The battle over public displays of the 10 Commandments indicates to me just how much ground Christians have given up in recent years. Radical secularists have attacked any and all public expressions of Christian faith, most often by means of the “T” word (theocracy) and appeals to the “wall of separation.” What Samuel Gregg calls “doctrinaire secularism” is winning.

Read more on Sacred/Secular Strife in the Public Square…

The case is open. Today marks the first day the canonization of John Paul II is officially underway. (Read BBC’s account.) To those for whom the procedures of the Catholic Church in matters such as these seem alien, I point to the lucid explanation of the Reverend Giuseppe D’Alonzo (the man in charge of verifying the claims of John Paul’s miracles):

Read more on Miracles Before Our Eyes…

Sani Abacha – Strange, I don’t recall you being a multi-billionaire when you took power…

In a number of previous posts, I have expressed concern over new efforts to increase the amount of government-to-government aid to Africa (see here, here, and here for background).

Read more on The Problem with Aid…

Journal of Markets & Morality Volume 8 • Number 1

The publication of this issue (vol. 8, no. 1) marks the full implementation of the journal’s two issue moving wall. This means that as an archived issue, volume 7, number 1 is now freely available in its entirety. Subscribers are able to access electronically the full content of the two most current issues. Stephen Grabill’s editorial deals with these trends in scholarly publishing, with an eye on the specific situation of the Journal of Markets & Morality. You can read more about this in associate editor Jordan J. Ballor’s, “Scholarship at the Crossroads: The Journal of Markets & Morality Case Study,” Journal of Scholarly Publishing 36, no. 3 (April 2005): 145-65.

Read more on Journal of Markets & Morality, Volume 8, Issue 1…

I have to admit that I’ve never been able to get that fired up about the controversies surrounding the various public displays of the Decalogue. It no doubt has to do with my view that it is far more important for the law to be written on our hearts rather than on stone (see for example Jeremiah 31:27-40).

Read more on Ruling on the Decalogue…

Ronald Reagan was voted the Greatest American in history by a slim margin by a Discovery Channel program, barely beating out Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin rounded out the top 5.

Read more on Reagan Voted Greatest American…

The Detroit News included a statement from me, along with two of their Faith and Policy columnists, reacting to a Washington Post story by Alan Cooperman about cooperation between religious leaders from the political left and right. Here’s my bit:

Read more on How religious right, left can work together…

“Winning isn’t everything.” Whatever happened to this slice of wisdom? In Columbus, Ohio, a team of baseball players has been ejected from their league for being “too good”! (Read the story here). The parents of the teams being slaughtered by the better team complained that losing was seriously detrimental to their kids’ self-esteem. Therefore, the league decided to reward the hard work of the winning team with expulsion. Winning isn’t everything, but apparently, losing is.

Read more on Take Your Ball and Go Home…

Samuel Gregg, director of Acton’s Center for Academic Research, wrote “One nation under God?” appearing in tomorrow’s The Tablet:

To European eyes, America seems a remarkably united religious country. But the United States is as prey to disputes over secularism as other Western nations.

Read more on Gregg in The Tablet…

Rev. Richard Cizik of Viriginia is being hailed as “in the vanguard of a striking new movement: evangelicals prodding President George W Bush to take action on global warming. And his stance cannot easily be dismissed as radical nonsense, as the Green cause is traditionally mocked by the Right.

Read more on Greening Evangelicals…