I just finished reading Herbert Butterfield’s small book The Whig Interpretation of History. I had heard or seen it referred to from time to time, and so thought I needed to get with the program. Butterfield is a superb writer, and has a very solid grasp of his subject, and the whole book was an …
Pastors in Pale Pastel
I have noticed, on the Internet and elsewhere, that when a pastor says something angular, the kind of thing that provokes questions and/or consternation, a very common stock response emerges. That response is that such behavior is “not very pastoral.” Such a response initially seems to be thoughtful and wise, concerned for unity and love, …
There’s A Dear
When it comes to your “personal data” and national security issues, there are two basic layers to the question. The first has to do with the nature of the world, and the second has to do with the nature of our particular moment in history. The first asks whether anybody should be trusted with this …
The Next Big Thing
Those who pay attention to the progress of their sanctification have long noticed the optical illusion of spiritual regress. By the end of his life, after decades of faithful service to Christ, the apostle Paul saw himself by that time as the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). The more you learn, the more you …
Quick to Be Corrected
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #138 “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should …
Not That Kind of Blessing . . .
A few years ago, I wrote eleven theses on birth control, which you can read here. But the fact that a certain line of discussion broke out in the comments of another recent post made me want to develop my eighth and ninth points, which is that children are covenant blessing, not an automatic blessing. …
Domestic Mussolinis
This last October I put up a post called Bitterness and the Unsubmissive Wife. This generated some comment at the time, not to mention since then, and because there are some aspects of this that really are difficult for some to grasp, I thought I should make just a few more points about the whole …
A World of Admin
In my previous post about coercion, in which I did not have very much good to say about it, I mentioned that oppression and injustice is able to work because of its respectability. Lewis made a very similar point in the preface to Screwtape. “I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of “Admin.” …
Answering Some Ire Fire
One of my recent points, and one that drew some ire fire, was my contention that liberalism is inherently and tyrannically coercive, and that liberals, by advocating the programs of liberalism, are thereby advocating coercion. Not being an anarchist, I believe that some forms of coercion are good and necessary, but because I also believe …
7 Tips on Hiring Millennials
In order to establish that this post has a more substantive point than it would have in the guise of some old geezer venting his spleen, not that this couldn’t be happening also, let me just say at the outset that I have been deeply involved in the processes that lie behind what I am …