I joined the Navy when I was still seventeen, and still in high school. It was a delayed entry, so I did not have to report until the next November. That allowed me to graduate (from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor), and to help my family use the summer to move out west, to …
Schlock and Awe
Perhaps you have seen the thesis advanced by the t-shirt that maintains that “Obama is in over his head”? It is a point of view that becomes more compelling by the day. One of the reasons why conspiracy theories are so prevalent on the hard right is that it is assumed that those doing whatever …
The Black Swan of Revival
Hunter’s next chapter, “The Challenge of Faithfulness,” was quite good, and was a helpful way to see the ways in which modernity is falling apart. (Modernity falling apart is called postmodernity.) The place where I would take issue with Hunter is over how permanent this pluralistic and confused situation is. The house of cards has …
The Streetcar of Democracy
Christians who argue for a secular public square are caught on the horns of a dilemma. Either Jesus wants this or He doesn’t. Or maybe He doesn’t care. If He doesn’t want it, then why do they? If He does, then are they not advocating a civil arrangement based on the will of the Lord, …
True Likemindedness
INTRODUCTION: The apostle Paul has been piling one argument on top of another in his attempt to urge these Christians to get along with each other. He has appealed to the judgment seat of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ bestowed on the one you are at odds with, and the folly of slandering the very …
An Exhortation for the Fourth
As it happens, today, the Lord’s Day is also the Fourth of July, a national holiday. The fact that it is not a part of the church calendar should not prevent us from taking note of it, and resolving on several things as Christians who are also part of a nation that has been surpassingly …
Simple Reception
The reason why faith is the grace that God uses to justify us is that faith is entirely about receiving. Hope and love are things that we actively do, and even if we grant that God is the one who gives us this hope and love, it would be easy to get confused. It would …
A National Rejection of the Blood
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, we know that the sins of our nation are great …
On Its Last Leg, and Hopping Around
In the midst of a teetering secular society, with personal liberty rapidly eroding, to put forward the idea of a mere Christendom (as I am doing) is to invite fears of repressive regimes, religious intolerance, and so on. This is because we still love the name of liberty, but no longer understand what it is …
Personal Not Private
Just a brief comment about Peter Hitchens’ next chapter, which addresses the bloody war on the church conducted by secularist revolutionaries. The end result was this: “The link between the people and their Christian inheritance — in custom, seasons, traditions, music, and belief — had been effectively broken, and Christianity had been reduced to a …