Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

March 27, 2007

Kristof on Kiva

Today’s NYT has an op-ed by Nicholas Kristof recommending the work of micro-finance organizations, like Kiva, whom we’ve mentioned before. Kristof writes in “You, Too, Can Be a Banker to the Poor” (TimesSelect) that “Small loans to entrepreneurs are now widely recognized as an important tool against poverty.” Continue Reading...
March 27, 2007

There’s just no such thing

I saw a spate of headlines over the weekend that proclaimed something like, “Now scientists create a sheep that’s 15% human.” 15% human? Really? Isn’t that like being “a little pregnant”? Continue Reading...
March 26, 2007

New player in the console wars

I’ve discussed previously the complex interrelationships between the next-generation gaming consoles and hi-def DVD formats, especially as complicated by the pornification of culture and technology. So far I’ve focused on the battle between Sony’s PS3 (paired with the Blu-ray format) and the Xbox 360 (paired with the HD-DVD format), and argued that the hi-def formats rather than the porn industry itself would act as a decisive influence. Continue Reading...
March 23, 2007

An inconvenient debate

I have tried to read everything that I can find the time to digest on the subject of global warming. I saw Al Gore’s award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and even had some nice things to say about it. Continue Reading...
March 22, 2007

Enough religious “Beyondism”

John Armstrong’s thoughtful post below reminds me of the critiques of Jim Wallis offered in this space, here, here, and here (by Armstrong himself). And over at FirstThings today, Joseph Bottum, courtesy of David Brooks, gives me a term that I hadn’t encountered and that serves well as a moniker for the phenomenon Wallis embodies: “beyondism.” Continue Reading...
March 22, 2007

Thanks, but no thanks?

Non-evangelicals and progressive Christians continue to throw their support Rev. Richard Cizik’s way. Now the Institute for Progressive Christianity has released a statement commending “the courage and Christian concern displayed by Rev. Continue Reading...
March 21, 2007

Coming soon to your neighborhood bookseller: Al Gore’s Assault on Reason

Oh, I’m sorry. I messed up that title. Gore’s newest book will be called The Assault on Reason. Here’s the book description from Amazon.com: A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degration of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason… …We live in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate’s thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Continue Reading...
March 21, 2007

Censuring Sobrino

When the Vatican last week issued a stinging rebuke of Fr. Jon Sobrino, a noted proponent of Liberation Theology, predictable complaints ensued about the Church squelching “dissent.” However, as Samuel Gregg points out, Fr. Continue Reading...