The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Here’s a tax reduction proposal everyone should love: · No tax at all on your first $95,000 income ($125,000 if filing jointly) · 1% tax on income above $95,000 (or $125,000 if filing jointly) · An extra 1% super-tax for those making more than $600,000 per year · The super-tax increases to 6% for those making $16 million per year. Too good to be true? Maybe it is -- today. But that’s the tax we had in 1913, the year the 16th Amendment was adopted. The first IRS Form 1040 exempted all income...
“They don’t have to gamble,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey says of gambling opponents. Perhaps not. But we all have to live with the evils gambling produces. And Alabamians should remember the lessons of Phenix City. Life Magazine described Phenix City as the “wickedest city in the United States, …everything from gambling to murder to arson to fraud.” Known as “Little Las Vegas,” between 1945 and 1954 this little town of 23,000 featured casinos, lotteries, cockfighting, and other forms of gambling, and...
“First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.” So said General Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, speaking the eulogy of our first President whose birthday we celebrate this month. But recent polls suggest that many Americans hardly know who George Washington was, when he lived, or what he accomplished. Some even challenge his military skills, saying he was at best a mediocre tactician, lost more battles than he won, almost lost the war, and at one point was almost removed as...
Church and State are separate kingdoms, but both are established by God upon the authority of His Word, the Bible. Christian churches have historically recognized the Bible as the inspired and authoritative Word of God, and as President Andrew Jackson said, "The Bible is the rock upon which our republic rests." But during the last two centuries, the Bible has been under unrelenting attack. Unsurprisingly, secular philosophers denounce the Bible as a collection of fables, myths, and legends loose...
That’s the way many want to celebrate Christmas today. The secularizers note that America is more diverse than it used to be, that we shouldn’t offend others, that saying “Merry Christmas” might be bad for business, and that public Christmas observances might even violate the First Amendment. Then they deliver their crowning blow: “Besides, everybody knows Jesus wasn’t born in December.” But saying “everybody knows” begs the question, as saying “all scholars agree” defines anyone who doesn’t ag...
We know the basic Pilgrim story: The Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic in the Mayflower to find the freedom to worship God as the Bible commands, established a colony at Plymouth, faced great hardships that took the lives of half of them the first winter, but somehow managed to survive and held a feast to thank God for bringing them through these hardships to a land of blessing. All true. But few realize that forced communal living was a major cause of the Pilgrims’ suffering. How did that h...
During a recent speaking engagement in Columbus, Ohio, I asked to see the Columbus statue near City Hall. My hosts sadly informed me that, after a protest that claimed Columbus had engaged in violence and enslaved Native Americas, in 2020 the statue had been placed in storage and will be replaced by “a work of art that better represents the people of Columbus.” Why, we should ask, did Columbus come to America? It wasn’t to prove the world is round; every educated person in 1492 knew that. Isaia...
2,014 years ago, around the 9th of September of 9 A.D., two events were happening that would change the world. In Galilee, a Child was growing up who would die on a Cross for the sins of the world. And 1,500 miles to the northwest, in Teutoburg Forest of northern Germany, some 18,000 Germanic warriors were waiting in grim silence as the 17th, 18th, and 19th Roman legions drew near. Little did they realize that the blood they would spill that day would decide the future of Western civilization...
Last month's column, "Declaration of Independence: Rebellion, or Interposition?" asked whether the Declaration of Independence and the War for Independence that followed were consistent with the Bible's admonition that we are to obey the civil authorities (Romans 13:1-7; I Peter 2:13). We saw that civil disobedience is sometimes justified (Exodus 1; Daniel 3, 6; Acts 5:29); but further, we saw that the American War for Independence was neither rebellion nor civil disobedience; it was lawful...
Those who think of something more than hotdogs or fireworks on the 4th of July, generally honor the day as a patriotic holiday, the birth of American independence. But if we believe the Bible to be the Word of God, we must ask whether the Declaration and the War for Independence which followed were consistent with the Bible. If not, can we truly celebrate Independence Day? Romans 13:1 commands, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers," and I Peter 2:13 enjoins us to "Submit yourselves...
In 2011, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decried "an Establishment Clause jurisprudence in shambles." Unable to come to a consensus, the Court has shifted from one theory to another, with confusing, conflicting, and sometimes bizarre results. Over the past several decades the Court has struck down school prayer (1962) and Bible reading (1963) but allowed prayer at town board meetings (2014), prohibited (1948) but later allowed (1952) released-time programs whereby children could be release...
Maybe in North Korea, maybe in Cuba, maybe in Iran – but not in the United States, the land of religious liberty. Well, maybe in Boston, or San Francisco – but certainly not in Selma, Alabama, right in the center of the Bible belt. But it happened. A man was arrested for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the street. It was Halloween 2022. People in Selma were walking, some in costume, in an annual Monster March. And Rickey Caster, a Georgia street evangelist accompanied by his sister, came...