se...

  • May 12, 2016

    The GOP has not given everything Obama wanted

    The belief that the GOP has given Obama "everything he wants" is demonstrably false. Over at NRO, Charles C. W. Cooke lists the issues against which the GOP has stood as a block to Obama's agenda: Had the GOP not been standin...

  • May 7, 2016

    Conservatism is not dead

    It‘s the talk among some pundits that conservatism is dead, after political hodgepodge Donald Trump presumptively won the nomination of the Republican Party. Not so fast. It is also fashionable nowadays to claim we need to stop wistfully ...

  • April 28, 2016

    NY Times flubs 'bathroom laws' concerns

    In both a post by the editors and an op-ed piece by Frank Bruni, the New York Times dismisses the concerns about transgendered men putting demands on policies that require keeping the sexes separate in public. To start, the editorial quotes a sher...

  • April 26, 2016

    The Postmodern Roots of Leftist Policy

    Prepare to get your hands dirty.  This post attempts to dig up the roots of wild and crazy public policies. Let's first look at the big picture of how we got here, before we get to specific policies. Roots Kant (1724-1804) kicked it...

  • April 20, 2016

    The battle between gender ideology and fact

    Are we going to let ideology shape the facts?  Or do we let the facts of the real world shape our ideology? Conservatives say – or should say – no to the first question and yes to the second one.  Liberals switch it and ...

  • April 12, 2016

    Could Dark Red Ted Defeat Dark Blue Hillary in Purple America?

    Let’s assume that Donald Trump, not getting to 1237 delegates before the convention, has worn out the  not-Trump delegates who make up the majority, so they coalesce around Cruz after several ballots. Cruz is the nominee. And let’...

  • April 12, 2016

    VIDEO: Sexual predators take advantage of transgender laws

    It may not have been intended, but it was predictable.  This video spells out case after case of sexual predators entering women's locker rooms and dressing rooms and other private places that are speedily becoming "unprivate,...

  • April 8, 2016

    Stop fussing about Mississippi's non-discrimination law

    The left is freaking out about the Mississippi law (H.B. 1523) passed recently.  Big businesses, like PayPal, are boycotting Mississippi and North Carolina.  From the typical headlines, one would think that the law allows anyone to dis...

  • April 2, 2016

    Rule 40 says a majority of delegates

    Rule 40 of the rules of the Republican Party was set down in 2012 to limit Ron Paul’s influence at that year’s convention. If we read Rule 40 and paragraph B carefully and strictly (more carefully than I did here), it says the can...

  • April 1, 2016

    GOP should abandon Rule 40B in 2016

    In an interview with Hugh Hewitt on his radio show, on March 31, Karl Rove said Ted Cruz misinterprets Rule 40 about who can appear on the ballot during the convention.  Mr. Cruz had said on March 30 that only the candidate with eight or mo...

  • March 23, 2016

    Toward a solution to Islamic terrorism post-Brussels

    In Brussels, Belgium, on March 22, 2016, a crime was perpetrated in the name of Islam. Everyone – except the left – knows that the Quran teaches and permits violence against the non-Muslim when a Muslim believes he is in a perpetual st...

  • March 17, 2016

    Why Trump Might Win It All

    The polls show that Rubio and Kasich would have an easier path to defeating Hillary, while ideologue Cruz and erratic Trump have a bumpy road. But on March 15, primary voters rejected Rubio and accepted Trump, except in Ohio. All may not be los...

  • March 12, 2016

    1,237 delegates and Trump

    In the Miami debate, Trump blurted out that he didn't understand the delegate requirement of 1,237.  The number is apparently random. Trump said at the debate: If two of us get up there, I would say this, if -- if Marco, if the ...

  • March 8, 2016

    Rubio's revealing win in Puerto Rico

    The race is far from over, and Puerto Rico has some significance, though many in the super-conservative blogosphere chuckle at the victory. Carl M. Cannon over at Real Clear Politics has a list of why the victory is important.  A key paragrap...

  • February 26, 2016

    The GOP’s Houston debate

    The strategy of the night was Cruz’s and Rubio’s attack on Trump.  Will it be enough? The moderators’ questions were mixed.  Grade: C minus. Let’s take the candidates one at a time. Carson: As usual, he...

  • February 22, 2016

    Gov. Reagan's Secret Missions

    When Reagan was the governor of the most prosperous and populated state in the union, he had to find out what was going on. He writes in his autobiography: "I decided to keep the visits secret from reporters and never told anyone about them: ...

  • February 22, 2016

    Easy predictions

    So far, Josh Kraushaar over at the National Journal has the best analysis of the S.C. results. He writes: —As di­min­ished as the es­tab­lish­ment is with­in the GOP, its three favored can­did­ates (Ru...

  • February 14, 2016

    Last Night's GOP Debate: Lies and Liars

    The main story for the night was anger and passion.  Does this help or hurt the GOP's prospects in November? Everyone seemed nervous, including the main moderator.  His voice quavered.  But the moderators were not the story, so ...

  • February 11, 2016

    NH's broken moral compass

    John Yoo, law professor at UC Berkeley, has penned an important piece about Trump and Sanders being the Founders' worst nightmare. He writes about Trump: The men who met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a new constitution design...

  • February 9, 2016

    Christie and Trump are best buds

    If Christie (unwisely) intends to go on the attack, he should direct his skills at the unelectable Trump, who consistently scores low with the roughly forty-two percent who don’t identify as conservative or liberal and the subset of the swing v...

  • February 7, 2016

    Trouble ahead for Mr. Cruz?

    Nate Cohn has outlined the election troubles for Mr. Cruz in the next several primaries. First Cohn lays out why Cruz won in Iowa: He won Iowa for one reason: He excelled among people who described themselves as “very conservative....

  • February 3, 2016

    In Defense of the GOP Establishment

    When you were a rowdy teen, your parents were the Establishment. Now that you’re a parent, what are you? The anti-establishment, cool parent? Not likely. Rather, you’re a grownup who tries to keep the peace in your discordant household...

  • January 27, 2016

    Why Sharia Is Incompatible with American Values

    You and I don't like sharia, while hundreds of millions love it.  Chillingly, it's still making inroads in American society. Who's right?  Are we stuck in relativism?  Worse, is the side with the strongest military right...

  • January 23, 2016

    NRO's most insightful comment about Trump

    I have pondered where Trump's appeal originates from, and at long last John Podhoretz answers it for me. He writes: Donald Trump is the apotheosis of a tendency that began to manifest itself in American culture in the 1980s, most not...

  • January 22, 2016

    UN reports a living hell in Iraq

    The dates reveal that the hell-hole comes under our current president's watch. The U.N. Reports: A UN report released today details the severe and extensive impact on civilians of the ongoing conflict in Iraq, with at least 18,802 ci...

  • January 18, 2016

    Ten Reasons to Vote for Rubio

    It's about time to vote.  It's now time to get serious about who can win in the general. It is true that we have a slate of better than average candidates, but Rubio comes across as better than the others for ten reasons. Since thi...

  • January 16, 2016

    Did Taranto rescue Cruz from Brooks's brutalism remark?

