Sometimes the life of a satirist is a lonely calling. You do your best to call your fellow man back to the permanent things, and away from the follies of the hour. You use hyperbole, trying to accentuate the worst features of contemporary errors so that people will see those errors in stark relief, realize …
Generalizations
Dear visionaries, The best thing about progressive tolerance is that great popping sound it makes when you stick a pin in it. Robert says that “to condemn an entire race based solely on the actions of a small percentage of that race” is inhuman. He goes on to make other observations. Condemn an entire race? …
World Battles Zondervan
The good folks at World magazine have been fighting the good fight with the Bible-mongers over at Zondervan. This fight has revolved around the efforts of the latter to market a version of the Bible (the TNIV) that has “gender-accurate” pronouns. This, apparently to distance themselves from the gender-inaccurate translation they did earlier, called the …
The Devangelical, Demergent Church
One of the great problems with devangelical postmodern, post-Christians is that when it comes to the text of Scripture, they are tone deaf. They make a great dither about things like narrative and poetry, but do not understand the most basic elements of the scriptural narrative. That is, they are like someone reading a detective …
Theology to Make the Teeth Ache
J. Gresham Machen was once speaking with B.B. Warfield about whether the mainstream Presbyterian church (at the beginning of the twentieth century) was going to split over the issue of liberalism. Warfield said that it was not possible, and his reason for this is that “you can’t split rotten wood.” Machen was to go on …
Yet More Stuff on the Shroud
The good folks at St. Anne’s Pub have interviewed Nathan on the fascinating subject of the Shroud of Turin, and that interview is available for a listen here. While you are there, take a look at the other stuff they have available.
Islam and Fair Trials
Some context is necessary for this exchange. Several years ago in our small town, a Saudi man was arrested by the FBI, and was charged with supporting terrorism. He was later released, and these postings occurred between the arrest and the release. Dear Visionaries, Please do. But please note that if Muslims do not find …
Thou Shalt Not Steal, IMO
Definitions frequently plague us. One problem occurs when we think of the definition as having a reality apart from the thing it is describing. Thus it is that a man can fight for “the covenant” while in all his day-to-day covenantal dealings he assaults and insults the reality in various ways. But another problem with …
Discovery Channel Picks Up the Shroud
Sorry to post two notices about all this Shroud of Turin business in one day, but that’s the way the linen fades, you know? Some of our local critics have a profound need for this to have been anything but a huge breakthrough in Shroud studies, and have rather desperately wished it to turn out …
America: Empire in Denial?
In the most recent edition of World that I have (Feb. 26), Andree Seu summarizes the views of Niall Ferguson, author of a book named Colossus: The Price of America’s Empire. It is difficult to know how much of Ferguson’s view Seu actually endorses, but the impression left is that of clear support and go-team-go-ism. …