Marvin Olasky set off some vigorous discussion over at Worldmagblog by quoting Thomas Sowell, and asking what people thought. Some of it spilled my way, with someone writing and asking what I thought. Here is how Marvin framed the question: “Re. the recent Senate debate on banning torture, Thomas Sowell writes, ‘If a captured terrorist …
Reseerch Perfesser
Tom Garfield wrote a letter to the editor setting the record straight on the alleged neo-Confederate nature of Logos School. In that letter he challenged Nick Gier’s great abilities in sitting loose to the facts, and invited him up to Logos School to have a look around for himself. You know, looking around for yourself …
Creme de la Creme
A few days ago, a comment on one of my posts noted that Southern Slavery As It Was had been dropped from the banned and/or challenged list of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. Today when I had a moment, I went to check, and, sure enough, there our booklet wasn’t. In other words, …
Salem Witch Trials
One of our local intoleristas recently wrote the following: “Wilson believes that God has a relationship with the Church in which the state cannot interpose. The relationship between God and any one individual is secondary to the relationship between God and, essentially, the whole of Christendom. The Church therefore has a divinely ordained right to …
Not On the Ballot
Here in Moscow we are having our city council elections tomorrow. And of course, I would urge all Christians who are living within the city limits of Moscow to do their civic duty and get out there and vote. For those who are readers of this blog residing elsewhere, it is quite possible that there …
Was John Calvin An Intolerista?
In a debate with Dan Barker a couple weeks ago, he brought up his view that anyone who thinks John Calvin was a good guy has to be morally bankrupt. And since I maintained that Calvin was a good guy, and a faithful servant of Christ, that made me morally bankrupt. But the politics of …
Cherry Picking In the Orchards of Scripture
In the thread on insult and insulting, a question was raised that merits a response. Should we not spend our time and energy trying to obey the positive commands of Scripture (love your enemies, bless those who curse you, etc.) and not squander our resources on trying to figure out how to imitate the satiric …
What Standard?
By what standard? This is one of my favorite questions, and we should ask it more often than we do. This includes those times when the right course of action is disputed among Christians, or when we are honestly confused about what we ought to do. What standard are we using? On paper, the answer …
Prophets and Court Jesters
This particular version of this particular thread, which generally draws a lot of interest, began with my observation that Jesus taught with authority, and not like the scribes. I want to return to this for a moment. If we acknowledge, as all Christians must, that any given action that could be righteously done could also …
Hubrizo Like Crazy
“One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.” Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. “Woe to you …