    David Brooks says Ted Cruz's policies and outlook exhibit brutalism, citing the Supreme Court case of a man who stole a calculator from Walmart in 1997. Brooks summarizes the case: In 1997, Michael Wayne Haley was arrested ...

  • January 15, 2016

    The Debate: How It All Went Down

    All of the candidates were strong; even their one-one-one tussles were smoother and not so acrimonious, but substantive. I don't believe that strong one-on-ones are detrimental. Further, people don't get lost in the policy weeds, so in ...

  • January 7, 2016

    How Conservatives Can Read America Accurately

    It’s a sad fact that countless conservatives misread their own country, the same way that liberals misread the world outside their country and advocate wacky foreign policies. What follows are basic guidelines to be used to evaluate our...

  • December 29, 2015

    The right and wrong ways to reform Islam

    Islam may not be able to be reformed; I have no illusions on that score.  But at least some people are trying. On the PBS NewsHour, two reformers were guests. The wrong way to reform is to talk like a soc...

  • December 23, 2015

    WSJ's Bret Stephens: Conservatives want Hillary so they can stay angry

    It can lead to self-destruction.  It produces the mental carnival of mirrors, a skewed view of reality – first you're three feet tall and fat; then you're eight feet and thin.  This emotional vice explains...

  • December 17, 2015

    Use the <em>other</em> kind of carpet bombing on ISIS

    ISIS uses social media to recruit fighters. True. But it is also true that countless people living under their control don’t have cell phones and other outlets to the outside world. Women are barely able to go outside. Entire Islamic nations bl...

  • December 16, 2015

    GOP December 2015 debate: Another view

    See also: Here's the Rundown on Last Night's Republican Debate The debate was much stronger for everyone – except perhaps for Trump. The CNN moderators did not become the story, so that’s positive. The main storyline is t...

  • December 13, 2015

    The Study Quran Raises Questions

    Ten years in the making under the editorship of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, using beautiful font, and published by Harper Collins, the Study Quran is modeled after various Study Bibles, such as the NIV, ESV, NASB, Catholic Study Bible, to name only those. ...

  • December 11, 2015

    Sen. Ben Sasse: Passive Obama vs. Demagogue Trump

    A fine speech by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is making the rounds, but not nearly enough.  It deserves more attention.  He visited San Bernardino, close to where I live, and gave part of the speech there, then later expanded on it. ...

  • December 10, 2015

    Is This the First Step toward Islamic Reform?

    Whatever the open letter's merits in confronting the "caliph" of ISIS, it does not come close to what is needed in reforming Islam. In a 2014 open letter to Dr. Ibrahim Awwad Al-Badri, alias "Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi," leader o...

  • December 8, 2015

    Irony in the president's Sunday speech

    Not to mention the "untruths" and straw men.  The speech omitted a lot and sounded tough when his policies don't work. Irony means ignorance.  Oedipus is the prime example.  He didn't realize – he was ignoran...

  • December 3, 2015

    Time to Reform Islam

    Can any part of Islamic law be reformed? Not all of it, but let's see if we can open a dialogue. My only platform or right to speak is that I spent endless hours from 2004-2007 studying and writing about Islam.  I felt it was my duty t...

  • December 2, 2015

    Don't count you nomination chickens before they're hatched

    Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight, whose predictions are uncannily accurate, tells us to stop freaking out about Trump's poll numbers.  It's too soon to tell. If Trump has not harmed his numbers with all of his outlandish statements, the...

  • December 1, 2015

    Axis of Sophomores: Obama-Hillary-Kerry

    Sophomore literally means "wise fool." Though they're wise in their own eyes, the title's three leftists – even former Secretary of State Clinton – own America's diminishment and the predictable subsequent chaos a...

  • November 23, 2015

    Hillary, Islam, and Christianity

    Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has told us that "Muslims are peaceful and tolerant and have nothing to do with terrorism." Let me get the conventional qualifying statements out of the way. I agree that we shouldn't wage...

  • November 22, 2015

    How the Left Misreads World Affairs

    It’s an odd thing. The right is susceptible to misreading its own country, while the left has a knack for misreading the world around us. Here are just five examples that expose the left’s foolishness or willful blindness. 1...

  • November 22, 2015

    French PM says attackers used refugee crisis to 'slip in'

    The left says we must not over-interpret the Syrian passport found near one of the Paris attackers.  Fair enough. However, fingerprints are tougher to fake, and by them one of the attackers is linked with Greece and the mass migration ...

  • November 20, 2015

    Are Christianity and Islam equally violent?

    This one is making the rounds, both on ABC's The View and by a religious leftist who says we need to wrestle with violence in the Scriptures. The hostesses of The View says Hitler was a Christian, so who are Chris...

  • November 19, 2015

    Understanding and defeating ISIS

    Whatever we do, we must not "misunderestimate" our enemy, as many in the West seem to do.  Mark Durie is a scholar and an Anglican pastor who nails it in his post "Paris attacks were not 'nihilism' but sacred strategy....

  • November 17, 2015

    Our Zen master in chief

    It's a tale of two leaders: Obama and Hollande.  In a press conference on Nov. 15, 2015 in Turkey, Obama proved that he overthinks things.  He said our troops could clear out various towns in Iraq, but we need to have ...

  • November 16, 2015

    Reducing the Number of Terrorist Attacks

    Bombings in Beirut. Russian passenger plane blown out of the sky. The Paris attacks. And the website of Daesh says other countries, including the U.S., will smell of death. I watch European news, specifically France 24...

  • November 15, 2015

    Paris attacks and the left's foreign policy

    First, let me say how much I sympathize with the Parisians.  I lived there for 16 months, in the 12th arrondissement (district), doing odds and ends, helping out a couple of churches.  We all sense it, and AT has posted bl...

  • November 14, 2015

    Will Breaking Moral Law Break America?

    Is America experiencing inevitable decline? A nervous breakdown? Recently I reviewed Sophocles’ fifth-century play Antigone, and I was again impressed with a deep truth in it. So were my students. Here is the background first. The eponymo...

  • November 11, 2015

    Debate takeaways: candidate by candidate

    First, the moderators were unintrusive, so they were not part of the story.  Therefore, an excellent job – about as well as any moderators could do, and certainly better than most. Let’s take the candidates in alphabetical order. ...

  • November 8, 2015

    How the GOP Can Dominate Politics Past 2020

    This is not a futurist post.  It's about a conservative outlook today. Here's the problem.  America swings back and forth nationally like a pendulum between the GOP and Dems.  Here's the presidency since FDR: FDR / Tr...

  • November 6, 2015

    Black-Robed Neo-Monarchs v. The People

    One of the reasons we broke from Great Britain is to get away from monarchs. Has the Supreme Court become a neo-monarchy of nine kings and queens? To help us figure this out, the late eighteenth-century Federalist essays were written to convinc...

  • November 6, 2015

    How to misread the Kentucky gubernatorial victory

    Matt Bevin, a "Tea Party" guy, won the governorship over Jack Conway, 53-44 percent. Genuine congratulations. However, conservatives have a bad habit of miscalculating election victories. We won big across the land in 2014 in smal...

  • November 4, 2015

    Did Paul Ryan say a shutdown is on the table?

