“One of the great problems with developed sensibilities in any area is the temptation to preciosity. Overrefinement in art, music, language, or any area does not create the true artiste but rather the insufferable boor. The task is not to cultivate high standards; any lout can do that. The trick is to cultivate high standards …
Hypocrisy on Stilts and Steroids
So then, Fidel Castro, fixture of my Cold War childhood, has now gone where Manhattan elites can do nothing whatever for his reputation. St. Peter does not take the Times. At least not anymore. Viewed from any conceivable angle, that man was a murderous thug and a one-man poverty-dispensing F5 tornado. And the reality that …
Not How the Game Is Played
I would like to propose a toast to the Electoral College, one of the very best things the Founders put in the Constitution. Not only so, but in order to amend the Constitution, it would require the consent of all the states that would be promptly disenfranchised by the move. What this means is that …
Asking the Important Questions
Babylon and the Bolshevik Buttercups
People divide up in two different ways. One way is when they differ on the substance of the debate—shall we go to war or shall we not? Shall we raise the minimum wage or shall we not? Shall we pursue an aggressive campaign against climate change or shall we not? Shall we appropriate big-time federal …
Totalitolerance and the Tactics of Trigglypuff
Introduction: If you assume that secular society is an actual possibility, which is a big suppose, one of the first things you have to do is ignore the outliers. In other words, diversity is great, and will continue to be great, just so long as nobody leans too far to the right or left in …
Natural Marriage and the Obergefall
Introduction: I confess myself a bit surprised at the reaction I have gotten from my recent interaction with Russell Moore’s apparent position on the aftermath of Obergefell. But what that reaction confirms to me is that the Christian opposition to secularism really needs to work through some of the foundational issues of political theology. Those …
With Both Hands
“If the law is grace, and if grace has a backbone, perhaps we ought not be too dismissive of those who have learned how to hold the Word of God in both hands” (Writers to Read, p. 113).
Viewing the Game Film
The morning after the Clinton Debacle appeared among us, I was walking somewhere in our little town. The sun was shining, and everything was bright and calm. Our little town is divided, but as the primaries here in Idaho showed, it was more of a Sanders/Cruz divide than it was a Clinton/Trump divide. In the …
Grace Gets On the Floor
“When the wineskins burst, grace sometimes gets on the floor . . . Find me a place where grace has gone and taken deep root, and I will show you a place where vivid prose flourishes” (Writers to Read, p. 111).