David Gelernter really celebrates the Puritans “To understand America and Americanism, you must understand those Puritans. They are a difficult proposition, an intellectual handful. They were religious fanatics. But their intolerance gave birth to toleration; their quest for religious freedom yielded freedom in general; and their devotion to the Bible and the biblical idea of …
God’s Knitting Needles
You have heard many times that this Table is not the time or place for confession of sin. If you have ignored these exhortations, and have come to the Table with unconfessed sin in your life, then confessing sin here is far better than not confessing sin at all. So take care of whatever it …
Breaking Bread Across Generations
Our gracious Father, from whom all fatherhood derives its name, we thank You for our family. We thank You for children, grandchildren, parents, and grandparents. We thank You that we are allowed to break bread across generations like this, and we are grateful for the hands that prepared this food for us. Father, we ask …
Seems Simple Enough
Contrasting ways of looking at the world. HT: Borg Blog
An “Unnecessary” Website
Somebody’s gotta clean up around here.
What Do We Really Want?
INTRODUCTION: We often entertain a false idea of the nature of the difference between the Christian faith and idolatrous faiths, or worldviews, or opinions. The difference between life and death is a qualitative difference, and not a difference that can be reduced to a set of mere definitions. A living man and a corpse can …
Blame America First?
Blame America First? One of the charges frequently leveled against leftists of various stripes is that they have a natural and instinctive desire to “blame America first” in any discussion of an incident or conflict anywhere in the world. I think it was Jeanne Kirkpatrick who first used the “blame America first crowd” as a …
Why God Gave Some Men Fingers
This is a good business. HT: Bayly Blog
Roundabout Momentum
“Although America’s white rock ‘n’ rollers lacked the musical sophistication found in jazz, they had a pretty clear idea of where they stood in the cultural hierarchy. Carl Perkins put it best when he said: ‘Rockabilly’s simple music but it’s not that easy to play.’ By this light, the Beatles’s true significance is not that …
America Sins at Dan and Bethel
Gelernter’s second chapter is quite valuable — in it he shows how American history is marinated in the Bible, and particularly in the cadences of the King James Bible. Back in the first chapter, he had noted what he means by the phrase “biblical republic.” “That’s what I mean by ‘biblical republic’: not a theocracy; …