    Reportedly, Ryan drops Boehner's pledge not to shut down the government.  Flexing his legislative muscle: "This is the legislative branch, and the power of the purse rests within the legislative branch. And we fully ...

  • November 3, 2015

    Heather Mac Donald vs. the legalization myth

    Heather Mac Donald, Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a City Journal contributing editor, has written an important piece about crime, drugs, marijuana, and prison sentences.  She pokes holes in the marijuana myths that are ga...

  • October 31, 2015

    The Law Teaches Virtue and Restrains Vice

    Several years ago, my city installed cameras at various intersections, and I got caught three times.  After paying the fines of $500.00 each, my driving "miraculously" improved.  The penalty imposed by the law taught me virtuous d...

  • October 28, 2015

    Five Myths About Marijuana and You

    Myths about marijuana are apparent in college papers, online, and in the media. The users are eager to believe they don’t have a problem, so an entire mythology has grown up around the plant. But here are the counterarguments. M...

  • October 23, 2015

    Five myths about marijuana and society

    These myths show up in a variety of channels in media and elsewhere, notably the pro-marijuana websites, which are eager to draw in more customers so they can make more money. Here are their myths and the counterarguments. Myth 1: Tax revenues ...

  • October 20, 2015

    Will Trump win the nomination?

    Eliana Johnson is a fine political reporter over at National Review Online. She writes that the GOP establishment are whispering that Trump has a shot.  This paragraph summarizes her piece: But for Trump, a dip in the poll...

  • October 13, 2015

    Not So Fast with Legalizing Recreational Marijuana

    In my experience in interacting with students in the classroom, marijuana websites have snared too many younger teens -- one is too many -- with their half-truths and misleading statements. But institutes of science, both private and governmental,...

  • October 12, 2015

    No, Rev. Wright, Jesus wasn't a 'Palestinian'; he called his homeland 'Israel'

    Rev. Jeremiah Wright made headlines saying at a Washington, D.C. rally that Jesus was a "Palestinian," apparently on the theory that he was born in Palestine.  Journalist Daoud Kuttab said as much, calling Jesus both Jewish and Palesti...

  • October 10, 2015

    Ten Health Risks in Smoking Pot

    The number of marijuana users among teens is increasing. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported in 2013: [M]arijuana use rose to 7.5% of users aged 12 or older in 2013. This is up from 6.2% of users in 2002. Ad...

  • October 8, 2015

    Trump as your drunk uncle

    I've known a few people who boast and brag about big or small things. The video clip Friend Dog Studios recently produced is a montage of Trump's statements and speeches and interviews, lip-synched by two comics. It's only two minut...

  • September 30, 2015

    Be careful what you wish for after Boehner's resignation

    It is difficult to imagine a better analysis of Boehner's accomplishments in sailing between Obama's Charybdis and the Tea Party's Scylla than Sean Trende's piece posted at Real Clear Politics. Boehner was realistic in his bei...

  • September 27, 2015

    Our Partial Victory in Vietnam

    The word victory in the title may come as a surprise – and a contrast to the spell the American left has been peddling for forty to fifty years, in the news media and in pop culture shows and in the very air. To explain, let's start with...

  • September 22, 2015

    Should a woman appear on U.S. currency?

    Changing the image on a dollar bill has been floated out there in the GOP debate. I don’t think it can be stopped. So how do you react? We have two paths before us. Reject any change because it’s political and untraditional...

  • September 22, 2015

    The issue with Ben Carson's Muslim president comments

    There is a subtle problem with Dr. Carson's comment that he wouldn’t support a Muslim for president. I see three issues at work here. 1. Old Islamic law is incompatible with the Constitution. Easily proven: Old Islamic law does ...

  • September 20, 2015

    Did Tapper help Hillary in GOP debate?

    Back in February 2012, after a GOP debate, AT asked the question whether moderator George Stephanopoulos was a “stalking horse,” which is someone who tests an idea for a third party to see if it works. Back then it was birth control an...

  • September 17, 2015

    Revisiting Watergate: A Review of the <em>Real</em> Watergate Scandal

    Geoff Shepard has written an important book, The Real Watergate Scandal: Collusion, Conspiracy, and the Plot that Brought Nixon Down.  It will probably go a long way to restore President Nixon's and his administration's reputation. My...

  • September 10, 2015

    So What's Wrong with Socialism Anyway?

    You think the answer to the question is so obvious we don’t need to discuss it? You’ve never heard a student or young adult ask it today. And what if Leftists rebrand their ideology and hide it under a current political party in Americ...

  • September 4, 2015

    America the Suckiful

    You’ve sung "America the Beautiful"?  You felt pride when you did? Not so fast. You need to enter the worldview of the left.  Proceed with caution – it’s about to get ugly. O Suckiful for smoggy skies F...

  • September 4, 2015

    Trump and Hispanic Voters

    It has been reported on the pages of AT that Trump is doing just fine among Hispanic voters, despite his outlandish and extreme comments against them -- not that his speeches and outbursts are real policies. But David M. Drucker reports at the Was...

  • August 15, 2015

    Ann Coulter: Witty or Reckless?

    Ms. Ann H. Coulter’s book, ¡Adios, America! The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole, is provocative, to put it mildly.  Let me first acknowledge some of her key points. Yes, there is a crime proble...

  • August 7, 2015

    The Clinton-Trump Connection

    Several in the media have speculated that Trump is somehow connected to Clinton in his decision to campaign as a Republican. Now WaPo confirms it: Former president Bill Clinton had a private telephone conversation in late spring with Don...

  • August 2, 2015

    Presidential Temperament and Trump

    His supporters says we need someone like him; he stirs things up. Even some non-supporters gush that conservatives can learn something from him, like standing up to the news media.  Never mind that Newt stood up to the media in 2012, but with...

  • July 29, 2015

    A tale of two CEOs

    Jay Nordlinger has penned a very positive profile of Carly Fiorina.  When asked about outsourcing jobs to China, for example, Nordlinger paraphrases her: "It would be more accurate to say that she 'outsourced' jobs from California t...

  • July 23, 2015

    In Praise of My Hispanic-Background Students

    Here come the hyperconservatives or WHINOS again, embarrassing true conservatism. When Trump, whose “conservative” background is “fluid” (to use a nice term), made his outlandish comments about Mexican immigrants, a prominent ...

  • July 15, 2015

    The Left's track record on international relations

    One reason why conservatives don’t trust the Left on the Iran deal, without yet reading it, is that their track record is shaky at best and destructive at worst for American interests. Let’s review things cursorily. The 1973 Paris P...

  • July 10, 2015

    GOP debate invitations: a modest proposal

    The field is crowded, but here is one way to extend invitations, based on job experience. Governors have unique qualifications because they have to work with the two branches of legislators and state court decisions.  They're mini-preside...

  • February 24, 2013

    The Biblical Norm for Marriage

    A piece was recently posted claiming that the Bible does not establish normative marriage.  The author describes various marriages and customs mentioned in the Bible, like polygamy, endogamy, levirate marriage, arranged ones, and men who "deligh...

  • January 27, 2013

    Did God Exalt Obama to the Presidency?

