One of the constant refrains that provide the background noise to our contemporary political debates is the idea, oft repeated, that liberals are open-hearted, generous, ready to share, while conservatives are pinched souls, close-fisted, and skinflinty. The problem is that we have a lot of data on this, and the data shows, in remarkably broad …
The Corporations Are Way Ahead of You
I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the things needed in our discussions about contemporary foodism is more careful attention to basic logic. Related to this is the careless use of certain terms that are not defined as they ought to be, and are not used consistently thereafter. Whenever we are beat up …
Noodles and Twigs
As parents, teachers, elders, pastors, and as those in authority, we tend to fall into one of two errors as we seek to guide those who have been placed under our authority. One error is to be far too easily pleased. The other is to become impossible to please. For the former, not only is …
And the Spirit is the Car
Last week I mentioned the very common problem of father hunger. With reference to this meal, there are still a few things that need to be said about this. Jesus teaches us, plainly and explicitly, that He is the only way to God the Father. I am the way, the truth and the life, He …
Little Robot Bees
One of reasons a confused approach to food is increasingly common is because of a failure to apply the doctrine of the Fall to life around us. This can be seen in the very common use of the word natural as an unqualified term of praise. First, the doctrine. God created the world and all …
Can’t Tell the Players Without a Scorecard
Over the next few months, you will hear a goodish bit about all of these, four small books which have been the result of debating-the-atheists jag. Because I have already had to explain various confusions about which was what, I thought I should mention everything here, straight in a row. Sam Harris wrote a bestseller …
Therefore It Stays
“Nothing is more likely to become garbage than orange rind; but for as long as anyone looks at it in delight, it stands a million triumphant miles from the trash heap. That, you know, is why the world exists at all. It remains outside the cosmic garbage can of nothingness, not because it is such …
Eyeservice
The word anthropareskos is used twice in the New Testament, in the parallel letters of Ephesians and Colossians respectively. The word is translated as menpleaser, and refers to the lout who can be prevailed upon to work diligently only when the boss is watching. Servants are told to work obediently with fear and trembling, “not …
Yesterday’s Newspaper Exegesis
“The beast of the Revelation was reported to be Napoleon I, and then the creature suddently reappeared in his nephew, Napoleon III. By-and-by, the deadly wound was healed, and the Prince Imperial wore the dreadful honours of the prophetic book; but the prince is now dead, and it will be needful for the seers to …
Hatred Directed Upwards
“Egalitarianism, the prevailing and acceptable religion of our generation, teaches not a love of equals but a hatred of superiors” (Steve Schlissel, Christian Culture in a Multicultural Age, p. 146).