At the beginning of his Republocrat, Carl Trueman says quite rightly “that religious conservatism does not demand unconditional political conservatism.” The word conserve is a transitive verb, and there is no virtue or vice in any transitive verb. So you love, but what do you love? God? Ice cream? Child porn? The church you were …
That Half Pint Nietzsche
Modern secular academics are like the benign nihilists back in the early sixties who taught the next generation all sorts of cool stuff, which the younger radicals then went on to apply, much to the consternation of their mentors. Some postmodernists are like those radicals, being actual anarchists who want to burn the place down. …
The Shellfish Problem
Socrates famously said that he was the wisest man among the Greeks because he knew of his ignorance. Let us riff off this Socratic insight if we may, if riff is a term recognized by the philosophers. We are all smaller than tiny. We all have a tiny role to play, and the fact that …
Faint Heart, Fair Lady
In that great gallery of the Faith’s heroes, Hebrews 11, we see the same kind of person, over and over again, but different earthly outcomes. Since the city we are seeking, whose maker and builder is God, is not an earthly city, we are given a wide range of possibilities here. Those possibilities include both …
Steering Clear of the Regnant Scoundrels
When we consider the temptations of nationalism, we have to think through how conservative Christians might be drawn into that error — and it is an error. We are first presented with a false alternative. On the one hand, we see those who despise America and its symbols. Think flag-burning, those who defend flag-burning, and …
Dufflepudian Eschatology
One of the great difficulties we have with perspective, especially on cultural, historical, and political issues, is the difficulty we have with the scale of events. One of my favorite quotes comes from Christopher Dawson, when he said that the Christian church lives in the light of eternity and can afford to be patient. But …
That Fortress of Fraud Called Congress
One of the basic decisions confronting the secularists is whether they give priority to secularism, which is a result, or to democracy, which is a method. Democracy might wind up with a government that is not secular in the slightest, and a secular dictator might insist on a secular state despite the majority of his …
Dancing ACLU Lawyers
One of the problems with using Constantine as a marker is that there is a tendency to anachronism, attributing to him any subsequent malfeasance on the part of Christians in power. But the Constantinian settlement was, by and large, a tolerant one. Lactantius, the early church father who tutored Constantine’s children, was an apologist for …
Letham and Hamilton
I know a number of friends in the UK follow this blog, and here is a special announcement just for you all — along with anyone over here who has enough frequent flyer miles. I speak of this conference, and commend it to you heartily. Wish I could go to it.
Rule of Thumb
“God never tries a nation or a people generally with trials which deliver them into the hands of their enemies unless it be for their sins” (Thomas Watson, Jerusalem’s Glory, p. 72).