An odd skirmish has broken out, and you can note a bit of it at Dale Courtney’s blog here. In the past, we (Dale included) have advanced the argument that to legalize homosexual marriage is necessarily to open the door to polygamous marriage. This used to be laughed at by authorized solons and pundits, but …
More for You, Less for Me
“Restrictions on speech are justified by the assertion of a compelling need to promote freedom for some by limiting freedom for others. To the code writers, as to Marcuse, freedom is a zero-sum game” (The Shadow University, p. 83).
Viva Las Worship
“I have heard soloists in church working the crowd like a lounge singer, striding into the audience with a Las Vegas patter, crooning into the mike, costumed for a screen test.” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), pp. 202]
Apostles of Uplift
“Much Christian art today of the sort sold in bookstores is ‘uplifting’ in a sentimental and optimistic way, as if looking on the sunny side were a cure for the cancer of human sin.” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), pp. 172]
Cherishing the Banned
“On the one hand, the codes claim to cherish free speech and academic freedom, including the freedom to express even the most challenging and offensive ideas; one the other, certain categories of ‘offensive’ speech are banned in order to create a ‘comfortable’ and ‘inclusive’ learning atmosphere” (The Shadow University, p. 79).
Who? Whom?
[Stanley] “Fish openly suggested that he was receptive to the prospect of both ideological indoctrination and ideological intimidation of students. He was equally blunt in responding to the classic claim of free speech absolutists that the beginning of censorship is a perilous ‘slippery slope’ that would result in pervasive and unpredictable restrictions on freedom. ‘Some …
A Green Acre of Goo
“The plenitude and magnificence of God’s works are all around us. Annie Dillard has observed that God is infinitely more imaginative than we are. Pretend, she says, that ‘You are God. You want to make a forest, something to hold the soil, lock up solar energy, and give off oxygen. Wouldn’t it be simpler just …
Mornin’ Sunshine
Tim Bayly helpfully uncorks on those Christian leaders who are now seeking to sidle away from centuries of corporate cultural wisdom. Justin Taylor has a link to Al Mohler on the Da Vinci Code. Go, Al. My contribution to this discussion is for Christians to start calling the whole thing Daah Vincheeee. Mark Noll demonstrates …
Serene Self-Confidence
“Marcuse firmly believed that this process was capable of ‘objective’ and ‘rational’ determination. There was no danger, in their view, that the differential assignment of rights would backfire, since they were wholly confident that any rational being, once freed from the dominant group’s indoctrination, would agree with their own values” (The Shadow University, p. 75).
Just Don’t Pray At Them
“The debacle of the golden calf notwithstanding, the bronze laver for ceremonial cleansing was to be supported by twelve metal bulls (1 Kings 7:25). Not only were representations of nature prominent in the Tabernacle and Temple, but representations of supernatural beings, the cherubim, were everywhere—carved on the furnishing, woven into the veil of the Holy …