It has been several years since I have given a talk at Biola University in La Mirada, California. It is an institution that has a number of my friends on the faculty including Craig Hazen, John Mark Reynolds, J. P. Moreland, and Scott B. Rae. So I am very much looking forward to this Thursday, when I return to Biola as a speaker in its Distinguished Speaker Lecture Series for Christianity and Culture.

Scheduled for October 30 at 6 pm in Biola’s Calvary Chapel, I will be delivering a lecture on the topic of abortion and American politics. After the lecture I’ll be meeting for an informal Q & A at the Philosophy House of Talbot School of Theology (Biola’s seminary) with some students in the school’s M.A. program in philosophy of religion and ethics.

If you are in southern California, feel free to attend. The lecture is open to the public.

(cross-posted)

An on the money blog post by Jonathan V. Last at First Things:

There are reasonable criticisms that can be made of Sarah Palin, both as governor and a vice presidential selection. Yet little of what we have seen in the last six days has been either reasonable or critical (in the traditional sense of the word). Instead, much of the left and many in the media simply lashed out at Palin, particularly at her family.

And not only the fringiest parts of the political fringe: A writer at the Washington Post attacked Palin for the fact that her seventeen-year-old daughter was going to have a baby. A writer for The Atlantic openly questioned whether or not Palin’s four-month-old baby, who has Down’s Syndrome, was actually hers. The utterly unfounded suggestion was that the baby was Palin’s daughter’s and that the governor had faked her pregnancy. Proof of the baby’s birth was demanded.

(more…)

Read it here. The picture is below. Andrew Sullivan, however, seems hesitant to acquiesce. 

[Cross-posted on What's Wrong With the World]

Pepperdine Law Professor and prolife legal scholar, Doug Kmiec, has announced that he is endorsing Senator Barack Obama for the U. S. presidency. I have learned so much from Professor Kmiec’s clear and persuasive academic writings, and very much appreciate his contributions to the study of jurisprudence. For this reason, I have been disappointed by his less than compelling apologetic for his presidential endorsement. Consider, for example, these recent comments by Kmiec about a meeting he and others had with the Illinois Senator (HT: Carl Olson, Insight Scoop):

(more…)

I’ve been meaning to pen a glowing review of Bella, but RCM has saved me the trouble of doing so.

If you haven’t yet seen Bella, you should buy or rent the movie ASAP.

I’ve had a few requests for the links to my appearance on Hardball that took place during my sabbatical from SA (May 30, 2007). There were two segments, and you can watch them here and here.

Nat Hentoff, “a nonreligious pro-lifer” and columnist for the Washington Times, nails it:

[O]n abortion, Mr. Obama is an extremist. He has opposed the Supreme Court decision that finally upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act against that form of infanticide. Most startlingly, for a professed humanist, Mr. Obama in the Illinois Senate also voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act . . . . Furthermore . . . [Obama] “voted to kill a bill that would have required an abortionist to notify at least one parent before performing an abortion on a minor girl from another state.” . . . . 

As I was researching this presidential candidate’s views on the unilateral “choice” that takes another’s life, I heard on the radio what Mr. Obama said during a Johnstown, Pa., town-hall meeting on March 29 . . . ”But if they [his daughters] make a mistake . . . I don’t want them punished with a baby.” Among my children and grandchildren are two daughters and three granddaughters; and when I hear anyone, including a presidential candidate, equate having a baby as punishment, I realize with particular force the impact that the millions of legal abortions in this country have had on respect for human life.

Read the entire piece. It is most excellent.

(LvFT)

I cannot think of any actor that deserved to play the role of Jesus more than Jim Caviezel.

(LvC&EI!)

[Ed. This is a post from my "Alexham" archives over at RedState. I am reposting it here because I believe the overall message of the post needs to be restated before we gather together for the national convention in September.]

I can still remember the day after the 1994 midterm elections. It was an unusually sunny day in the Southland, and all seemed right with the world. After all of those years in the wilderness, the Republicans had finally taken control of the House, and soon thereafter, the Senate. We would do things differently, we promised. We were a different kind of political party. Unlike the Democrats, who only care for power for power’s sake, we sought power to make a profound difference in the lives of every-day Americans.

