Scottie Scheffler Wins the PGA Championship

Last updated on: May 19, 2025 at 12:57 pm By Kermit Zarley

Yesterday, Scottie Scheffler shot an even-par 71 to win the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, by five strokes over second place finishers Harris English, Bryson DeChambeau, and Davis Riley. It was Scheffler’s 15th win on the PGA Tour and his third major title alongside his two Masters wins in 2022 and 2024. The PGA Tour announced that 28-year-old Scheffler has now reached rarefied territory by joining Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only... Read more

Palestinians in Gaza Are Uprising Against Hamas

Last updated on: May 17, 2025 at 8:13 pm By Kermit Zarley

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The war in Gaza continues despite a temporary cease-fire that failed. Donald Trump, the former real estate mogul and now U.S. president, last month called for an outlandish proposal for solving the Gaza war if not the larger conflict between Palestinians and the State of Israel—to remove Palestinians from Gaza and turn the place into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” And this week he has called for them to be removed to Libya. Uprising in Beit Layiha The Wall... Read more

A New Book about Mark Twain from Hannibal, Missouri

Last updated on: May 14, 2025 at 10:52 pm By Kermit Zarley

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Just Published—Mark Twain Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow has written a 1,200-page biography of the famous novelist, satirist, essayist, and humorist who built his famed literary career by using the pen name Mark Twain. Chernow’s Mark Twain was published Monday, two day ago, in hardcover by Penguin Press. Mark Twain lived in Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. My book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, entitled Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia, (269 pp.) was published in 1990 as... Read more

When Romans 13 Meets Tyranny: Interpreting Obedience

Last updated on: May 14, 2025 at 2:14 pm By Kermit Zarley

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Paul Did Not Teach Unconditional Obedience to Civil Rulers The apostle Paul wrote in his magisterial, theologically in-depth, and lengthy letter to “all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints” (Romans 1.7 NRSV), that they should do the following: Romans 13:1-7 1“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore, whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and... Read more

New Pope Leo XIV Echoes Jesus in Saying, “Peace Be With You”

Last updated on: May 12, 2025 at 10:33 pm By Kermit Zarley

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Robert Francis Prevost: The 267th Roman Catholic Pope Last Thursday, the Roman Catholic Church’s Conclave—a gathering of 135 cardinals at the Vatican—selected the Church’s 267th pope after only two days of deliberations. For the first time in the Church’s history, the pope is an American. He is from Chicago; he is 69 years old; he is a devout Chicago White Sox baseball fan; and his name is Robert Francis Prevost. His predecessor and friend, Pope Francis, had made him a... Read more

Trump as Pope? Isn’t that Being Sacrilegious?

Last updated on: May 4, 2025 at 10:39 am By Kermit Zarley

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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania attended the funeral of Pope Francis last week at the Vatican. Many Catholic Church cardinals from around the world were there as well. They were mourning the pope’s death, honoring his legacy, and discussing who will replace him. Next Wednesday, 130 cardinals will officially begin deliberations to choose Francis’s successor. On Tuesday, President Trump said to reporters gathered outside the White House, “I’d like to be the pope.” Was he being real or... Read more

Canada Votes No to Trump Threatening It to Be 51st US State

Last updated on: April 28, 2025 at 9:46 pm By Kermit Zarley

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Trump’s Bluster about Canada as U.S. State Soon after Donald Trump won last year’s presidential election in early November, he soon began trumpeting that Canada should become the 51st state of the U.S. When he first said it, in December to Canada’s Prime Minister, Mr. Justin Trudeau thought Trump was joking. But he soon realized he wasn’t when Trump turned up the rhetoric that included threats that Canada would indeed become the 51st state of the U.S. President Trump in... Read more

The Bible Compares Donald Trump to a “Maniac”

Last updated on: April 26, 2025 at 2:15 pm By Kermit Zarley

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Does Trump Exaggerate or Lie? When Donald Trump campaigned this last time for the U.S. presidency, he bragged that if he won reelection he would “end the Ukraine war on day one.” How many people who voted for him believed that? It was like him saying if president he’d build a wall on our southern border and “Mexico will pay for it.” It was so much of the same bluster he has become known for. Or did any of his... Read more

Will Mostly Gay Cardinals Decide the Next Pope?

Last updated on: April 26, 2025 at 1:45 pm By Kermit Zarley

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Pope Francis died Monday, the day after Easter. He was 88 years old. Beloved by many, this first Latin American pontiff was chosen partly to pursue an ongoing mission of cleaning up alleged, financial corruption in the Vatican. To his great credit, this most affable pope was known mostly for his advocacy for the poor, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized. Many young people were drawn to Pope Francis. And he did make progress at the Vatican with financial reforms. But... Read more

Franklin Graham’s Easter Message at the White House Today

Last updated on: April 20, 2025 at 10:45 pm By Kermit Zarley

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Was Billy Graham Presbyterian or Baptist? The great evangelist Billy Graham grew up attending a Presbyterian church with his family in North Carolina. And Billy and Ruth Graham raised their children in a Presbyterian church. Yet Billy Graham joined a Southern Baptist Church early in his evangelistic ministry, thereby associating his ministry with Baptists more than with Presbyterians. Franklin Graham—son of the famed evangelist Billy Graham and strong supporter of Donald Trump as U.S. president—preached an Easter message at the... Read more