Anti-Americanism and the BBC

Posted: Friday, May 18, 2007
Restrained praise is in order for the BBC's Radio 4 series on anti-Americanism called "Death to America.." The three-part program examined the hatreds toward America that are bubbling over in France, Venezuela, Egypt and beyond.   [Full Story]

Frightened by Falwell?!
Chill out and consider his legacy.
Posted: Wednesday, May 16, 2007
For over 25 years Jerry Falwell has helped to define the public face of Christian fundamentalism -- both for Americans and Europeans -- and his death yesterday has critics and admirers scrambling to define his legacy. Lost amid the cacophony, though, is a larger sense of the significance of Christianity to America's democratic government.  [Full Story]

Christianity Without Salvation
The legacy of the "Social Gospel"--100 years later.
Posted: Friday, May 11, 2007
Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis "ushered in a new era in Christian thought and action." His "social gospel" message continues to inspire activists and theologians of all stripes. The question now, though, is whether its influence is a desirable thing--or a distraction of the Christian church from its deepest objectives.  [Full Story]

The Gospel According to Sachs
An economist lectures the world on how to solve the problems of good and evil.
Posted: Wednesday, May 9, 2007
What emerges from economist Jeffrey Sachs's 2007 Reith lectures for the BBC is a soaring, unblushing hymn to humanism: a utopian view of societies utterly detached from the moral and spiritual motivations of the human person. An older humanism, in the Christian tradition, recognized that man's capacity for virtue and achievement was deeply qualified by his perverted ego and insatiable lust for power.   [Full Story]

A Media Empire At War With Itself

Posted: Tuesday, May 1, 2007
There is much attention at the moment on whether Britain's MI5 could have prevented the 7/7 bombings, on whether it "connected the dots" in its surveillance of terrorist activity. Maybe it's time more BBC editors and reporters tried connecting a few dots of their own.  [Full Story]

The BBC Ignores Blair's Foreign Policy Agenda

Posted: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
After a recent press conference with Prime Minister Tony Blair, the BBC ignored yet another sober, rational explanation of the strategic threats to Great Britain and the moral principles guiding her foreign policy. Its editors and reporters chose instead to focus on political gossip, polling figures, and Blair's possible successors.  [Full Story]

Another Profile in Courage
Britain's continuing dishonor.
Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007
In a halting, contradictory, and ultimately languid speech to the House of Commons Monday, British Defense Secretary Des Browne seemed to incarnate the nation's image of prevarication and weakness following the Iranian seizure and release of 15 of its Royal Navy seamen.  [Full Story]

No Iron Lady This Time Around
Britain's missing mettle.
Posted: Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Twenty-five years ago, during another act of lawlessness by a brutal dictatorship, virtually the entire political class of Great Britain knew exactly what was at stake. Led by Margaret Thatcher, they found the moral mettle to act on those convictions: the Argentine aggression did not stand. That Britain no longer appears to exist -- an impression her enemies are putting to the test.  [Full Story]

Abolition and its Cultured Despisers

Posted: Friday, March 30, 2007
The clamoring for apologies and reparations for slavery over recent weeks -- stoked by steady coverage from the BBC -- made Tuesday's Westminster debacle almost inevitable. The greater sadness, though, is that the bitter recriminations deprecate the decency and valor of what Britain accomplished by ending its part in human trafficking.  [Full Story]

The Global Warming Industrial Complex
There are a lot of jobs riding on global warming.
Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2007
The documentary film The Great Global Warming Swindle aired earlier this month on British television's Channel 4. Director Martin Durkin's 75-minute production combines interviews with distinguished scientists, a sober narrative, and damning graphs and statistics to challenge the core claims of global warming theory.  [Full Story]