How different things look thirteen years later. Somewhere along the line, we lost our way. I think most Republicans instinctively know this, but have trouble articulating exactly when things began to unravel for our party. What we do know is that the Republican Party is at crossroads. We are a party in search of an identity, and the path we choose will have long-term ramifications not only for the GOP, but for these United States. (more…)

Many social conservatives (including yours truly) have, at times, questioned Senator McCain’s commitment to the pro-life cause. Well, last night I was watching Chris Matthews’s Hardball College Tour interview with the good senator, and I must to say that I was extremely impressed with his performance. His finest moment by far, in my humble opinion, was the strong stand he took for a Culture of Life in this country:

(start watching the video at about the 1:35 mark)

Well done, Senator McCain. I am proud to support you.

See the Reuters story here. I have not read the decision, but I suppose it could be defended on originalist grounds as a matter of constitutional law, depending on the circumstances.  I just do not like the result from a moral perspective.

I have really enjoyed reading Donald Miller, who is sort of a stream-of-consciousness prose writer massively beloved by 20-something Christians.  (I’m in my thirties, but came to the faith late, so I still get to read him.)

One thing that has typically bothered me about Miller’s work is that he takes gratuitious shots at the religious right political types.  When orthodox Christians harp too hard on the Republican Christian crowd, I tend to suspect they are just working hard to make themselves respectable to the left.  Despite that minor complaint, I have really liked reading Miller’s work.  Blue Like Jazz was one of the better works of self-revelation I’ve seen in the Christian book world.  Miller just has a great “writing voice.”
Anyway, I got my latest issue of Touchstone and discovered that Miller defends his membership in the Democratic party.  Whoa.  Full stop.  I can understand when my grandparents stick with the Democrats on the basis that FDR seemed like God’s vice-regent in saving America from the depression.  It is a bit harder to accept that a young Christian, observing the fact that Democratic presidential candidates must pledge an oath of undying fealty to Planned Parenthood, could ever be a member of the abortion/euthanasia/secularist party.

Now, before commenters go crazy talking about how bad the GOP is, which is what Miller apparently does to defend himself, I just want to point out that’s not really a defense.  It’s like saying, I’m a member of the KKK, but the ACLU is just so terrible I don’t have any choice!

Besides, I can fully understand a Christian refusing to vote, refusing to support the GOP, staying out of politics, working to support a more ethically pure third party, etc.  But I just can’t see becoming a Democrat.  To me, under the current circumstances, it’s out of the question.

I’d love to hear from commenters who may have thought about this, too, and may have a different take.  I’d love to hear from everybody.  I think this is an eminently discussable topic.

That’s according to Michelle Colon, the president of the Jackson, MS, chapter of NOW.  In an interview with “The World Can’t Wait”, a pretty far-left group, Ms. Colon equated Christian fundamentalists with Islamic terrorists:

[TWCW]:  So what needs to happen to dramatically change this direction society is going in? Do you indeed think we need to drive out the Bush Regime?

[Colon]: Oh yeah. I think this bus tour you guys are doing is great. You all have been going to communities that have been left off that map, left for “red states.” We need to get back to stuff like you all are doing, get back to the grassroots. When I found out some of the places you were going [Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana] People in those places need to see this kind of hope. In these red states, most progressive people feel, they really feel like they are the “only ones” [opposed to the way society is being reformed]. And they’re not. And yes, we need to get them out, and this is the first step for us. The pro-choice movement in Jackson really came out of the closet on this one.

[TWCW]: What kind of role do you think the Christian Fundamentalists are playing in creating this new direction for society?

[Colon]: Oh, they’re totally tied up in the attack. And the attack on all of us, the ones they call the unholy alliance, the deviants. The want us rounded up, by the government, all the ones they consider the most vulgar parts of society. These fundamentalist Christians are to Christianity what the Muslim terrorists are to Islam.

I must have missed the meeting where “rounding up the deviants” was decided to be an official goal of the Vast Christian Fundamentalist Conspiracy (a wholly owned subsidary of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy).

(link via Magnolia Report)

Wow. I had never heard of this organization until today.

(LvAmy)