This article from The Christian Post relates the warnings of Martin Oca༚, professor at the Baptist Seminary of South Peru, about the increasing attraction of prosperity theology in Latin America. According to Oca༚, prosperity theology (PT) teaches that, material prosperity is the greatest evidence of God’s blessing. However…such prosperity is not for everyone but rather for those who are faithful to God and keep His spiritual laws. He also says PT teaches that material prosperity is given to Christians so...

This article is a must-read for anyone interested in the recent history of American evangelicalism: For a movement that began its modern life among the Calvinists, the sometimes strong critique evangelicalism has received in the past decade from its own Calvinist caucus cannot be dismissed lightly. While most of these Calvinist voices have not distanced themselves from the movement they helped create, their accusations of doctrinal declension, human-centered worship and idolatrous narcissism stand in sharp contrast to the more upbeat...

From the “biting the hand that feeds you” department: Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin today launched an attack on his record label EMI and pany’s shareholders. It came after EMI, the world’s third-largest pany, warned that profits would be lower because the band took longer than expected to finish their first studio album in three years. But as Coldplay prepared for a concert in New York to promote their new album, called X&Y, Martin said: “I don’t really care about...

Dr. Andrew Yuengert, the John and Francis Duggan Professor of Economics at Seaver College, Pepperdine University, discussed the various economic and moral dimensions of the critically important immigration issues facing America today. In an interview on The Jerry Bowyer Show yesterday, Dr. Yuengert discussed “The Right to Migrate”. Dr. Yuengert argues, within the context of Catholic Social Teaching, that there is a “right to migrate,” but it is not an “absolute right.” This means that for policy discussions, “the purpose...

I recently watched a rerun of Seinfeld, in which Jerry es entangled with a movie bootlegger, and finds out that he has a gift for movie piracy. Jerry’s talent would be the cure for what this Slashdot plains about: “I’ve yet to find a blockbuster movie that isn’t readily available on the net after it opens, but somehow this is still news. It’s still usually worth shelling out the cash to see a version that isn’t fuzzy with garbled sound,...

Many may know that the season finale of The Apprentice was broadcast last night, with the conclusion being a victory for the “Book Smarts” team (college educated or higher) over the “Street Smarts” team (high school only). Arnold Kling at EconLog points out that the contributions of the young and above-average are almost always undervalued. This experientially strikes me as true. His advice: “If you are exceptional and young, you should start your own business. That way, you will get...

Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry is currently hosting the Body Worlds show, a display of plasticized cadavers and body parts. According to museum publicity, some 16 million people worldwide have seen the show, the creation of Gunther von Hagens, a German inventor who claims to have created the “plastination” technique. This, basically, is a modern-day form of mummification which allows museums to exhibit skinned and otherwise dismembered bodies in interesting and even entertaining postures. Depending on your point of...

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of thy faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all members of thy holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve thee; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. –U.S. Book of Common Prayer, “For...

Rev. Robert Sirico responded over the weekend in the Detroit News to a letter disputing one of his previous columns. In “Catholic social teaching embraces markets,” (May 21) Rev. Sirico writes that “the fact that the church has no economic models to propose is not the same as saying all economic models are the same. Some have greater moral potential than others.” You can read Rev. Sirico’s initial piece, “Pope Benedict XVI will turn out to be a real liberal,”...

This Wired News article examines the European outrage at Google’s announced plans to digitize the holdings of all the world’s libraries. “There is a growing awareness in continental Europe of the technology gap, even with some of the very good technologies they have had, panies like Google, like Microsoft, like Apple … which are presented as almost technology imperialists at the forefront,” said Jonathan Fenby, a former Observer editor and author of France on the Brink. “There is this defensive...

From First Things, June/July 2005, No. 154, p. 68 The Public Square: A Survey of Religion and Public Life • Rome Diary, etc., Richard John Neuhaus • “Civic friendship.” What a beautiful idea, but in our rancorous political climate some might be excused for thinking it is a pipe dream. In an instructive little book published by the Acton Institute, Trial by Fury, by law professor (and FIRST THINGS contributor) Ronald Rychlak, applies the idea of civic friendship to tort...

From First Things, June/July 2005, No. 154, p. 69 The Public Square: A Survey of Religion and Public Life • Rome Diary, etc., Richard John Neuhaus • Of the thousands of books that deserve a review, relatively few get reviewed here or elsewhere. Sometimes we plan a review but, for one reason or another, it doesn’t pan out. Happily, that can be partially remedied by borrowing, as I here borrow from Daniel J. Mahoney’s excellent review of Samuel Gregg’s On...