“I want the coercive power of the state to fall on thugs and rapists, and not on the wrong kind of light bulb user. I want force to be applied to the man who would rob a merchant of his earnings, and not applied to the merchant himself so that the government might rob him …
That Would Explain a Lot of Things
Coercion: A Big Deal
“We need to recognize that politics is necessarily coercive, and because coercion is a big deal, a Christian social order should want to strictly limit coercion to the bounds assigned by Scripture. Unless I have a word from God, I don’t want to make anybody do anything” (Empires of Dirt, p. 213.).
Naboth as Fat Cat
“Taxing the people in order to perform a function that God did not assign to the state is called theft . . . If Jezebel had taken Naboth’s vineyard in the name of ‘social justice,’ or ‘land reform,’ that would not have altered the prophet’s view of it. Neither would it have helped if Jim …
Complicity and Crucifixion
Introduction: In the aftermath of Monday’s post on Rachael Denhollander, when my Twitter feed filled up with the customary vitriol, I thought that two things really had to be done. The first is that we need to explain and understand the depth of this animus, which can only be accounted for in terms of complicity, …
True Intersection
“The spirituality of the Church cannot be construed to mean that we are allowed to limit ourselves to visiting spiritual widows and ethereal orphans” (Empires of Dirt, p. 211).
Letters are Better Than Fetters
The Boz: Re: Denhollander and Boz I’d like to see you apply the principles of rules-of-evidence and due-process to your statements against Boz’s previous execution of his office (such as it is, and wherever he got it) and character. Qualifications: 1) We live in an age where I need to say that the above is …
Actually the Opposite Problem
“Abortion and sodomy were sins long before they were constitutional rights . . . We are told, ad nauseam, to keep our morality out of politics. It would be more to the point to tell the idolmongers to keep their politics out of morality” (Empires of Dirt, pp. 208-209).
Rachael Denhollander’s Accomplishment (and Mistake)
Introduction: When it comes to dealing with the carnage left by out-of-control lusts, our culture is having a hard time of it. I am speaking specifically of sexual abuse and its aftermath. Many churches heal the wound lightly, saying that it is a “spiritual” matter, something to be taken care of “internally.” Victims are often …
The Problem Was Elsewhere
“Blaming public Christians for being ‘too political’ is like blaming Noah’s ark for being ‘too wet’” (Empires of Dirt, p. 208).