James Frank Solís

No, it doesn't make sense to treat islamophobia as racism

2017-06-12T10:44:00.000-06:00

The man in this photo is Wagih Subhi Baqi Sulayman, more properly known as His Holiness Tawadros II, 118th Pope of Alexandria (the 98th since Athanasius), leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church. I’m thinking about Pope Tawadros (Arabic for "Theodore") today because, a months

What is Hotep? Uncle Hotep answers the most asked question on the internet.

2017-02-28T12:39:00.001-07:00

Vain Glory

2017-02-22T07:35:00.001-07:00

Desert Spirituality for Reformed People (19) You greatly delude yourself...if you think that one thing is demanded from the layman and another from the monk.... Because all must rise to the same height.... ~ St. John Chrysostom Vain glory seeks self-exaltation, rather than the exaltation of God, and will do almost anything in order to achieve its goal. The vain glorious person seeks fame

2016-08-30T07:40:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite philosophers asks, and answers, "If man is made in God's image and likeness, does it follow that God is essentially embodied?" "[The] ‘reasoning’ [goes] along these lines: 1. Man is made in God’s image. 2. Man is a physical being with a digestive tract, etc. Therefore 3. God is a

An interesting question, answered by David Galernter

2016-08-29T23:18:00.000-06:00

Why should a Jew care whether Christianity lives or dies? It comes down to this: Christianity is the Jews’ gift to mankind; the most important gift mankind has ever received. That so many modern leftists would say to themselves, 'All the more reason to hate the Jews,' merely underlines the point. The natural enemy of the Jew is the natural enemy of the Christian, too—the conscience-hater, the

Acedia, the Noon-day Demon

2016-04-27T07:12:00.000-06:00

Desert Spirituality for Reformed People (18) You greatly delude yourself...if you think that one thing is demanded from the layman and another from the monk.... Because all must rise to the same height.... ~ St. John Chrysostom In 2011, "60 Minutes" had a segment on the monks at Mount Athos. (You can view the whole segment here.) One of the monks interviewed (by the late Bob Simon) was

2015-04-24T07:45:00.001-06:00

I'm glad something like this can't happen here. Writing at National Review Online, David French interviews some of the victims of the "John Doe" persecution, giving voice to those who were simultaneously targeted, humiliated, intimidated and muzzled. Here's one of several terrifying vignettes: Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin

2015-04-21T10:21:00.001-06:00

According to the Texas Court of Appeals, "nonmedia" do not receive full First Amendment protections. [T]his is an unfortunate result, and also requires Texas courts to now decide who counts as “media” for First Amendment purposes. Do book authors qualify? Filmmakers? Academics? Bloggers? (Does it matter whether they make money blogging? Whether they blog on The Washington Post site, even if

2015-04-15T13:43:00.000-06:00

Jonathan Adler asks what it will take to convince libertarians and conservatives that climate change is a problem. Probably the recognition that man-made global warming does not mandate any particular policies. Of course, to a certain extent, libertarians and conservatives are entitled to be skeptical of the grounds used to justify certain policies. Golly gee, there's this problem which,

2015-04-10T08:22:00.000-06:00

Unsettled Science? More scientists doubt salt is as bad for you as the government says. For years, the federal government has advised Americans that they are eating too much salt, and that this excess contributes yearly to the deaths of tens of thousands of people. But unknown to many shoppers urged to buy foods that are “low sodium” and “low salt,” this longstanding warning has come under

Hey, you're not being asked to swing with 'em!

2015-04-04T10:08:00.001-06:00

According to Penn Jillette, here, commenting on Indiana’s supposedly anti-gay legislation: These people are not being asked to engage in gay sex or even endorse gay sex. They're being asked to sell flowers and cake to people....Now, I'm a libertarian and an atheist, so I'm kind of fighting myself on this. I don't like the government involved with telling people what to do

Kelo, ten years later

2015-03-24T06:37:00.000-06:00

It was just last week sometime I was wondering about this. In its highly controversial 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments have the power to take private property and transfer it to other private owners in order to promote “economic development.” It thereby upheld a poorly conceived development plan in the Fort Trumbull

No government can claim the specific power

2015-03-23T20:13:00.000-06:00

to command its subjects to buy any particular good without tacitly claiming the more general power to command subjects to to buy anything at all. And given the nature of human action, a government cannot claim the specific power of mandating purchases without tacitly claiming the more general power of mandating anything at all, to include voting. For example--to drive home the point with a

Lust, Part 3

2014-02-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

Desert Spirituality for Reformed People (17) You greatly delude yourself...if you think that one thing is demanded from the layman and another from the monk.... Because all must rise to the same height.... ~ St. John Chrysostom In Part 2, I wrote about the immoral sexual images and messages which assault us these days. How unsurprising it is, that many Christians struggle with lust. We

Lust, Part 2

2013-12-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

Desert Spirituality for Reformed People (16) You greatly delude yourself...if you think that one thing is demanded from the layman and another from the monk.... Because all must rise to the same height.... ~ St. John Chrysostom When I was a child, I wasn't allowed to watch much television, virtually none at all on school nights during the school year, and an hour or two in the evenings

Lust, Part 1

2013-11-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Desert Spirituality for Reformed People (15) You greatly delude yourself...if you think that one thing is demanded from the layman and another from the monk.... Because all must rise to the same height.... ~ St. John Chrysostom As I said last time monks did not struggle with lust as much as we might think; for them the problem was anger. It's probably difficult to believe, given the

2013-01-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

Little-known secret: Many (if not most) intellectuals are not lovers of freedom, especially if they live off or otherwise benefit from government largess; so this, while interesting, is really no surprise. Those intellectuals who really are crazy about liberty are usually something else first, and intellectuals second...or third. Hans-Herman Hoppe suggests that the freedom-loving intellectual

Anger

2012-11-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Desert Spirituality for Reformed People (14) You greatly delude yourself...if you think that one thing is demanded from the layman and another from the monk.... Because all must rise to the same height.... ~ St. John Chrysostom We might be inclined to think that, of all the passions, monks struggled the most with lust. We know very well that some did, but the passion with which they

The Africans are coming! The Africans are coming!

2012-09-20T18:45:00.000-06:00

And it's a good thing, too! The Nigerians have landed. They want the gospel reclaimed on US soil because, they argue, the Episcopal Church has abandoned the historic gospel and drunk the Kool-aid of pansexuality and interfaith alliances where no gospel needs to be proclaimed because all roads ultimately lead to heaven. Actually, African Anglicans have been working here in the US for some time.

Would Striking Clichés Make Christians More Tolerable?

2012-07-23T07:39:00.001-06:00

Would Striking Clichés Make Christians More Tolerable?

2012-07-03T23:40:00.002-06:00

George Will is among those conservatives driven to find victory in a stunning defeat. By persuading the court to reject a Commerce Clause rationale for a president’s signature act, the conservative legal insurgency against Obamacare has won a huge victory for the long haul. This victory will help revive a venerable tradition of America’s political culture, that of viewing congressional actions

2012-07-03T23:32:00.004-06:00

In our mothers' house, there's lots and lots o' love. What was it Malcolm X said about a fool letting his enemy educate his children?

2012-07-03T23:31:00.001-06:00

A tempest in a tea pot, so to speak.

2012-06-11T12:26:00.001-06:00

CHRISTIAN PIATT: Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church

Weapons? They don't need no stinking weapons.

2012-06-05T15:07:00.000-06:00

HOT AIR: Hugo Chaves puts the finishing touches on his plan to disarm his people.