The fast-emerging Religious Left contrasts sharply on many issues–from homosexual marriage to socialized medicine–with its longer established competitor, the Religious Right. Yet these two Bible-citing political movements equally have woken up to the realization that there is something intrinsically American about using the Bible as a guide to practical politics. That’s good news, and a blow to secularist orthodoxy. As Read More ›
With a touch of divine providence, the debate about illegal immigration is heating up just as Jews prepare for Shavuot. The two-day festival starting the evening of June 1, called Pentecost in English, marks the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The holiday’s most sweetly recalled feature, though, is the reading of the Scriptural book of Read More ›
Part of the debate over the existence of God centers on questions about the possibility and “provability” of miracles. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. C. John Collins, a Discovery Institute Fellow, provides a thorough exegetical foundation for discussing God’s action in the world within the framework of biblical Christian theology. Collins begins by presenting and contrasting the options within traditional Read More ›
The Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph were compelled to live, sometimes uncomfortably, as immigrants in Egypt, as their descendants, the Israelites, would also. Is the Bible telling us that welcoming immigrants is a moral priority? The question, obviously, is highly relevant with the Senate resuming debate on immigration in the wake of President Bush’s Monday-night address. While the Left typically resists Read More ›
As the current U.S. immigration policy clash—what to do about illegal aliens and insecure borders—heats up, many Americans have turned to scripture for guidance. Jewish scripture, for example, speaks repeatedly of the kindness due to the “stranger” and reminds us that the people of the Bible—the Hebrews—were once despised foreigners in an alien land, Egypt. Yet the Bible’s message isn’t Read More ›
With less than three weeks before the May 19 release of the Sony Pictures version of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, worries continue to mount among Christians about both the book’s and the movie’s impact. But should non-Christians be concerned, too? Absolutely. Jews in particular need to be aware of the gift mega-selling Dan Brown has given, in all innocence, to Read More ›
Every generation has it unique ways of violating the Ten Commandments, so I suppose every generation also deserves its own Ten Commandments movie dramatizing how Moses received the two tablets of the Law. Inevitably, these also seem to reveal the ways in which the creators of those depictions fail to grasp what makes the Decalogue, as the Ten Commandments are Read More ›
Any group or movement with a strongly held viewpoint inevitably has to decide how to relate to outsiders who disagree or simply don’t care. It can judge and dismiss them, or it can condescend and seek to instruct them about the dangerous error of their ways. The really radical approach, however, is to serve and to love them. This last Read More ›
Since Betty Friedan’s death I’ve found myself wishing that the cause I care about most had a voice like hers to speak for us. That cause is traditional Judaism — which, among many others things to recommend it, offers a wiser and ultimately more humane vision of womanhood than does feminism. Indeed, women under 45 or so have mostly seen Read More ›
These are troubled times for Jewish-Christian relations. In November, two influential American Jewish leaders, representing large swaths of the Jewish community, gave major speeches vilifying politically conservative Christians. As an Orthodox Jew who has long worked with evangelicals, Catholics, and other serious Christians, I would like to propose an ameliorative measure aimed at furthering inter-religious peace and friendship: Let every Read More ›