The Occasion, Not the Cause

“The arrogant human heart is the source of the sin concerning wealth, and the arrogant human heart sins this way in the proximity of wealth. Wealth is not the locus of the sin, but the presence of the wealth is the locus of the temptation. Just as a beautiful woman is not the cause of lust, but merely the occasion for it, so also the presence of wealth is not the cause of self-sufficiency. But we see, over and again from Genesis to Revelation, that wealth provides the occasion for the sin of self-sufficiency. As Cotton Mather once put it, ‘Faithfulness begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother.’”

Ploductivity, p. 23

On Making Restitution for a Stolen Election, or, Don’t Take the Bait, Part Dos

Introduction: Somehow, someway, the results of the Maricopa election audit will become public soon. The news is likely to make a splash, provided someone doesn’t re-invade Afghanistan to keep the news from making a splash, and so I thought we ought to prepare ourselves for that splash. Among other things, I would suggest that we …