“Many times stoutness of spirit comes from weakness rather than strength. There is not always the greatest strength of judgment where there is the greatest strength of will” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 198).
Adultery
We may all agree that adultery is not a good thing, but our opinions here sometimes appear to be a mud fence we have built to withstand an incoming tsunami. Something more, we feel, may be necessary. In the modern church, a pastor can commit adultery, and get caught. It is at least possible that, …
Inner Jihad
“Only after the Islamic Empire had been established the notion of an ‘inner’ jihad—that of one’s personal fight against his ego and sinful desires—also came into being, but it was predicated on the assumption that the external, real jihad was nearing its completion” (Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet, p. 89).
Two Ways to Cook
“Like New Orleans cooking, New Orleans jazz derives its power from deftly balanced ingredients and carefully controlled heat” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, p. 29).
What Makes Men Go
“I think I may say that, in most men, will is the axle and lust and passions are the wheels whereupon almost all their actions are carried” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 197).
Who’s Theo?
I have been occupied with an unusual number of responsibilities the last several weeks, and so have not gotten to everything I need to. Responsibilities are like grapes; they come in bunches. One of the things I have needed to do is finish my review of Crunchy Cons — there are only two chapters left. …
The Argument from Gratitude
Students of apologetics are familiar with some of the traditional arguments for the existence of God – the teleological argument from design, the cosmological argument from first cause, and so on. I would like to suggest another one. I do not really know what to call it, but the argument is directed against one of …
Oriented by the Second Coming
We rarely notice our bones, and consequently, we rarely notice what is in them. Certain assumptions have been with us in the West for so many centuries now that we readily hold that this is just “how things are.” We think it is all so obvious, forgetting that our culture at one time was taught …
Not All “One True Gods” Are the One True God
“The proponents of an ‘Ecumenical Jihad,’ from President George W. Bush and Professor Forte to a Christian conservative like Peter Kreeft, share two fallacies. Their faulty understanding of Islamic theology leads them to imagine that ‘Allah’ is more or less interchangeable with the ‘God’ of other monotheists. Their incomplete understanding of the phenomenon of secular …
Beast of Burden
“The real break came in the late 1960s, when the counterculture went sour, and popular music began attracting people who were less interested in music than in using such a powerful medium for culturally radical purposes. The harbingers of this break were the Rolling Stones, who relished the blues but did not hesitate to make …