Nat Hentoff has written for The Village Voice since 1958–three years after its founding. No more. Cost-cutting managers imagined the best way to save money was by laying off its greatest asset.

Today’s the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The Jerusalem Post reports that in honor of the occasion, Yad Vashem has published a guide on antisemitism.  I can’t find the link yet, however. Meanwhile, check out the webpage of the center that bears his name.

Janice Becca blogged from GYC at AdventistYA.com. Audio from presentations available here.

Bellaire cop sees car pull into driveway. Two people get out and proceed toward the front door. Cop thinks car is stolen and starts screaming at them, ends up shooting one. Problem is, the car wasn’t stolen. The owner was driving it. When the cop started acting crazy, the owner was in his own driveway,…

Thoughts from Rabbi Amy Weiss. What would you do if a stalker had been threatening you and your family, you had a restraining order and in the middle of the night you heard a rustling outside the window. Could we for a moment suspend the knowledge that we are in Texas and it is legal…

We got home last night after a weeklong trip to visit my parents in Florida for Christmas. Some things along the way … On Christmas Day, went canoeing with my father and son in the mangrove tunnels of the Terra Ceia Preserve. As we were turning sharply into a tunnel, I grabbed at some branches…

While I was away, I received word of the passing of Samuele Bacchiocchi. It appears his webpage will remain on-line.

A friend sent this link.

Alan Reifman looks at Michael Kimmel’s  Guyland, about young men from 16-26.

Prayer from the Lutheran Book of Worship: Stir up your power, O Lord, and come. Take away the hindrance of our sins and make us ready for the celebration of your birth, that we may receive you in joy and serve you always; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,…

Some folks are quite convinced that the King James Version is the only Bible we should be using. James White has been dealing with some of these folks. Shawn Brace now enters the fray, responding to someone enamored of Walter Veith’s conspiratorial DVDs.

“You can’t talk to young people about salvation,” said UK Catholic Bishop Kieran Conroy. Amy notes another Catholic bishop disagrees.

The cross is the apex of the Christian faith. Thus Paul told Corinth, “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Here’s a little something from an article I published on this in 1989, looking at the role the theology of the cross played in…

I don’t understand Focus on the Family‘s war on those who don’t want to entangle Christmas in commercialism. Why should secular businesses, many of which may well be run by non-Christians, be judged on the basis of whether or not they pay lip service to “Christmas”? FOTF speaks of “this historic Christian observance in our…

The real question is, why are Episcopalians so often in the news, when they are such a small denomination? That’s the question asked by E. E. Evans at GetReligion, echoing what Terry Mattingly wrote in 1994. There are only about 2.4 million Episcopalians. Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Mormons, Presbyterians, Church of God in Christ, Assemblies of…

The LA Times has a full report on the Wal-Mart mob stampede on Long Island that killed a security guard.

I voted for the right man for sheriff. Adrian Garcia hasn’t taken office yet, but he’s showing that he is indeed bringing the right sort of change to the office of Harris County Sheriff. The day before Thanksgiving, deputies reportedly terrorized a family of Sikhs when they responded to the call that their home had…

Fr. Gus DiNoia, OP, on preaching to young adults (ht Alan). How do we “clear away the barriers” that keep young adults from Christ? Clearing away the barriers-whatever the audience we have in view-demands a robust sort of apologetics. No one in his or her right mind will be interested in a faith about which…

Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco chose an interfaith prayer breakfast to lash out at those who believe in the sanctity of marriage, in a rambling, extemporaneous diatribe.

New exhibit at the Houston  Museum of Natural Science.

Prayer from the Lutheran Book of Worship: Lord, hear our prayers and come to us, bringing light into the darkness of our hearts; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Readings: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed…

The University of San Francisco, an institution “in the Jesuit tradition,” offers abortions to its students. Amy Welborn has links. Update: USF has changed its health care provisions, saying, It was not the University’s intention to offer this coverage. USF supports the Catholic Church’s views on the sanctity of life, at all stages, and we…

Jeff Crocombe reports on a recent symposium in Oshawa, Ontario, “Should I Fight? Conscientious Objection and the SDA Church.”

Newsweek really couldn’t afford to lose any subscribers. Why, in its tenous situation, it decided to play religious tabloid, boggles the mind. Mollie Z. WSJ.

Harris Poll findings: Catholics are more likely than Protestants to believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution (by 52% to 32%), ghosts (by 57% to 41%), UFOs (by 43% to 31%), and astrology (by 40% to 28%). Protestants are slightly more likely than Catholics to believe in creationism (by 54% to 46%).

Pr. Jan McKenzie has a good post today on conspiracy buff Walter Veith. One of Veith’s ardent disciples is continuing to express his unhappiness with my documentation of some of Veith’s errors. Today he has a post arguing that since I went to Gettysburg Seminary, which, sometime later, was headed by Michael Cooper-White, who supposedly…

Forty years ago today Karl Barth and Thomas Merton died (Commonweal).

It snowed for the second time in our ten years in Texas today. First time was Christmas eve maybe three or four years ago. Today, snow was falling from Bryan to Houston, with about three inches on the ground in College Station (where I stopped to have supper with my son on the trip home…

Carl Olson has more to say about the cover story in Newsweek. Really, what do you call it—that thing featured on the cover of the December 15, 2008, issue of Newsweek? It’s not journalism. It’s not news. It’s not coherent, logical, well-argued, or well-written. Honestly, it reads like an essay tossed off by a partially-drunk,…

Kirk King and Ron Pickell, The Word on Campus: A Guide to Public College Ministry. Lincoln, NE: AdventSource, 2008. The Word on Campus will be welcomed as essential reading by any Adventist interested in ministry at secular college and university campuses. It is the first, and only, systematic treatment of the subject by a Seventh-day…