And a Little Harder This Time
Aesthetic Rot
“A man in error will pick up the wrong side of a debate. But a relativists says that all such debates are silly and unproductive. There is no debate, because there is no answer.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 98
The Right Kind of Beauty Treatment
Dear Darla, Whenever we feel stuck in some place, the temptation is to think that we know and understand all the variables. We know that we are stuck, and we therefore assume we know why we are stuck. You notice your birthdays are continuing to go by, and you had assumed when you were a …
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Letters Beyond Compare, At Least Until Next Week
Letter to the Editor: You may be our congregation’s only hope of settling a dispute which is headed toward splitting our church. You’ve heard of churches splitting over the color ...
A Daisy Chain of Non Sequiturs
So let us talk for just a moment about Christian nationalism, Not the Bee, and me. Last week I made some headlines, just like the man with the corduroy pillow. I had written a blog post in which I explained (cogently) the sense in which we should want America to be a Christian nation. We …
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Not Self Aware
“There is only one thing worse than being wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, and that is to be all five of those things and add to it the sixth misery of not knowing about it.”
Artistic Atheism
“In the realm of aesthetics, we are almost as relativistic as the world outside . . . In this, we sound just like the people we debate in matters of truth and ethics. The reason we sound like them is that because, on this issue, we are like them.”
The Cultural Mind, pp. 95-96
As He Did In Fact Do
Pure Bred Spaniel
“Paul tells us what kind of character a prospective minister should have. He must be a one-woman man, he must be temperate, and he must not have a quick temper. We have a better idea, which involves a good deal of graduate study. In order to get his certification, he must ignore his wife for three years, and teach her what the back of his head looks like. Now this is in no way a criticism of the classical Reformed emphasis on a learned ministry. The problem is not that we seek wisdom and learning in our pastors; the problem is that we measure it by means of stamped papers, as though his wisdom was a pure bred spaniel.”
The Cultural Mind, pp. 92-93
Diplomas on the Wall
“Our current cultural mania for certification and accreditation, embossed and signed by all the appropriate authorities, cannot be explained apart from our obvious discontent with the praise of God.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 91