Archive for June 2021
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY: Freedom Means …
What does the word “Freedom” mean? The U.S. Constitution guarantees individual freedom to Americans, but so did the Soviet Constitution for the people of the former USSR. Obviously, there were two different definitions of the word involved. There are also a lot of folks these days for whom “Freedom” essentially means they are able to…
Read MoreEXPLAIN THIS: Would You Suffer Years of Extreme Pain, Hardship For A Lie?
Paul the Apostle made four major missionary journeys around the ancient Mediterranean world sharing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who he claimed to have seen and talked to during that famous encounter on the road to Damascus a year or so after the crucifixion. In the decades thereafter in the course of his…
Read MoreWORKING ON THE HILL: Is the Ideal of Bipartisanship Always a Virtue?
In a country deeply divided, bipartisanship seems a ready solution to bridge differences. After all, placing the stamp of bipartisanship on something in Washington is tantamount to the seal of approval. But does it always indicate the best we have to offer? While bipartisanship can be a good thing, it isn’t the objective. Instead, we…
Read MoreStudy Finds Having Friends Makes for a Healthier Life (And Poses a Question About the Existence of God)
Having a lot of friends makes for a happier life experience, but there is also strong evidence that having extended social connectedness also helps improve an individual’s physical health, including improving odds against suffering major diseases. And, while the study’s authors don’t say it, I will suggest that the link between a multitude of friends…
Read MoreWHAT WOULD YOU SAY: Doesn’t Religious Freedom Protect Violent Extremism?
Defend religious freedom in the public square these days and odds are you will, sooner than later, be told that protecting religious freedom and freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is just a mask for encouraging political violence and extremism. A familiar illustration of this fallacy is being told that…
Read MoreEXPLAIN THIS: If the Disciples Made it All Up About Jesus, Why’d They Make Themselves Look So Bad?
It’s difficult to read the four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — without coming away thinking Jesus’ disciples were, before His resurrection from the tomb, dense, stubborn, lacking in faith, and outright cowardly on more than a few occasions. After all, Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times before the cock crowed as…
Read MoreSTAFF NEWS: House Appropriators Include Big Increase in Member’s Office Budgets
House Appropriators are including in their version of the 2022 legislative branch funding bill a substantial increase in the Members Representation Allowance (MRA), the account from which personal and committee staffers are paid. The draft bill boosts the MRA by $134 million, to a total of $774 million. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) had…
Read MoreSTAFF NEWS: Look Who’s Movin’ Up On The Hill This Week
Courtesy of Legistorm: Ben DeMarzo moves up from his slot as Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to Chief of Staff for Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL). Ben’s Master of Public Policy (MPP) was earned at Rutgers University, as was his BA in Political Science and Government. Rep. Mike Johnson…
Read MoreNo, Quantum Physics Doesn’t Explain How the Universe Was Created
Right off the bat, allow me to make it clear I am a journalist by training, not a physicist, so I don’t claim any expertise regarding quantum mechanics. But as a journalist, I do have a fair amount of experience assessing the credibility of claims, including the one often posed by atheists that the universe…
Read MoreThe ‘Minimal Facts’ Evidence for the Truth of Jesus’ Resurrection
Philosopher Gary Habermas surveys the best scholarship, from scholars on both sides of the issues, on the evidence for and against the resurrection of Jesus as a literal, historical event and offers what he calls “the minimal facts” case. The minimal facts are those that just about everybody on both sides of the debate agree…
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