INTRODUCTION: James tells us that the tongue is an unruly member. If we can control the tongue, he says, we can control anything. At the same time, the Bible teaches that the tongue has tremendous power for good. We destroy with our words. We build with our words. THE TEXTS: The wise in heart shall …
All Or Nothing
“But because of an immature ‘all or nothing’ mentality in the evangelical world, as soon as anything is pronounced not inherently sinful, everybody rushes off to splash about in their Christian liberty, about which more later. And this is why the evangelical world today is crowded out to the borders with the culturally retarded. Cultural …
An Alternative to Darwin
A close observer of the scientific community can see a number of omnious cracks in the monolithic wall of naturalistic evolution. From the potent challenges of the Intelligent Design movement, to the belated recognition that evolutionary ideas have had bad consequences (e.g. From Darwin to Hitler by Weikart), Darwinists are clearly on the defensive — …
Striving For Tolerance
Below is a column I recently wrote for our local paper. In our society today, tolerance is generally considered a good word representing a good thing. We have a long history of looking sideways at closed or despotic societies, and for very good reasons. When one sectarian group lays claim to a monopoly on Absolute …
Government in the Bedroom
Visionaries, There is an important difference between sexual hypocrisy, which our nation has in spades, and which practices privately what it condemns publicly, and the tragic way of removing that hypocrisy, which is to bring yourself to approve the sin formally. Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, and we always need to …
Culture Skirmishes
Visionaries, I sent this response to Vera’s weekend piece to The Daily News this morning. FYI. Cordially, Douglas Wilson Response to Vera Vera White laments the fact that Moscowans are becoming less civil to one another (July 19/20, 2003), and in the course of her discussion she locates the source of the contagion–Christ Church. As …
Not To Decide
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 50 Now if you get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you penalize, then what follows from this? In our egalitarian age, one of the favorite responses to any intrusions of reality is to revolt against them. …
Racism and Relativism
Dear visionaries, Steven, thanks for the interaction. I don’t have any problem agreeing with you that in looking for the motive forces for the colonialism of the British Empire, and now the emerging American Empire, one of the central things we should do is follow the money. My point was not that (for example) the …
Not So Simple
Visionaries, and Judith, Thanks for the interaction. Wouldn’t we all agree that some of the patronizing attitudes of the past (of the “white man’s burden” sort) could be motivated entirely by kindness, but that the person extending that kindness had the racist view that his own race was necessarily superior to the other? Thus, benevolent …
Racism Inflation
Dear visionaries, In our discussions, we have to beware of racism inflation. In contemporary public discourse, such charges are too readily leveled as the all-purpose trump card. Why don’t we agree to reserve it for those who believe and affirm that one race is (racially) superior to another? With this more precise definition, it would …