When Rome, the Eternal City, was sacked in 410 AD, St. Augustine was brought to write his monumental work, the City of God. Part of the reason he felt the book had to be written was because many Christians had had their faith rattled by the event. Over the course of the previous centuries, Christianity …
To Deny Their Own
“Multiculturalism was conceived by the Western elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own: it is, thus, the real suicide bomb” (Mark Steyn, America Alone, p. 194).
The Yard Sale Proverb
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 119 “It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth” (Prov. 20:14). Let us call this the garage sale proverb. Yard sales are the one place where most Americans still …
Medium as Message
“In this sense, all culture is a conversation or, more precisely, a corporation of conversations, conducted in a variety of symbolic modes. Our attention here is on how forms of public discourse regulate and even dictate what kind of content can issue from such forms” (Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, p. 6).
Overspecification
“But the principle of intelligible worship does not require separate services for valley girls or bureaucrats or any other subgroup with its own jargon. Paul was maintaining that services for Americans should not be held in Chinese, not that surfers should get their own church” (Mother Kirk, p. 124).
You First
“Now when one proud man thinks it a dishonor for him to put up with wrong from another who, it may be, is as proud as himself, and he too thinks it a dishonor for him to put up with wrongs, what peace can there be? Some wrongs must be put up with, but proud …
Children of Abraham
In a battle, foot solders focus rightly on the conflict right in front of them. Generals don’t have the luxury of that simplicity, and so they also have to think constantly about the larger strategic issues. Great generals do not just think of tactics on the field, but also of the larger strategic issues, up …
Michael and Kathryn
In the psalm just read we have a description of a royal wedding. And of course a royal wedding would be quite the affair—impressive any way you might consider it. But we have to learn to see this as a covenant psalm, meaning that it encompasses more than just the royal couple described. We can …
Sauron, Saruman, and Samwise
I have been occupied with atheism and federal vision stuff, and have not been able to work through Rod Dreher’s book Crunchy Cons as quickly as I would have liked. Ah, well. His next chapter is on the environment, and I think that it is the chapter that most clearly reveals what I consider to …
Now That’s Cool
What’s needed around here is a good definition of the word cool. We all know what is intended whenever we encounter it in a sentence, but a clear understanding nevertheless remains elusive. One individual is successfully cool. Another makes the attempt, with tragic results, and even a lowly junior high student knows to roll his …