Rasputin in Jammies

“Many time, parents are reluctant to discipline when it is needed, because they think their child is feeble-minded when it comes to godly cause and effect. A mom says, ‘I don’t think my little baa-lamb’—known to outsiders as the wailing tornado, and to his siblings as Rasputin in footie jammies—“understands the connection between the whining and the spanking. He looks so sad and bewildered.’ Doesn’t understand disciplinary cause and effect, you say? But how can this be, when he is a veritable genius when it comes to ungodly cause and effect? Tell me, does he understand the connection between whining and getting whatever it is he wants”.

Why Children Matter, pp. 46-47

The Rebels That Aren’t

“With this theory of co-optation in place, the counterculture itself becomes a ‘total ideology,’ a completely closed system of thought immune to falsification, in which every apparent exception simply confirms the rule. For generations now, countercultural rebels have been pumping out ‘subversive’ music, ‘subversive’ art, ‘subversive’ literature, ‘subversive’ clothing, while universities have been packed full of professors disseminating ‘subversive’ ideas to their students. So much subversion, and yet the system seems to tolerate it quite well. Does this suggest that the system is perhaps not so repressive after all? ‘On the contrary,’ says the countercultural rebel. ‘It shows that the system is even more repressive than we thought—look at how skillfully it co-opts all of this subversion!’ Back in 1965, Herbert Marcuse coined a term to describe this peculiar sort of repression. He called it ‘repressive tolerance.’ It’s an idea that makes about as much sense now as it did then”

Nation of Rebels, p. 35

Post Lucem Tenebrae

Introduction: A week ago, my wife and I just finished a delightful vacation in France and Switzerland, and it was really something. There was wine, and there was cheese, and historical sites, and there was wine, and then some food, and then a cheese course. It was a time. I am still full. Among the …

Audio Reading of Post

Obedience Starts Now

“Your requirement to discipline has to be based on what God tells you to do in this moment, not based on whether you were the kind of kid you ought to have been. If you were not the kind of kid you ought to have been, then you don’t fix that by refusing to be the kind of parent you ought to be. You ought to repent and start doing it God’s way now.”

Why Children Matter, p. 42