What might seem like the simplest problem in the world — just forgive the debts, man, how hard can it be? — turns out to have massive complications. These complications are not offered as an argument for doing nothing, but rather as an argument for taking the time to get it right. There are a …
Kudzu in Idaho
In his book The Millennium Myth, N.T. Wright acknowledges that debt forgiveness willy nilly is not the way to go. “Some will warn [like DW] that debt cancellation without political change will be a gift to the tyrants and bullies, not to the poor and weak. Steps will have to be taken to make sure …
William Wilberfarce
I turned on the news this morning only to see Jeremiah Wright giving a talk at the National Press Club, followed by a particularly fruity question and answer session. There is no question but that Wright is bright, quick on his feet, well-read, smarter than almost all his questioners, funny, capable of handling himself in …
A Big International Galoot
I write as a critic of American empire, not an opponent of it, if you catch my drift. America is doing what large, hegemonic powers have pretty much always done when in this position, and this behavior is not exceptionally vile, as the leftist screechers would have us believe, and it is not especially virtuous, …
Go Get Your Own Parable, Hayek
This is kind of an odd talk-around way way to do it, but here is a bit more on our discussion of Third World debts and N.T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope. To sum up my take, Wright wrote a glorious book that had a small atrocious section on global economics. I interacted with that …
Just Seething With Latent Hostilities
We really need a substantive, book-length response to N.T. Wright on these global justice issues. Given his position of influence, because of his significant theological stature, because he grounds his proposals in the glorious basics of the gospel, and because of the real passion he brings to the issue, this matter is now squarely on …
Badly Informed Clerics
Now that I have finished Surprised by Hope, let me reiterate that it is an outstanding book, and just what the doctor ordered for all my conservative friends who are standing in the pond of dualism, up to their chins. But I should also say that I agree completely with the questions/concerns raised in the …
Nice and Nasty Sharia Bits
The real problem with Rowan Williams’ acquiesence to Sharia-creep in the UK is not so much the fact that he did so. He is the archbishop — that kind of thing is his job. Theodore Dalrymple points to the “opacity of the language that he habitually employs” and correctly identifies the problem with it. “There …
Why We Should Rather Not Become An Obama-Nation
Whether we like it or not, our understanding of Scripture (or lack of understanding) is a central part of our public policy debates. There will be more on this in an upcoming discussion of N.T. Wright’s unfortunate backing away from some of the central public ramifications of the faith, which he did in the aftermath …
The Learned Wooliness of Archbishops
In Matthew Henry’s Method for Prayer, he says this: “For our own land and nation, the happy islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which we ought in a special manner to see the welfare of, that in the peace thereof we may have peace . . . Lord, thou hast dealt favourably with our land; …