    If you're a believer who takes the Bible seriously, you have asked yourself this question many times.  I have.  It has baffled me. Maybe a quick look at the Bible -- specifically, the Torah -- can clarify matters. Let me say right off -- Am...

  • January 19, 2013

    You Might Be a Hyper-Conservative If...

    ...you kidnap conservatism in your clown car and drive it into a ditch. Some days I wish I could fire many media 'pundits.' Bloggers too. And politicians. I often click out or turn off the dial. "No wonder we lost the election." You feel the zeal and...

  • January 13, 2013

    Ten Non-Religious Reasons to Keep Marriage Traditional

    The New York Times posted an article about an evangelical who couldn't think of a reason, other than what the Bible says, to oppose same-sex marriage (SSM). In lively discussions, proponents of SSM tell me that only religion stands in their way. So ...

  • January 5, 2013

    From Same-Sex Marriage to Polygamy and Polyandry

    I keep hearing same-sex marriage (SSM) activists assuring us that no one else will legally redefine the essence of marriage, after they enjoy the privilege of doing so. It's a red herring to distract us from the real issue: redefining it for them alo...

  • December 16, 2012

    Destructive Shepherds

    During this joyous Christmas season honoring the baby in the manger, angelic choirs, visiting Magi, and humble shepherds tending their flocks, it is time to take a closer look at those shepherds and their flocks. But this ain't your normal Christmas...

  • December 2, 2012

    The Biblical Case for Reparative Therapy

    I come at this issue not as a psychologist, but as someone who can claim some level of biblical scholarship and has a teaching ministry, and as a straight man who has experienced God's grace.  So my concern in this article is the church context,...

  • November 24, 2012

    Suppressing Reparative Therapy Is Suppressing Freedom

    I saw the crawler go across the screen on a news broadcast recently, and it said, with an incredulous tone, that "praying away the gay" was still being done.  From the context, it was clear the news editor did not think much of it. Recently, Cal...

  • November 15, 2012

    This Is Your Life under Obamacare

    Thanks, Obama voters. You just imposed on the rest of us degraded medical care and rising costs. This is no longer hypothetical or abstract. It's real. It's the law. Here are some of the bad repercussions of your vote: 1. Decline in pay for doctors ...

  • November 11, 2012

    Why Mitt Lost and Obama Won: A Different Perspective

    That title was hard for me to write. But the knot in my stomach finally left, Wednesday, just before I taught my small Bible study on Romans. Some may believe it is too soon to offer a postmortem, but I figure that since the knot has left, I'm ready...

  • September 30, 2012

    America the Blasphemous?

    We have been hearing a lot about blasphemy laws of late (see my article Free Speech in Islam to find out about the religious motives behind this push to abridge free speech). But it may not be well-known that America has some knowledge of anti-blasph...

  • September 23, 2012

    The Biblical Way to Care for the Poor

    The religious left tells us that budgets are moral documents.  The religious left also assumes that the federal government should take up the cause of helping the poor.  One report says the federal government runs 126 different anti-poverty...

  • September 16, 2012

    Sixteen Reasons Why Islam Is Not the Religion of Peace

    Islam is not the religion of peace.  The following sixteen reasons, all sourced from the original sacred documents (the Quran and Traditions), classical law, and history, tell us why. Each item in the list has one or more back-up articles. ...

  • September 9, 2012

    The Biblical Case for Limited Government and Low Taxes

    Liberalism, generally, favors a bigger government and higher taxes to pay for it, while conservatives advocate moving in the opposite direction: limited government and low taxes. Let's face it.  The government since FDR's New Deal has gotten big...

  • June 30, 2012

    What Just Happened in Down-to-Earth Terms

    I'll let the Con lawyers sort out when a tax is not a tax, or whether the Commerce Clause was really limited by the recent ruling by Justice Roberts. I'll leave it to the extra-clever to draw Marbury v. Madison parallels. And others can fig...

  • November 30, 2011

    Game Show Government

    Democrats advocate Game Show Government.  "Vote for us, and we'll give away cash and prizes.  We'll send you a check!"  On the other side, certain hardcore Republicans say, "Vote for us, and we'll cut your cash and prizes to the bone!...

  • November 11, 2011

    What the recent elections really mean

    As usual, Charles Krauthammer nails it. What the really conservative commentators, like the ones at AT, fail to understand is that the Left has worked its "magic" on America since at least the 1930s and FDR, and moving to LBJ and even Nixon...

  • February 16, 2008

    Does Shariah Promote Human Rights?

    The Archbishop of Canterbury says that implementing or permitting some parts of Shariah (Islamic law) is unavoidable. Is this wise? It may be true that some parts of Islamic law are only about halal (permitted) foods, but other parts - not so. The Ar...

  • October 20, 2007

    Do Oral Traditions 'Lie' Behind the Written Gospels?

    This article explores a subject that most Gospel readers take for granted or overlook. How was the ministry of Jesus -- his words and deeds -- passed on for a few decades until they were written or recorded in the Gospels we have now? What was this p...

  • October 14, 2007

    Did Jesus Even Exist? Can you have an effect without a cause?

    In the last article in this series I asked whether skepticism chic is passé. Maybe I should have used the term "hyper-skepticism." Was it waning? No. We're supposed to be talking about the historical reliability of the Gospels. But t...

  • October 6, 2007

    Archaeology and John's Gospel: Is skepticism chic passé?

    John is known as the spiritual Gospel because, among other reasons, it has extended metaphorical discourses, such as the bread of heaven (6:25-59), and a long, one-on-one dialogue with the religious leader Nicodemus about deep truths (3:1-15). Until ...

  • September 29, 2007

    Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels: Which way do the rocks roll?

    Archaeology and the Bible have an uneasy relationship. Many textual scholars have little use for archaeology. Discoveries happen often, so the data change, whereas the written text is stable by comparison. Plus, the stones, so to speak, are sometimes...

  • September 22, 2007

    Q & A on the Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to a Series

    Christianity has always been the religion of the Book, the Bible. More specifically for this series, all Christians of all denominations cherish the four Biblical or canonical Gospels. But there is no pleasant way to put this. In the past decade - bu...

  • August 18, 2007

    What to do to with Hostages to Islamists

    Islamists are in a global war. They would like to impose their religion on the world. In Afghanistan, they are at war with non-Muslims, and they include Koreans among those with whom they struggle.The QuranIt's time for a review. So what does Is...

  • July 15, 2007

    Jesus Called it 'Israel'

    The Palestinian media say that Jesus was a Palestinian. A Dutch film says the same. Would the so-called "historical" Jesus recognize the label? How did he refer to his homeland, even under Roman occupation? Clarity and historical accuracy, ...

  • June 17, 2007

    Is the New Testament Anti-Semitic?

    The Christian friends of Israel regard the entire Bible as inspired and inerrant. But the New Testament is supposedly anti-Semitic. So why would they support Israel and the Jewish community? Are these Christians intellectually inferior? Do they see a...

  • June 10, 2007

    The truth about Muslim-Christian marriages: Some Friendly Advice to Christians

    Islam says that a Muslim man is allowed to marry a Christian woman, but a Christian man is not permitted to marry a Muslim woman. What does the Quran say on the matter? What does the New Testament teach on interfaith marriages?I remember hearing an i...

