American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest; Affirmative Action Ban Upheld; God and the Gay Challenge...

Albert Mohler: God, the Gospel, and the Gay Challenge — A Response to Matthew Vines   ...Into this context now comes God and the Gay Christian, a book by Matthew Vines. Just a couple of years ago Vines made waves with the video of a lecture in which he attempted to argue that being a gay Christian in a committed same-sex relationship (and eventual marriage) is compatible with biblical Christianity. His video went viral. Even though Matthew Vines did not make new arguments, the young Harvard student synthesized arguments made by revisionist Bible scholars and presented a very winsome case for overthrowing the church’s moral teachings on same-sex relationships.

His new book flows from that startling ambition — to overthrow two millennia of Christian moral wisdom and biblical understanding.

Given the audacity of that ambition, why does this book deserve close attention? The most important reason lies outside the book itself. There are a great host of people, considered to be within the larger evangelical movement, who are desperately seeking a way to make peace with the moral revolution and endorse the acceptance of openly-gay individuals and couples within the life of the church. Given the excruciating pressures now exerted on evangelical Christianity, many people — including some high-profile leaders — are desperately seeking an argument they can claim as both persuasive and biblical. The seams in the evangelical fabric are beginning to break and Matthew Vines now comes along with a book that he claims will make the argument so many have been seeking.

In God and the Gay Christian Vines argues that “Christians who affirm the full authority of Scripture can also affirm committed, monogamous same-sex relationships.” He announces that, once his argument is accepted: “The fiercest objections to LGBT equality — those based on religious beliefs — can begin to fall away...

Supreme Court Upholds Michigan's Affirmative Action Ban
A splintered Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 6-2 that states may end racial preferences without violating the U.S. Constitution, upholding a Michigan law that grew out of the state's long-running debate over affirmative-action policies at public universities.

The ruling leaves in place the outcome of a 2006 Michigan ballot initiative where voters backed an end to racial preferences at state schools. But it also left intact legal precedents that protect minorities from being targeted for unfair treatment through the political process.

Tuesday's ruling means racial preferences won't soon return to the University of Michigan—or any other university in states that have chosen to end the practice—but suggests the justices are far from consensus on when affirmative action may be allowed, an issue sure to return to the court in the coming years...

The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest

The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.

 

While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.

 

After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans....