Related to last mentary and blog post, check out this WSJ piece, “Gates Crafts Long-Term Iraq Plan, With Limited Role for U.S. Forces,” in which Defense Secretary Robert Gates says, “My view is that whatever works economically ought to be tried.” ...

I did a brief interview yesterday with Greg Allen of The Right Balance and have a couple more scheduled for next week. It’s kept me thinking about some of the issues surrounding the debate about Christianity, democracy, and Iraq. In the piece I wrote I pointed to some of the rather guarded opinions of representatives from the Christian tradition, namely John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, on the possibility of finding the “best” form of government. But I’ve also...

The US State Department issued its annual religious freedom report late last week (HT). And earlier this month, Paul Marshall of the Hudson Institute discussed the ing book, Religious Freedom in the World 2007. He had this to say about economic and religious freedom: If you take the worst 30 countries in terms of economic freedom, every one scored low with religious freedom. The top 30 countries all scored high. Why is that? We see two connections. First, wealth could...

In his recent and fascinating book Five Minds for the Future, Harvard professor Howard Gardner outlines the 5 basic types of intelligence people have: 1. The Disciplinary Mind: the mastery of major schools of thought, including science, mathematics, and history, and of at least one professional craft; 2. The Synthesizing Mind: the ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into a coherent whole and municate that integration to others; 3. The Creating Mind: the capacity to uncover and...

“Is American higher education doing its duty to prepare the next generation to keep America free?” Apparently not, according to researchers at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy (UConnDPP), in a missioned by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s (ISI) National Civic Literacy Program. In a survey of 14,000 freshman and seniors at 50 colleges and universities across the country, every school scored poorly. Also, college seniors, sadly, scored little better than freshman. The average senior score was a failing...

In what is shaping up to appear like court imposed taxation, Microsoft lost its appeal in a major anti-trust case at Europe’s second highest court yesterday. The European Union’s Court of First Instance backed the European Commission’s 2004 decision to fine Microsoft and order the software giant to change its Windows operating system to make it patible with rival systems. The 2004 verdict imposed a record fine on Microsoft in the amount of $497 million. The long feud appears, by...

I’ve heard it said from a number of leaders in the munity that there is a great opportunity for Reformed churches to be a positive influence on the growth of Christianity abroad, particularly in places like Africa where Pentecostalism has made such large inroads. The thesis is that as time passes and institutions need to be built, the traditionally other-worldly Pentecostal faith will by necessity need to embrace a more prehensive world-and-life view. Reformed institutions ought to be prepared to...

The PowerBlog’s own Don Bosch is attending the Let’s Tend the Garden evangelical environmental conference this week. He’s liveblogging at his own habitat, and will cross-post and update us here as opportunity permits. He writes to me briefly that there are “lots of Christian environmental leaders (Rich Cizik is here, along with Rusty Pritchard, Floresta, A Rocha, etc) and also secular groups (Sierra Club).” ...

The first day at LTTG-07 here at Vineyard Church, Boise Idaho was full of great fellowship, worship, workshops and discussions among evangelical and secular environmental leaders. Day Two is just getting underway. For you folks new to LTTG, this is the second annual gathering of Christian leadership from across the United States (and beyond?) to honor the Creator and diligently seek ways to be better stewards of creation. The idea for the conference was hatched by VB’s pastor Tri Robinson....

The problem and pain of poverty garners a prolific amount of attention in the Church today, and rightfully so. In Evangelical Christian Churches, poverty awareness, discussion, and action has risen to new heights. Much of this has to do with the rapid speed munication, increase in education, and a reaction against social conservatives, who in the past, have emphasized much of their focus on more specific social and moral issues such as abortion. While I was in seminary, during an...