Dr. Andrew Yuengert, the John and Francis Duggan Professor of Economics at Seaver College, Pepperdine University, discussed the various economic and moral dimensions of the critically important immigration issues facing America today. In an interview on The Jerry Bowyer Show yesterday, Dr. Yuengert discussed “The Right to Migrate”. Dr. Yuengert argues, within the context of Catholic Social Teaching, that there is a “right to migrate,” but it is not an “absolute right.” This means that for policy discussions, “the purpose...

Rev. Gerald Zandstra, director of programs at the Acton Institute, has taken a leave of absence to enter the race for the U.S. Senate. This story quotes Jerry, and sizes up the campaign. ...

Thorny issues arise when non-profits take government funding, especially when said non-profits have an explicitly Christian (and evangelistic) purpose. Case in point: “The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit yesterday against the Department of Health and Human Services, accusing the Bush administration of spending federal tax dollars on an abstinence education program that promotes Christianity,” aka Silver Ring Thing. I first heard about the Silver Ring Thing via a special documentary broadcast on NPR, “With This Ring: Pledging Abstinence.” All...

This article from The Christian Post relates the warnings of Martin Oca༚, professor at the Baptist Seminary of South Peru, about the increasing attraction of prosperity theology in Latin America. According to Oca༚, prosperity theology (PT) teaches that, material prosperity is the greatest evidence of God’s blessing. However…such prosperity is not for everyone but rather for those who are faithful to God and keep His spiritual laws. He also says PT teaches that material prosperity is given to Christians so...

This article is a must-read for anyone interested in the recent history of American evangelicalism: For a movement that began its modern life among the Calvinists, the sometimes strong critique evangelicalism has received in the past decade from its own Calvinist caucus cannot be dismissed lightly. While most of these Calvinist voices have not distanced themselves from the movement they helped create, their accusations of doctrinal declension, human-centered worship and idolatrous narcissism stand in sharp contrast to the more upbeat...

From the “biting the hand that feeds you” department: Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin today launched an attack on his record label EMI and pany’s shareholders. It came after EMI, the world’s third-largest pany, warned that profits would be lower because the band took longer than expected to finish their first studio album in three years. But as Coldplay prepared for a concert in New York to promote their new album, called X&Y, Martin said: “I don’t really care about...

Here’s a list of the current members of the President’s Council on Bioethics, whose interest area is sure to e more and more important ing years, courtesy The Thing Is. ...

In a profile of Mike Gerson, an evangelical Christian and chief speechwriter for President Bush, Karl Rove summarized Gerson’s contributions thusly: “You can count on Mike to ask how a given policy will affect the least among us,” Rove said in an interview. “The shorthand, political way to say it is that Mike is the one always wondering how we can achieve liberal goals with conservative means.” Of course this the “political way” to get at it, but Rove’s expression...

In the hurly-burly of the last few months, I had missed the release of the new critical edition of Dietrich Bonheoffer’s Ethics, the latest in the massive Augsburg Fortress project, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works. My notification came via the International Bonhoeffer Society’s newsletter, which arrived yesterday. Rest assured that I purchased my copy today and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. ...

Why do so many protestors in the anti-globalization movement seem to have such a big appetite for the products panies such as Nokia, Seiko, Nissan, Volvo, Toshiba, and the like? Maybe it’s because, as Anthony Bradley writes, their paternalistic views about the poor and the developing world blind them to the reality of the global economy. Bradley uses Japan as an example of how international trade can boost a relatively weak economy and speed up the process of ing an...