Details are just beginning to emerge about some American atrocities in Afghanistan. Some of the individuals accused are already on trial, which is at it should be. The presenting problem for the politicos and spin doctors in this situation appears to be the fact that there are allegedly supposed to be a multitude of photographs …
Seven Reasons Why We Can’t Water Down the Lake of Fire
John Piper and I have been writing about a possible way in which my recent video response to Rob Bell’s universalism could be troubling. Near the end of the clip I echo a theological point made by C.S. Lewis about the nature of damnation, and how Hell is in some way “chosen” by all its …
Like Pirates on the Beach
I received a question from a reader who agreed with my general thinking about government robberies, but wondered if I believed that any taxation whatever amounted to theft. And if I thought that some taxation was, and some was not, then how to tell the difference? Is it simply done on the basis of what …
Fountain Pens and Signing Ceremonies
The basic question in politics is this: what is our warrant for making people do things? George Washington once noted that government rests upon force. In the last analysis, however you want to describe it, government makes some people do what they don’t want to do. The point of traction in government is therefore coercion. …
My Kayak of Consistency
There are two basic streams of conservatism, and I have the misfortunate to belong to both of them. This means that as I am going down this particular river, whenever I get to the rapids, my kayak of consistency gets bounced around a bit. It can be done, but it requires some fancy paddle work, …
Gay Marriage as Failure to Launch
If the Bible teaches, as it does, that the woman is the glory of the man, what follows from this? Among others things, we find an answer to one of the central challenges of our culture wars — by which I mean the cultural infantilism of homosexual marriage. “the woman is the glory of the …
Absolutely Anything
An assassination has occurred in Arizona. A Democratic congresswoman has been shot, and is still struggling for her life. A federal judge is dead, along with some other people. The perpetrator initially appears to fit the profile of a conspiracy nut — his favorite books include Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto, and Siddhartha. I found …
Books n’ Songs 2010
Now that 2010 just has just a day or two left in it, I thought it would be a safe time to list my top ten books and songs for the year. But I need to qualify this. These are not necessarily books or songs that were published or released this year. This was simply …
The Queen of Sheba and Disheartened Anabaptists
First, before we can do business, we have to set aside a number of popular assumptions garnered from various hymns, sermons, and Far Side cartoons. The New Jerusalem is not a figure of Heaven, the final eternal state, but is rather a glorious image of the Christian Church. This is explicit in a number of …
Dawn Treader
Okay, so let me bring everybody up to speed on cinematic Narnia. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was okay, Prince Caspian was just a couple of notches this side of terrible, and Nancy and I went to see Dawn Treader last night. Let me tell you about it, shall I? The Narnia movies …