I prefer love over lies, peace over war, the taste of butterscotch over the taste of spinach, Christ over Baal, the straight over the crooked, the Navy over the Army, the Greeks over the Persians, the hills over the plains, two weeks of sunshine over two weeks of gray fog, feminine women over effeminate men, …
Too Clever By Half
The first chapter of Peter Hitchens’ book is entitled “The Generation Who Were Too Clever to Believe.” He begins with his own story, how he burned his Bible as a fifteen-year-old in full revolt against everything he had been brought up to believe (p. 17). “At that moment I knew — absolutely knew — that …
Breasts and Wombs Matter
I have now finished James K.A. Smith’s book, Desiring the Kingdom. On my Goodreads page, I rated it at 3 stars, not because it was a mediocre book, but rather because parts of it were outstanding and parts were atrocious. 3 was taking an average. The main failing of the book was that while Smith …
All a Bunch of Nothing
“Think for a moment of what Solomon was in a position to do. We should mediate briefly on what he probably did. He had a thousand women, all of them built from the ground up, and all good looking. He had more money than a man can spend. He had vast estates. He had time …
Make Sure Its Liturgy, Not Liturgay
In a recent discussion with some men I made mention of the problem that I call “clogged filters.” Like a car going down the highway, the air available is the air the car is driving in, and so the air filter needs to be replaced from time to time. The environment we live in is …
Nobody Names Their Kid Jeshurun Anymore
I have been a subscriber to National Review since I was a junior in high school or thereabouts, and so that means I have been reading those guys for around 40 years. I think this should give me the right to say something. Well, first, I should say thanks. I owe them all a great …
The Peace Is Yours to Keep
This is the central meal of history. This is the meal at the world’s end, and it is the food that was set before our first parents in the Garden, and which they turned away from in search of their own food. This is the table at the center. This is the food that teaches …
The Common Denominator
“When men fall away from the Lord, they do so for all kinds of reasons — money, career, a woman, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc. But when women fall away from the Lord, invariably there is a man involved” (Her Hand in Marriage, p. 75).
The Prison Has Both a Right and Left Wing
Franke’s next chapter is on deconstruction, which to him is one of the operations of the Holy Ghost. The Other rescues the voices of those who have been “excluded, marginalized, and ignored” (p. 103) — examples might include the writers of the neo-Confederate newsletters that I mentioned previously. In this chapter, Franke says that deconstruction …
His Supreme Whiteness Up on the Mountain
Franke says, at the beginning of his next chapter, that the emphasis on otherness “that is related to the triune nature of God is also a particularly promising aspect of postmodern thought” (p. 91). Howzzat? Well, as it turns out, the triune nature of God appears to provide a firm foundation for leftist bromides about …