Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
The New York Times today has a headline story that a group of conservative Episcopalian bishops is breaking away from the mainstream church because of objections to the church’s stand on gay marriage: Conservatives disaffected from the Episcopal Church are expected to declare on Wednesday that they are founding their
Continue readingThe other day, as part of my “false syllogism” post, I noted the way in which the Left continues to be, as it was in Marx’s heyday, fanatically hostile to religion. If you doubt me, just check out Patrick’s gimlet eyed examination of Cintra Wilson’s attacks on Palin and other
Continue readingFor many years, I’ve thought that people confuse fairly neutral conduct with bad motives, resulting in false syllogisms. I first came to this conclusion after reading John McWhorter’s wonderful Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. Although my memories are a bit hazy about the details of the book, I
Continue readingIn the past two days, I’ve read two articles that examine the liberal approach to religion. The first is Hillel Halkin’s How Not to Repair the World (available to subscribers or for a $2.95 fee); the second is Mark Tooley’s Is God a Liberal Democrat? They were sort of a
Continue readingIt’s an old-fashioned concept: Some horrible disaster happens, and the victims (or the observers) ponder it, and then pronounce, “It’s God’s will.” Nobody would say that now, right? We’re rational, scientifically oriented creatures who search for meaning in everything/ We would never shrug and, Job-like, admit that meaning can elude
Continue readingOver at National Review, Kathryn Lopez interviews Steven Waldman, who is an editor at BeliefNet.com, and who just wrote a new book: Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America. In it, he carefully examines the way in which the Founders envisioned faith playing out in
Continue readingThe AP is diving into damage control, assuring us that, not only is Pastor Wright just your ordinary black improvement activist, but his style of rhetoric is dying away anyway: As shocking as they may be, the provocative sermons of Barack Obama’s pastor come out of a tradition of using
Continue readingI love the Anchoress’ blog, which I think is amazingly well-written, intelligent, humorous, humane and full of insight. I therefore find myself in the peculiar position of disagreeing with her twice in as many days. The post at issue is one the Anchoress wrote in the wake of the “aha!”
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