“The establishment narrative — a very clever perversion of the Whig view of history, which was in its turn a perversion of postmillennialism — is that we are all of us gradually emerging from the dark woods of old-timey superstitions, and that these things take time. That gradual evolutionary emergence has us leaving behind the …
A Few Svens
Suppose we set up a thought experiment. Suppose that in the aftermath of the Brussels attack (and all the attacks before that), someone conducted a survey of Christians in North America and discovered that seventy percent of them thought that their Muslim neighbors were “much more likely” to have terrorist sympathies. This would be reported …
The Land That Forgets God
“What makes us forget the goodness of God. The answer is . . . the goodness of God. He gives us wealth (Deut. 6:10-12), and our minds instantly start to wander. He gives us good land (Deut. 8:7-18), and we take all the credit for ourselves (Deut. 8:18), as though we arranged it all ourselves” …
Trump and the Fecklessness of Europe
Terrorist attacks in Brussels have left over thirty dead. Coordinated explosions hit the Brussels airport and the Metro station right next to EU headquarters. When we figure out what to put after the je suis this time, the West is planning a devastating hashtag riposte. Now I trust that by this time my lack of …
Review: Reflections on the Psalms
Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis My rating: 4 of 5 stars Glorious, but awful in parts. Finished it again in 2016, and it is still the same. Lewis has an uncanny ability to edify me and appall me simultaneously. View all my reviews
The Moral Tradition and War
So then, it is now time to follow up on my post on pro-life rhetoric and warfare. I am happy with what I said, but more certainly needs to be said. I made a distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello. The first has to do with the reasons for going to war, …
Pro-Life Rhetoric and War
One of the problems that arises out of pro-life phrases like “sanctity of human life” is that it makes human life the standard. But God’s law is the standard, not human life. We should rather speak of the sanctity of God’s law, and the resultant dignity of human life. Neglect of this principle is why …
When Cartoons Prove Prophetic
Evangelism, Not a Merger
“Reminder: copying the outside of a culture is not the same thing as engaging with it” (Rules, p. 209).
Recklessness on the Trumpoline
One of the great ironies in the Trump phenom has been the behavior of ostensible conservative leadership in their recklessness on the Trumpoline. From Falwell to Coulter, from Hannity to Rush, they have been bouncing around like crazy on that thing — and mom has been standing in the back door stoop saying, “Someone’s going …