On this day, 790 years ago, the rule of law was affirmed in Britain. On June 15, 1215, King John of England signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede. Viewed as the basis of mon law, which greatly influenced the foundations of American society and government, the Magna Carta recognized a law greater than the will of the king. As Winston Churchill spoke of “a law which is above the King and which even he must not break,” Lord Acton too...

You scored as Reformed Evangelical. You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God’s Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die. Reformed Evangelical 82%Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 68%Neo orthodox 68%Fundamentalist 64%Roman Catholic 61%Classical Liberal 39%Emergent/Postmodern 39%Charismatic/Pentecostal 18%Modern Liberal 11% What’s your theological...

The One Campaign, an advocacy group formed by international relief agencies that is promoting greater U.S. spending on foreign aid, has drawn support from prominent evangelical Christians and a pack of celebrities including U2’s Bono. But Anthony Bradley observes that the campaign, with its focus on greater governmental action rather than personal sacrifice, “promotes a depersonalized and sterile form of help characteristic of the secular appeal to radical individualism.” Read the full text here. ...

The book tag meme has made the rounds of the blogosphere, and here I was sitting, eagerly awaiting someone to tag me. This will have to do. Thanks to Jimmy Akin for tagging “all the bloggers reading this who haven’t already been infected by the meme.” Total number of books I own: In the hundreds. We just moved so many are still in boxes, and I haven’t counted recently. But I tend not to get rid of a book if...

A quote from a speaker at the CRC’s Synod 2005, endorsing the Micah Challenge and the ONE Campaign. He also intimated that churches could never hope to match the $40 billion pledged recently to cut aid debt for African nations. Tell that to all the people panies that gave a record $249 billion to charity in 2004. Religious organizations got the biggest portion of that number $88 billion. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think he’s giving the Church...

Recent news about debt relief for poor African nations might give the impression that governmental corruption, inefficiency, and irresponsibility are unique to developing countries. This is simply not so. Take, for example, the situation of the United States government. As of June 14, 2005, the total outstanding U.S. public debt is $7,804,534,405,437.48. That amounts to a share of debt for each U.S. citizen of just over $26,000. ...

Reuven Hammer writes about the rabbinic interpretation of the Ten Commandments in a Jerusalem Post article titled, “On Judaism: True Freedom” (Posts prior to 2010 have been deleted). He talks about a contemporary understanding of freedom as something that is simply free of all constraint. We moderns tend to see freedom as the ability to do whatever we want whenever we want and to view any limitations on that as tyranny or slavery. The rabbis seem to be saying exactly...

As noted in an earlier post, this week is marks the 790th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. Five years ago, Religion & Liberty published a series of essays on foundational documents in the history of Western civilization, or, as Edmund Burke called it, “this fierce spirit of liberty.” The first of these essays was on the Magna Carta, “In the Meadow That Is Called Runnymede.” Here are the others: John Milton’s Areopagitica, “The Liberty to Know, to...

With the G8 countries preparing to cancel $40 billion in debt owed by several African countries, a fresh start is promised. But what has really changed? Check out mentary related to African aid and debt forgiveness at blog.acton.org. Here you can find an interview with the Rt. Rev. Bernard Njoroge, bishop of the diocese of Nairobi in the Episcopal Church of Africa, and a member of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, and Chanshi Chanda, chairman of the Institute of...

For its All-American Council in Toronto next month, the Orthodox Church in America has issued a study paper on its relations with sister Orthodox churches and the wider munity. While the paper is advertised as nothing more than “fodder for deliberations,” it nonetheless makes a strong mendation for cutting the ties with the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. Chiefly, the OCA notes that this pull-out makes sense in light of the “liberal advocacy role” of...