“Both friends and foes pay lip service to the ‘gospel’ contribution to rock ‘n’ roll, but when it comes to appreciating the larger cultural significance of the music, they join forces in forgetting all about religion. Instead they focus almost exclusively on sex—a focus that distorts both the music and its meaning” (Martha Bayles, Hole …
Like a Fish in the Pond
“Contentions and strifes that are as tedious to other men as death are their delight. They are most in their element when they are over head and ears in them” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 207).
Glory and Matter
The gnostic impulse lies deep with us, close to the bone. But God, in His mercy, has placed the resurrection of Jesus Christ right at the center of our faith. This means that in order to give way fully to gnosticism, we have to abandon the faith in order to do so. And in the …
Open-Ended Conflict
“Islam is and always has been a religion of intolerance, a jihad without an end” (Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet, p. 138).
And Jerry Lee Is Jimmy Swaggart’s Cousin
“The most unappreciated fact about the three most galvanizing performers in early rock ‘n’ roll—Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard Penniman—is that they all grew up in the Pentecostal church. Presley and Lewis were raised in the predominately white Assemblies of God, and Penniman in a variety of black Holiness and Church of God …
Communion Betrayed
In this fallen world, we have to anticipate what happens whenever a covenant is broken. When men and women marry, they exchange vows in public, promising to forsake all others. Why is this necessary? The answer is that we are a race of sinners, and we cannot assume that people will do what they say …
Maybe It’s Too Obvious
“It is remarkable that in this age of rampant victimology, the persecution of Christians by Muslims has become a taboo subject in the Western academy. A complex web of myths, outright lies, and deliberately imposed silence dominates it. Thirteen centuries of religious discrimination, causing suffering and death of countless millions, have been covered by the …
Hoochie Koo
“Young whites hired R&B bands for high school dances and frat parties. Then the craze spread to the North, where it was picked up by an enterprising DJ in Cleveland named Alan Freed, who decided to make a splash with an R&B radio show aimed specifically at white youth. To mask the racial origins of …
In a Chain of Invincible Reasoning
“If contentious men can find nothing against their brethren, they will surmise there is something. If they can find nothing in their actions to judge, they will judge their hearts. If there is nothing above board, they will think there may be something under board; and from thinking there may be something they will think …
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; …