How Green Were the Nazis?

A new review on H-German by John Alexander Williams of Bradley University examines the edited collection of essays, How Green Were the Nazis? Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2005). Continue Reading...

The Spirit of Nationalism

The spirit of nationalism is a positive thing in my view. Most people inherently love their country. Christians should not be alarmed by this very normal human emotion. I shared in it by observing the Fourth of July parade in my community. Continue Reading...

Balmer’s Partisan Polemics

Noted evangelical scholar Randall Balmer castigates the religious right in a recent piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The critique, in my view, amounts to little more than a slightly more sophisticated version of Jim Wallis. Continue Reading...

Prayer for Independence Day

Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Continue Reading...

Because It’s Worth Rereading….

Happy Independence Day, everyone: IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Continue Reading...

Obama, Where Art Thou?

From Barack Obama’s speech to Jim Wallis’s Call for Renewal (worth the read, if for nothing more than to gain an insight on how he sees his crowd. Study one’s rhetoric and style and you’ll know how they view their audience): Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. Continue Reading...