  • June 3, 2007

    Muhammad and the Jews: Why the Hostility Today?

    Many millions of Muslims in the Arab world and beyond have a deep hostility towards Jews or "the Jew." It seems to have reached a metaphysical level or descended into a debased, irrational state of mind. The question is: where does the...

  • May 26, 2007

    Pacifism and the Sword: Fight or Flight?

    After I finished the series on Pacifism and the Sword in the New Testament, someone wrote me these questions:What if the Church is targeted for persecution by the government or by large groups of extremists, but the government does not come to the ai...

  • May 23, 2007

    In search of Islamic reform

    Tawfik Hamid would like to reform Islam, he writes in Opinion Journal.  He is on the right path, particularly with this paragraph.Well-meaning interfaith dialogues with Muslims have largely been fruitless. Participants must demand--but so f...

  • May 17, 2007

    Islamberg: American Powderkeg?

    This is the official website  of a compound made up of Muslims in upstate NY.But here is an exposé  on the compound. Some troubling signs are emerging. At the bottom of the article is a map of others compound...

  • May 12, 2007

    Postmodernism and the Bible: Conclusion

    This article is Part Eight, the conclusion to the series on postmodernism and the Bible. I chose the Bible as the focus of the series, since it is a cornerstone of western civilization. The last segment, below the recap, explains that people do not g...

  • May 5, 2007

    Alternatives to Postmodern Hyper-skepticism

    This article, Part Seven in the series on Postmodernism and the Bible, aims, very briefly, to balance out postmodern pessimism about acquiring knowledge and truth and achieving an accurate, sensible interpretation of the Bible. Part Three deepened th...

  • April 28, 2007

    The De-Deconstructed Jesus

    In modern Jesus scholarship that has apparently drunk deep of postmodern hyper-skepticism, he has been deconstructed to become a demythologized laconic teacher, the Pagan Christ, a Gnostic revealer, a castrated leader, a de-enlightened male...

  • April 21, 2007

    The Deconstructed Jesus

    Deconstruction overturns privileged hierarchy and meaning. Defenders promise us that they do not practice Anything Goes in their deconstruction of texts. Do they keep their promise? How do we verify it?John D. Caputo is a prominent interpreter of dec...

  • April 14, 2007

    Deconstruction: a primer

    It seems that everyone in the media uses the terms "deconstruction" or "deconstruct." A film critic deconstructs a popular movie because he does not like the lighting. A book reviewer deconstructs a short story because he thinks a...

  • April 7, 2007

    Postmodern Truth Soup

    One postmodern theorist states: "Postmodernism swims, even wallows, in the fragmentary and the chaotic currents of change as if that is all there is" (David Harvey, "The Condition of Postmodernity" in the Post-Modern Reader, ed. C...

  • March 31, 2007

    The Origins of Postmodernism

    Does postmodernism spring out of the head of Zeus unconceived or misconceived? Or does it carry a heavy debt on its back to earlier movements and trends? This article, Part Two in the series on Postmodernism and the Bible, explores the roots of postm...

  • March 24, 2007

    The Family Tomb of Jesus?

    Famed movie director James Cameron is among those climbing on the bandwagon of publicity over a supposed tomb of Jesus. Ossuaries, repositories of bones, were discovered in a family tomb in Jerusalem in 1980. One ossuary mentions a certain "Jesu...

  • March 17, 2007

    Postmodernism and the Bible: Introduction

    In the late 1980s or early 1990s, a pastor reported this conversation (as I recall it) between him and a woman from his large congregation. She apparently wanted him to approve of something.Woman: I'm in a wonderful relationship with a man. I'm happy...

  • March 10, 2007

    Review of Bart D. Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus

    Bart D. Ehrman has questioned the substantial integrity of the transmission of the New Testament manuscripts. Some orthodox scribes in the early church and later corrupted the New Testament to sustain and fortify their own theology, he says.Since his...

  • March 3, 2007

    The Manuscripts Tell the Story: The New Testament Is Reliable

    This article, the fourth in a four-part series, has a focused goal. It provides evidence from the best New Testament textual critics that it is possible to reach back, as much as humanly possible, to the original (autograph) books and letters of the ...

  • February 24, 2007

    New Testament Manuscripts: Discovery and Classification

    This article is the third in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It provides basic facts on how some of the New Testament manuscripts were discovered and how they are classified. It answers such questions as these:What does Oxyrhyn...

  • February 14, 2007

    Iraqi geography and some perspective

    Most (not all) of the car bombs have been detonated in Baghdad. It's time to get a perspective on that.Iraq  is about the size of California, both in population and geography. Iraq has almost 30 million, and California has a little ove...

  • February 11, 2007

    New Testament Manuscripts: the Right Stuff

    This article comes second in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It answers questions about the material and process of making the pages of a document, along with the scribal art of writing. What were the scribe's utensils? How was...

  • February 8, 2007

    Muslims rebuke Pope in Open Letter

    One hundred Islamic scholars have signed an Open Letter to Pope Benedict XVI. It explains how he got things wrong in his lecture at the University of Regensburg. Of course Islam is nothing but peace, particularly in the Quran and the hadith, so ...

  • February 3, 2007

    New Testament Manuscripts: The Basic Facts

    This article is the first in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It provides the basics on this science and art, answering such questions as these:o After the original inspired New TestamentD authors wrote their documents, Scribes ...

  • January 20, 2007

    Miracles and New Testament Studies: Conclusion

    The purpose of the series on miracles has been to keep the door to miracles open. If it is slammed shut before they have a chance to be investigated, then that answers the question always in favor of a closed natural system that excludes the sup...

  • January 13, 2007

    Do Miracles Happen Today?

    Has anyone recovered immediately after words of prayer or even commands of healing have been spoken? It is time to investigate this and apply the results to philosophical and theological arguments. That is the goal of this article.The last three arti...

  • January 6, 2007

    Miracles and the Laws of Nature

    Miracles, if they happen, are exceedingly rare, but compared to what? When you drive your car, you obey the laws of nature. The engine conforming to mechanical laws propels the rest of the car forward, and this obeys the laws of motion. The law of gr...

  • December 29, 2006

    Don't forget this

    Alamgir Hussain's article today is very nice. But he shouldn't forget Surah 98:6, in regard to Jews and Christians: Verily, those who disbelieve (in the religion of Islam, the Qur'an and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)) from among the peopl...

  • December 25, 2006

    Fortifying Hume's Miracle Prison (2): Miracles and Historical Testimony

    In our Part Two here, we turn our attention towards the historian's task of investigating past events. The same problems confronting the believer in the realm of science emerge in the realm of history. The same basic regularities that happen today al...

  • December 24, 2006

    Hume's Miracle Prison: How They Got Out Alive

    One of the great geniuses of the Enlightenment was David Hume (1711-1776). In his essay on miracles (Section X) in his book Enquiries concerning Human Understanding, he doubts that miracles have ever occurred and even can occur.Hume's short analysis ...

  • December 23, 2006

    Miracles and New Testament Studies

    In an article about Jesus by Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek, he asserts that Jesus starts out as a human Jewish prophet, but that the Church in the first four centuries turned him into the majestic Messiah and worldwide Savior. He goes from the ...

