Loving God in Deuteronomy, and a Gentile’s Defense of Judaism, Part 2
Judaism

Loving God in Deuteronomy, and a Gentile’s Defense of Judaism, Part 2

When studying the rabbinical commentaries on Deuteronomy, I was struck by the number of times the commandment to Love God was repeated in various forms, including the commandment to Fear God, which is roughly equivalent, so I decided to count them, there are about twenty repetitions. This was surprising to me as a Christian, for as St Paul exhorts, “the letter” of the law “kills, but the Spirit gives life.” […]

Civil Rights

WEB Du Bois and the NAACP, Continuing the Fight For Civil Rights

In our continuing series of blogs and videos on WEB Du Bois, we will now reflect on these questions, among others:
What role did he play in making the NAACP the leading black activist organization?
How did he increase awareness of civil rights issues among Americans?
What were the tensions between him and the NAACP?
When studying the life and career of WEB Du Bois, we can ask ourselves another key question:
Why was he such a contrarian? […]

AntiSemitism

Vatican II Declaration on Freedom of Religion, Embracing Democracy, Rejecting Fascism

The Church Fathers of Vatican II believed that the Catholic guarantee of Religious Liberty was crucial for regaining the respect of many believers and the modern world.  History had evolved so that the Catholic Church was not on the side of truth regarding religious liberty.  From ancient times the Catholic Church was supported first by the Roman emperors starting with Constantine, and then the royalty of medieval Europe, but the absolute monarchies had all disappeared, giving way to dictators and republics, some of which were constitutional monarchies.  The Jacobism of the French Revolution and its grandchild communism were the enemies of the church, and the church supported fascism to combat communism.  World War II totally discredited fascism, now the Catholic Church saw democracy as the bulwark opposing communism, and religious liberty was a cornerstone for democracy. […]