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February 03, 2006

The rest of the story

More from the State of the Union: “…the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row.” That’s a good thing. But there’s still a marriage crisis, and part of it is related to birth rates among unmarried women: Births to unmarried mothers reached a record high of almost 1.5 million and made up 35.7% of all births in 2004. Continue Reading...
February 02, 2006

A ‘Salt’ Assault

The Feb. 6 edition of NEWSWEEK features a story on the debate program at Liberty University, in a bit by Susanna Meadows, “Cut, Thrust and Christ: Why evangelicals are mastering the art of college debate.” Continue Reading...
February 02, 2006

Silly me

From the State of the Union: “Yet the destination of history is determined by human action, and every great movement of history comes to a point of choosing.” And all along I’ve been thinking it was divine providence. Continue Reading...
February 01, 2006

Amazing stories of effective compassion

I was reminded recently that Jesus repeatedly underscored the high value of seemingly very small things. The significant results of small mustard seeds and lost coins made his parable points well but, as a mom, the story of one lost sheep made me quickly leap to the incalculable value of one lost person. Continue Reading...
February 01, 2006

Why Johnny can’t compete with Sanjay

The math and science skills of American high schoolers and college students continue to erode. Michael Miller looks at the implications for U.S. economic competitiveness and offers some suggestions for fixing what ails the schools. Continue Reading...
February 01, 2006

Building on the tithe

A brief opinion from yours truly, featured in the February issue of The Banner, the denominational magazine of the Christian Reformed Church in North America: “Building on the Tithe.” With an eye towards Christians in other parts of the world, I observe, “In North America the conflict we face is largely between spending our leisure or disposable income on ourselves and spending it on others.” Continue Reading...
January 31, 2006

What was that saying about power?

From the Washington Post, a snippet from Hugo Chavez, discussing Bolivia’s recently elected president, Evo Morales: “We have to create, one, two, three Bolivias in Latin America, in the Caribbean,” [Chavez] said echoing a quotation from Argentine hero Ernesto Che Guevara. Continue Reading...
January 31, 2006

Created imago Dei

Winners of the 2005 Acton Essay Competition have been announced. The topic for the 15th annual competition: The human person, by virtue of being created imago Dei, is an independent being, individually unique, rational, the subject of moral agency, a co-creator, and inherently social. Continue Reading...