  • December 22, 2006

    Pacifism and the Sword: Conclusion

    This article is the conclusion of the seven-part series on pacifism and the sword in the New Testament. The purpose of the series has been to bring clarity to many contradictory and confusing opinions circulating around the web and in the print media...

  • December 16, 2006

    Q and A on pacifism and the sword

    Christians are commanded to love their enemies, so are Christian soldiers and police officers permitted to kill them? How can they maintain their witness about God when they may have to pull the trigger? Wasn't Jesus a pacifist? Wouldn't revelations ...

  • December 10, 2006

    Should a State Turn the Other Cheek?

    I have often heard confusing and confused uses of "turn the other cheek." The saying seems so imbalanced and out of touch with reality, as it circulates around the world, out of context and isolated. Someone gets punched, and he is told to ...

  • December 2, 2006

    Church and State - and the Sword

    Confusion too often prevails over discussions on the relation between the Church and the State. Things get even more complicated when the sword - military and law enforcement - is brought into the debate. This article, Part Four in a series on pacifi...

  • November 25, 2006

    Officers, Soldiers, and God

    According to the New Testament, is it possible to be honored by God and be a weapon-carrying soldier or law enforcement officer, at the same time? Does God approve of soldiers and officers of the State? Does he condemn the military? If not, may indiv...

  • November 20, 2006

    Pacifism and the Sword in the Gospels

    Did Jesus endorse and encourage violence in the four Gospels, presumably a righteous kind of violence? Did he call his original disciples to this? Did he order all of his disciples to really buy swords? Two verses may indicate that he did these thing...

  • November 11, 2006

    Christians, Pacifism and the Sword

    Are Christians permitted to carry the sword (or modern weapons)? What should the Church's policy be on war and peace? Should it counsel the State to turn the other cheek? Are Christians permitted to join the police force and the military? How can the...

  • October 8, 2006

    Jesus and the 'sword verse'

    I read constantly that Christians should not be proud of a verse attributed to Jesus. The verse reads: Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword. At first glance it indeed appears that Jesus encourages violence and cal...

  • May 21, 2006

    Jesus and Muhammad: Major Differences (2)

    Part One may be read here. [If readers would like to see multiple translations of the Quran, they should click on this website. This article uses the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, but multiple translations may be read here.] Eight: аM...

  • May 20, 2006

    Jesus and Muhammad: Major Differences (1)

    Aggressive Islam is on the march. Terror attacks; violent protests over cartoons; many pushes to establish Islamic courts in Europe and Canada; demands to silence free speech, to criminalize criticism of the messenger of Allah; the President of Iran ...

  • May 13, 2006

    Jesus and Muhammad on Wealth

    Both Jesus and Muhammad said that we should give to the poor (and so do most world religions). But beyond this basic generosity, they had very different attitudes and policies on money. In Islam, the Third of Five Pillars, the zakat or alms tax, comm...

  • May 6, 2006

    Were Jesus and Muhammad sinless?

    It is a cherished doctrine among devout Muslims that Muhammad had achieved sinlessness or (even more) was always sinless after his birth. Some believe that Muhammad had merely negligible faults, brief forgetfulness, small errors, or superficial weakn...

  • April 9, 2006

    Islam Apologists Tell a Partial Story

    On April 2, 2006, M. Cherif Bassiouni, a professor and the president of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University College of Law, wrote an op—ed in the Chicago Tribune on apostasy (leaving a religion), assertin...

  • April 2, 2006

    Apostasy in the Quran, Traditions, and Islamic Law

    In 2006 in Pakistan, Christians have been arrested for converting from Islam to Christianity. In 2006 in Afghanistan, Abdul Rahman was prosecuted for converting from Islam to Christianity, a 'crime' that carries the death penalty. He has safely ...

  • March 26, 2006

    The non-speech on Islam and Coexistence (2)

    What Dr. Habib Siddiqui should have said at Vanderbilt Part One may be read here. Habib Siddiqui's speech, originally delivered at Vanderbilt University, may be read at this Muslim magazine. Throughout my critique I use the older translation by Moha...

  • March 25, 2006

    The Non-speech on Islam and Coexistence (1)

    What Dr. Habib Siddiqui should have said at Vanderbilt At an interfaith conference at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Habib Siddiqui delivered a speech on March 11, 2006, titled 'Islam and Coexistence.' Normally, speeches at universities are sparsely att...

  • March 18, 2006

    Saul and Gideon in the Quran: Revelation or Confusion?

    What happens when a passage in the Quran is erroneous? What if it has passages which can be compared with another older sacred text? How do you clarify the mistake? Do you retreat to the doctrine of infallible revelation? (The Quran comes down from A...

  • March 8, 2006

    Muhammad's Dead Poets Society

    The peaceful non—assassinations of mockersIn their replies to the uproar over satirical depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslim spokespersons who have access to the national media have recently withheld some valuable but unpleasant info...

  • February 25, 2006

    Muhammad and Massacre of the Qurayza Jews

    In AD 627, Muhammad committed an atrocity against the last remaining major tribe of Jews in Medina: the Qurayza. He beheaded the men and the pubescent boys and enslaved the women and children. In doing this, he wiped an entire tribe 'off the map' to ...

  • February 18, 2006

    Why I don't convert to Islam (3)

    [Part One may be read here. And Part Two here.] (18) The Quran orders warfare on Christians and Jews during Muhammad's first Crusade (long before the European ones). Sura 9:29 says: Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, ...

  • February 11, 2006

    Why I don't convert to Islam (2)

    [Part One may be read here.] (9) The Quran orders the mutilation of male and female thieves. Sura 5:38 says: 5:38 Cut off the hands of thieves, whether they are male or female, as punishment for what they have done—a deterrent from God: God ...

  • January 28, 2006

    Why I don't convert to Islam (1)

    Dear Muslim missionary and emailer, During Islamic holy days and months I get a slight increase in emails from you that go something like this: 'Come on, brother. During this holy time or month when we are conscious of God, accept Islam. You know it'...

  • January 15, 2006

    Insulting and threatening Jesus and Muhammad

    If you were to start a new religious movement or an entirely new religion, people would hurl insults at you, guaranteed. Those who cherish the status quo may even threaten your life. But how would you respond? Would you show patience and take it? Wo...

  • January 8, 2006

    Torture in the Quran and early Islam

    Three main purposes of torture are to punish criminals, to extract information, and to exact revenge. It is at least one of these three purposes that Muhammad, the founder of Islam, had in mind when he tortured two criminals: a treasurer who would no...

  • December 4, 2005

    Islam's mystical claim on Jerusalem

    Three faiths have claimed ownership over Jerusalem. Plain ancient history favors Jewish ownership over the holy city. Christians claimed control of it at various moments in history, but no sound theological or historical claim can or should be m...

  • November 27, 2005

    The Truth about Islamic Crusades and Imperialism

    Historical facts say that Islam has been imperialistic—and would still like to be, if only for religious reasons. Many Muslim clerics, scholars, and activists, for example, would like to impose Islamic law  around the world. Historical fac...

