John Cheever never gained the recognition he so desperately craved, even though he won many awards, including the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  Born in 1912, Cheever got himself thrown out of prep school and soon set his sights on being a writer.  His life had many twists and turns, but he eventually achieved literary success, preceding John Updike as the chronicler of American suburban life.  Though a novelist, Cheever was best known to most Americans as a writer of short stories (a fact that caused him some embarrassment).

“A man’s spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” Proverbs 18:14

Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times reports that American atheists are ready to go public with their message, reflecting an assertiveness resembling that of the so-called New Atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.  They are ready to come out of the closet.

One cannot understand the theology of the Reformers without first understanding the theology of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century.  Similarly, an understanding of contemporary Catholicism is necessary for any comprehensive understanding of evangelical identity.  While Catholic identity is a contested issue among Roman Catholic theologians and historians (as is true also within evangelicalism), the issues and controversies of modern Catholicism are extremely instructive.

Newsweek magazine’s cover story, “The Decline and Fall of Christian America” [April 13, 2009] continues to evoke controversy and conversation, and much of it is illuminating.  Now, Stephen Prothero of Boston University enters the fray with an incisive commentary that throws a few punches.

The secular left is a diverse amalgam of various interest groups and ideologies.  Of course, the same is true to some extent on the conservative end of the spectrum as well.  But on some issues the secular left is absolutely of one mind and voice, and the promotion of birth control and contraception is one of these issues.