Always Reforming

    Another decision handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States of America, another dagger in the heart of freedom.  What's new?  It's almost redundant at this point.  It's becoming difficult to comment on the implications of decisions like this because they are so common and one-sided.  It's easy to miss the significance, but rest assured, there is much for us to learn from these recent events.  For those of you who are uninformed (or simply unconcerned), the Supreme Court decided (in a 5-3 vote) that Texas's new law that regulated abortion clinics was too restrictive.  Yeah, that's the point.  Anyway, let's take a look at the implications of this:     1) It's a game.  The political process is a game.  The Supreme Court votes are a game.  Washington D.C. is one big game.  We all know it.  The fact that we have justices who are outspokenly pro-choice voting on this sort of issue is ridiculou...

    The League of Nations was called "man's last, best hope."  It was created after the end of "the war to end all wars," which we have, ironically enough, now termed World War I.  After the LoN clearly failed (cough cough...World War II...cough cough), the United Nations took its place.  Surely that would do the trick!  Right.  Well, World War III hasn't technically occurred, but the decades since WWII have certainly been marked by conflicts, police actions, U.N. "peacekeeping," and wars on things like "terror." International hostilities have been anything but alleviated.  Practically every part of the world has taken its turn either being at war or on the brink thereof.     The European Union, while on a smaller scale and with more explicitly economic designs, was created for similar reasons as the LoN and the UN.  The EU was created with the dystopian dream of living in a world that is above things like greed, discrimination, a...

    In case you haven't heard, LeBron James is still good at basketball.  In fact, he just cemented his legacy as one of the greatest (THE greatest, some would contend) human beings ever to play the game of basketball.  Amidst all the hysteria and fanfare you'll find those curmudgeons and philosophers who can't understand why people get so worked up about a silly game.  There are multiple reasons.  Some of us simply like to watch fellow human beings perform impressive physical feats.  LeBron James, for instance, led all players on both teams in points, assists, rebounds, blocks, and steals in a seven-game series, a first in NBA history.  If you aren't into basketball, especially if you've never physically played a game of it, you might not be capable of appreciating just how impressive that is.  Each of those stats indicates a specific set of skills and athletic abilities.  To best all other players in all 5 of those categories in seven...

    I recently wrote a blog entitled " Hillary Clinton and the State of American Politics ."  In it I wrote of the implications of having a Clinton and a criminal (those words almost seem redundant at this point) as the Democratic front-runner.  In the interest of being balanced, allow me to do the same thing for Donald Trump.  It may sound pretty familiar, as there is little qualitative difference between the two candidates.  Here are 3 implications of the fact that Donald Trump is the presumed candidate for the Republican party.     Firstly, Americans are pretty dumb.  Pretty much every argument in favor of Trump has a commonsensical rebuttal.  "He's a businessman," they say.  Yeah, he's gone bankrupt multiple times. "He says what he means!" they insist  Yeah, so does my four-year-old.  They fall back on, "He's not part of the establishment."  Right...he has just financially supported the establishment for decades...

    There are essentially two extremes within Christianity with regards to the use of images in worship (both corporate and personal).  There are some groups, particularly those with roots in the East, that embrace as many visual aids in worship as possible.  Catholic and Orthodox churches come to mind. They have a long history of embracing icons , which others have called idols, to build their faith and deepen their devotion.  Many other denominations, especially those with roots in the West, have utterly rejected anything that smacks of Popish iconism.  They reject everything from statues to stained glass to the showy drama of the Mass.  Their faith is more intellectual and propositional, while their Eastern counterparts' faith is more mystical and devotional (obviously, there are plenty of exceptions).  I believe that we need to find the middle ground.  I believe this because our Savior's teaching found this middle ground.    ...

    Who knew a gorilla could cause this much outrage?  The Harambe situation has caused an alarming amount of debate and outrage.  It has been blogged about ad nauseam over the last few days, which is why I was reluctant to comment on it myself.  After all, what can I contribute to the discussion?  I am no expert, either at parenting or zoo-keeping (which are often quite similar, I might add).  I actually haven't even watched the video (intentionally), but it seems to me that there are essentially two debates being had.  The first is whether or not the parents were negligent.  I have no opinion.  As I said, I didn't see the video.  The second debate, and the one I'd like to address, is about the value of the lives of gorillas versus the lives of children.  The former has been an emotional, temporal debate.  The latter is philosophical and ideological.     As I said, this debate is alarming.  Are we really ...