  • November 13, 2005

    Top ten rules in the Quran that oppress women

    Islam in its purest form honors and elevates women, we are often told. But does it? All too often, textual reality (the Quran) matches up with the historical reality of seventh—century Arabia. Gender inequality and oppression in the Quran ...

  • October 20, 2005

    Slave-girls as sexual property in the Quran

    The Quran makes women subordinate to men in many ways.   But no women subject to the rule of Quranic law are more unfortunate than slave girls. According to the eternal and unchanging scripture of Islam, men are permitted to treat them as s...

  • October 8, 2005

    Women are inferior to men in the Quran

    Most of the world, aware that Saudi women cannot drive cars, realizes that Muslim women are subordinated to men. Yet Muslim expositors and preachers tell the world that Islam elevates women, so this proves their religion's truthfulness. They imply th...

  • September 24, 2005

    'Plowing fields' and marrying little girls in the Quran

    Most of us have heard that Muhammad married a little girl. Is this true? Shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution in Iran (1979), he lowered  the marriage age for girls from eighteen years old down to nine years old. Why would these de...

  • September 17, 2005

    Apocryphal gospels in the Quran:

    Muhammad lived six hundred or so years after Mary and Jesus. What were his sources for his references to their lives? Devout Muslims say that over time Allah sent Gabriel down to reveal the entire Quran to his favorite prophet Muhammad. Muhammad even...

  • August 28, 2005

    Muhammad and Jesus against Satan

    Few people know that Muhammad says in the Quran that he takes refuge in Allah from evil witches who cast spells. Few people know that early reliable Islamic sources reveal that before Muhammad's ministry went public in Mecca, he nearly committed sui...

  • August 21, 2005

    Email dialogue

    I have been getting a somewhat steady flow of emails from Muslims critics, and sometimes they are impolite and abusive—and in some ways this is understandable. They are angry. They just read an article that critically examines their religion. A...

  • August 16, 2005

    Why I write hard-hitting articles on Islam

    I've been writing hard—hitting (but fact—based) articles on Islam for a while now, and I just finished a series of articles on sharia or Islamic law, culminating in a top ten list.  Maybe a few readers wonder why I bother to wri...

  • August 13, 2005

    Top ten reasons why sharia is bad for all societies

    Traditional Muslims who understand the Quran and the hadith believe that sharia (Islamic law) expresses the highest and best goals for all societies. It is the will of Allah. But is Islam just in its laws that Muhammad himself practiced and invented?...

  • August 7, 2005

    Ill legal jihad in the Quran and early Islam (2)

    Part One may be read here. Classical legal opinions Sharia is Islamic law embodied in the Quran and the hadith. Fiqh is the science of applying and interpreting sharia, done by qualified judges and legal scholars. Over the first two centuries after M...

  • August 6, 2005

    Ill legal jihad in the Quran and early Islam (1)

    [Part two of this article will appear tomorrow]Muslim spokespersons who have access to the news media are misleading the public about jihad.The Council on American Muslim Relations (CAIR ) says the following about jihad at the time this present artic...

  • July 24, 2005

    Muhammad's 'aye' for an eye: law of retaliation in Islam

    True Islam, the one taught by Muhammad, revives the law of retaliation or lex talionis. The Biblical "eye for an eye." Traditional Muslims who understand the Quran and the hadith (reports of Muhammad's words and actions outside of the Quran) believe ...

  • July 16, 2005

    Insulting Muhammad: Free speech, and death in Islam

    An authoritarian ruler must maintain his grip continuously. The first policy any tyrant imposes on his people shuts down free speech that expresses dissent and criticism. Insulting the head of state merits especially severe treatment. Muhammad laid d...

  • July 10, 2005

    No drinking and gambling in the Quran: Prohibition in Islam

    As early as 1978, Saudi Arabia sentenced nine Britons to flogging for drinking alcohol. The webpage has a photo of how the police carry out the sentence. In 2001, Iranian officials sentenced three men to flogging not only for illicit sex (s...

  • June 30, 2005

    Muhammad and the Jews

    Everyone knows that many millions of the Muslims in the Arab world have a deep hostility towards Jews or 'the Jew.' It seems to have reached a metaphysical level or has debased into an irrational state of mind. The question is: where does it come fr...

  • June 25, 2005

    Islamic law is not gay

    Traditional Muslims who understand the Quran and the hadith (reports of Muhammad's words and actions outside of the Quran) believe that Islamic law or sharia expresses the highest and best goals for all societies. It is the will of Allah. In February...

  • June 19, 2005

    Crucifixion and mutilation in early Islam

    An analysis of Quran 5:33 Traditional Muslims who understand the Quran and the hadith (reports of Muhammad's words and actions outside of the Quran) believe that Islamic law or sharia expresses the highest and best goals for all societies. It is the ...

  • May 28, 2005

    A Brief Explanation of the Trinity

    What is the Trinity all about, anyway? Why do Christians believe in this doctrine? What does it teach? Is it that important? What do Muslims believe about it? This article addresses these questions and more. As for Islam, Muhammad promises a painful...

  • May 18, 2005

    Flogging and stoning adulterers in the Quran

    As recent as April 2004, a Swiss court annulled a government decision that fired Hani Ramadan for publicly defending the punishment of stoning adulterers to death. He takes the standard line of Muslim apologists (defenders of Islam) that without...

  • May 7, 2005

    The Jews should own the 'Kingdom of Heaven'

    In Ridley Scott's monumental movie,  'The Kingdom of Heaven' (May 2005) (the phrase is another way of saying 'Jerusalem' in the film), the European Crusaders and the Muslim Crusaders fight over the city, with the Muslims coming out victorious. T...

  • April 21, 2005

    Did Jesus or Muhammad wield the sword�or did both?

    Muslim apologists over the worldwide web quote Luke 22:36 in which Jesus says that if his disciples do not have a sword, they should sell their cloak and buy one. Therefore, why would Christians complain about jihad and the sword in Islam since Jesus...

  • April 12, 2005

    Thieves, give Muhammad a hand!

    The tragic sound of one hand clapping in the Quran. Ever since 9/11, we have been careful not be overly critical of Islam because we do not want to insult the religion or to paint it with a broad brush, lumping together the bad Muslims with the good ...

  • April 2, 2005

    Does Islam improve on Christianity?

    Does Muhammad fulfill and complete the mission and ministry of Christ? Muhammad answers with an emphatic yes. Basic Islamic theology teaches that since Allah sent Gabriel down with the Quran to Muhammad the messenger of Allah, Muhammad and the Quran...

  • March 26, 2005

    Confusion over Christ: Meacham and Newsweek

    Jon Meacham writes from a privileged platform. He is the religion editor for Newsweek, and he appears on television talk shows with some regularity. He uses his perch, however, to espouse the theology of the religious left. That is, he cast doubts on...

  • March 16, 2005

    The fatal flaw in communism

    Once in a while I hear a student or another sincere thinker assert that communism in its purest form is good, but that no society has yet practiced it purely. If a society were to do so, it would make capitalism look like, well, Soviet and Eastern Eu...

  • March 9, 2005

    Top ten reasons why Islam is not the religion of peace

    Ever since 9/11, Muslim leaders who have access to the national media have told us that Islam is the religion of peace and that violence does not represent the essence of Muhammad's religion. Even President Bush and Britain's Prime Minister Blair ha...

  • March 3, 2005

    Martyrdom? What a bargain!

    Another suicide—homicide bomber strikes  Tel Aviv, for which Islamic Jihad claims 'credit.' A suicide car bomber in Iraq killed the most civilians (115) ever so far in a single blast. They were waiting to join the police and National ...

  • February 14, 2005

    Domestic violence in the Quran

    Does the Quran permit husbands to hit their wives, or not? Summer Hathout is a prosecutor in Los Angeles, an activist for women's rights, and a Muslim. She denies that Islam promotes domestic violence, concluding in her short article: To those of us ...

  • February 4, 2005

    Pelosi is left and wrong

    Democratic Congressional Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was charged by her Party with responding to President Bush's foreign policy declarations in his State of the Union Address on February 2, 2005. Her Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Sen. Ha...

  • January 26, 2005

    Allah's special little apes and pigs

    It has been bandied about in the media that Islamic fanatics shriek that Allah turned certain Jews into apes and pigs. Is this true? If it is, where does this harsh polemics come from? Do they get it from the hadith (Muhammad's sayings and deeds out...

  • January 8, 2005

    Jihad: Quran 9:123 v. Matthew 10:34

    Muslim apologists frequently quote Matthew 10:34, which mentions a sword, drawing a parallel between Christianity and Islam: Jesus and Muhammad both endorse jihad, so why would Christians today complain about it in Islam? However, this parallel is de...

  • January 2, 2005

    Ayatollah Khamenei in his own words

    Iran is developing a nuclear program, ostensibly for energy, but likely also for acquiring a nuclear weapon. Seyyed Ali Khamenei is the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a life—long office that his predecessor Ayatollah Khome...

  • December 28, 2004

    Muhammad's wars v. God's wars

    It is frequently stated by Muslim apologists that Muhammad's wars on Arab polytheists are just like the wars on the pagan peoples in the Old Testament. But this is not true. First, a warning to the reader: This topic leads us into the harsh realities...

  • December 17, 2004

    Meacham on the (non)virgin birth

    During this Christmas season and the aftermath of the election in which devout Christians played a large role, Jon Meacham, managing editor at Newsweek, writes an analysis of the birth of Christ. Not surprisingly, the article is seriously confus...

  • November 14, 2004

    Islam(ists) and religious world domination

    Islamic terrorism may eventually be defeated in its large manifestations, like the one we saw on 9/11, but built into earliest Islam is an ultimate goal of religious world domoination, whether carried out by violent or peaceful means, as seen in the ...

  • October 30, 2004

    The evangelical religious left and Bush

    Glen H. Stassen is Lewis B. Smedes professor of Christian ethics at Fuller seminary, one of the largest evangelical seminaries in the nation. Recently, he has sought  the signatures of other evangelical professors for a statement condemning the ...

  • October 12, 2004

    Muhammad's (non)assassinations of (non)victims

    From the mainstream press and even from scholars, we have heard that Islam is the religion of peace. They point out that the three—consonant Arabic word root s—l—m is found in both Islam, which means surrender or submission, and sal...

  • September 19, 2004

    (Non)excessive punishments in the Quran

    For three years now after 9/11, many Westerners curious about Islam have walked softly around it and skipped over some of its customs. For example, all of us have heard of cutting off the hands of thieves and hitting wives. But are these punishments ...

  • September 6, 2004

    Facts v. Revelations in the Quran

    If anyone studies the Quran objectively, he or she will be struck by the verses that differ widely from cherished Biblical passages and one significant historical fact. Normally, these differences should not pose any problems, provided they remain in...

  • August 16, 2004

    The Muslim Crusades

    Shortly after 9/11, explanations for the attacks fell into two broad categories: Terrorism is the result of a small minority of Muslim evildoers; or the US (and the West) deserved it. Karen Armstrong, a former nun and well—spoken, prolific auth...

  • August 11, 2004

    Liberation or Domination?

    Why has the US invaded other nations in the past 60 years? To liberate people or take over their economy? Al—Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who is stalking Iraq and beheading innocents, in his list of grievances shrieks out this claim ab...

  • August 9, 2004

    Terrorism at its root

    Although Usama bin Ladin is the terrorist who masterminded the most heinous attack ever on US soil, he may be effectively out of the picture in the planning of future attacks. But we should never forget him. It is important to revisit bin Ladin's ide...

  • August 5, 2004

    Two Muslims, an Evangelical, and Jerusalem

    After I read two articles by moderate Muslims living in the West, one born here, the other in Iran, I wondered how they reached the conclusion that Jerusalem is holy for the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. I can see how i...

  • August 4, 2004

    Jihad over Jerusalem (2)

    [Part (1) argues that Muhammad received revelations that the sacred Ka'bah shrine belonged to him and his followers. The Meccans were deemed unrighteous to take care of a shrine that folk belief claims—and Muhammad's revelations confirm...

  • August 3, 2004

    Jihad over Jerusalem (1)

    Some of Muhammad's theology and policies  have ambiguities or seeds —— not found in other religions —— which later followers have difficulty interpreting and applying to their own life and historical context. Mu...

  • July 30, 2004

    Seeds of Jihad (2)

    Part 1 of this series can be read here Some of Muhammad's actions and policy show areas that his later followers misinterpret and misapply, since sometimes his actions and policies—rooted so deeply in Arab custom but missing in the Founder of a...

  • July 28, 2004

    Seeds of Jihad (1)

    A two—part series. Part (2) will appear tomorrow. The deepest source of Islamic terrorism lies in theology. Formed in response to events in the Prophet's lifetime, there are problematic aspects to Islamic theology and practice not found in two ...

  • July 14, 2004

    Terrorist logic and the November elections

    This final installment in the series of three articles argues that there is an evil and deadly terrorist logic, designed to influence the American elections in November. The articles take the form of examining a series of logical premises. The first ...

  • July 9, 2004

    The terrorist logic of strength

    Terrorists would rather fight a weak and discordant opponent so they can win the war they started and impose their ultimate goal. In American politics today, Kerry and the Democrats are the opponents they would prefer to face as leaders of the Great ...

  • July 7, 2004

    Kerry's plan

    In a Washington Post op—ed article, John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, adumbrates a plan, of sorts, for Iraq. He writes the piece so he can appear in—touch with the events in Iraq. But he keeps it vague and plati...

  • June 30, 2004

    The logic of weakness

    The Democrats and the Left seem hell—bent to topple President Bush at any cost. Ted Kennedy says, boiled down to its essence, that Abu Ghraib prison is now under new US management that equaled that of Saddam. The last I heard, the prisoners ar...

  • June 17, 2004

    Ten timeless lessons of an earlier reform

    In a recent press conference on June 10, 2004, as he was leaving the G8 summit in Georgia, President Bush said that reform in the Middle East is not easy and will take time. He also pointed out that each nation in the Middle East would look diff...

  • June 9, 2004

    The true source of Islamic terrorism

    When violent, fanatical Muslims observe current events, they see a religion in recession culturally, economically, technologically, and militarily, and this brings shame, a strong cultural value in the Arab world and beyond. This historical fact of d...

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